Recap: Sea Dogs lose 8-1

FINAL: Drummondville 8, Saint John 1

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - The Saint John Sea Dogs' season came to a close on Wednesday at TD Station.

The Drummondville Voltigeurs scored four times in both the second and third periods in an 8-1 victory over the Sea Dogs to complete the first round series sweep.

The Sea Dogs came out with a strong first period but could not maintain that performance in the final 40 minutes. Once the Volts got going early in the middle frame they really didn't stop.

An 8-1 loss is a less than ideal way to end a season, but this series went pretty much as expected. The Sea Dogs hung around at times but ultimately were no match for a much stronger Voltigeurs team. Saint John's time will come in a few years.

Matteo Mann scored Saint John's lone goal while Patrick Leaver made 47 saves in his final game of junior hockey.

Ethan Gauthier netted a pair of goals for Drummondville while singles came from Peter Repcik, Noah Reinhart, Maxime Lafond, Simon-Pier Brunet, William Dumont and Renaud Poulin. Riley Mercer made 30 stops in the loss.

LINEUP

Simek - Elliott - Beveridge

Laforge - Miller - Fournier

Calder - Groulx - Beaulieu

Richard - Lyons

Tivey - Ianniello

Bilodeau - Mann

MacLean - Amyot

Duhamel

Leaver

Robinson

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without forwards Eriks Mateiko (injury), Tyler Peddle (serving second game of a two-game suspension), Darien Reynolds (injury), Benjamin Beaudry (healthy) and Luka Benoit (healthy).

CALLUP: The Sea Dogs added affiliate player Kiefer Lyons to their lineup with his Maritime Hockey League season over. Lyons didn't appear in any regular season games with Saint John. Lyons split this season with the Campbellton Tigers and West Kent Steamers. Lyons was a -2 with no shots in Wednesday's game.

NOTES: The Sea Dogs went with eight defensemen and 10 forwards but used defenseman Jeremie Richard on the fourth line... this was the final game of junior hockey for overagers Brody Fournier, Drew Elliott and Patrick Leaver... Egan Beveridge had another assist to finish the playoffs with four helpers in four games... Pavel Simek had an assist to finish the playoffs with two goals and three assists... Simek, Matthew MacLean and Brody Fournier all had four shots each... Matteo Mann's goal was his first career playoff goal... faceoffs were 50-38 in favour of Drummondville... attendance was 2,222.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: See you at training camp in August.