Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs |
Moncton broke a scoreless game with 7:51 remaining in the third period and added two more a few minutes later, giving former Sea Dogs head coach Gardiner MacDougall his first regular season win in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.
Riley Sampson scored a pair of goals for Moncton while Alex Mercier added a solo marker. Jacob Steinman made 32 saves in the shutout win.
Charles-Edward Gravel – who was making his Sea Dogs regular season debut – made 28 stops in the loss. He came up big on more than a few occasions when the game was still scoreless.
Saint John was recording shots, but they struggled to generate a lot of high quality chances. They finished the game with just nine dangerous shots.
With Moncton missing several key regulars (Saint John was missing a few as well), the game was fairly even for much of the night. The Wildcats were definitely able to generate more quality chances than the Sea Dogs, but Saint John did a solid job at limiting those.
Saint John will look to get their offense going on Saturday night against the Halifax Mooseheads.