Recap: Sea Dogs win 6-5 (SO)

FINAL: Victoriaville 5, Saint John 6 (SO)

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - It turned into an adventure, but the Saint John Sea Dogs skated away with a 6-5 shootout win over the Victoriaville Tigres on Saturday at TD Station.

The Sea Dogs were up 5-2 in the third period only to have the Tigres storm back in the final six minutes and force extra time. The two teams then needed an 11-round shootout to decide a winner.

Saint John had a bit of a slow start, struggling to get going in the first period. But the team turned it on in the final two periods – but some late game lapses nearly cost them a win. There will be some lessons learned from this game.

Eriks Mateiko, Tyler Peddle, Ben Cross, Matthew MacLean and Elliot Dubé all scored for Saint John. Charles-Edward Gravel made 30 saves in the win – and also stopped 10 of 11 shootout attempts.

Mael Lavigne scored a pair of Victoriaville goals while Justin Gendron, Justin Larose and Olivier Houde added singles. Jakub Hanlan made 17 stops in the loss. The Tigres have now lost five straight games.

The Tigres opened the scoring just 1:06 in when Lavigne scored. Saint John struggled to get a lot going offensively in the period but the team would still come away with a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.

Mateiko got Saint John on the board at 4:40 when his shot seemed to fool Hanlan in the Tigres net. Then, with 29 seconds remaining in the frame and Saint John on a power play, Peddle ripped a perfectly placed wrist shot top corner to put Saint John ahead.

The Sea Dogs had more jump in the second period, outshooting the Tigres 15-9. It looked like Olivier Groulx had scored to give Saint John a 3-1 lead with 5:44 remaining in the period but the power play goal was called back due to an offiside. Shortly after play resumed on the same man advantage, Cross beat Hanlan top corner to give the Dogs a legit two-goal advantage.

Victoriaville got back within one at 16:51 of the second when Lavigne netted his second of the game.

MacLean's first QMJHL goal 2:34 into the third made it a 4-2 game and then, at 10:28, Dubé scored from the high slot to give Saint John a commanding 5-2 advantage.

The Tigres went to a power play at 11:12 and they pulled Hanlan to give them a six-on-four advantage. Dubé would score into the empty net – but the goal was called back due to an offside. The disallowed goal proved to be critical. 

Victoriaville got back within two when Gendron finished off a nice passing play at 14:13. The Tigres then got within one at 18:29 when Larose slid the puck under Gravel who was caught going the other way. Then, with 26 seconds remaining, Houde netted the equalizer to send the match into overtime.

Shots were 16-3 in favour of the Tigres in the third period.

After a dull overtime period, an 11-round shootout was required. In the 11th round, William Yared netted the winner to give Saint John the extra point.

LINEUP

Peddle - Mateiko - Cross

Morin - Groulx - Beveridge

Rozzi - Dubé - Yared

Calder - Schenk - Beaulieu

Tivey - Duhamel

Bilodeau - Mann

MacLean - Caputo

Gravel

Robinson

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without defensemen Benjamin Amyot (injury), Cruz Scanzano (healthy) and Julien Bonnet (healthy) along with forwards Coen Miller (healthy) and Darien Reynolds (healthy).

FIRST GOAL: Defenseman Matthew MacLean had a goal and an assist in the win – a goal that was his first in the QMJHL.

Matty's first QMJHL goal!#GoDogsGo pic.twitter.com/RVSv8ClHcq

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) October 13, 2024

NOTES: Zachary Morin was wearing the No. 10 he was expected to wear for this game. He sported No. 19 on Friday when the Sea Dogs wore their country themed jerseys... Victoriaville scored on their first shot of the game... Eriks Mateiko now has goals in three straight games... Nate Tivey has points in four straight games. He had four helpers in this game, setting a new career high for assists in a game and tying his career high for points in a game... Ben Cross had a goal and two assists... Morin went hard into the boards in the second period. He left the game for a few minutes but did return... Tyler Peddle and Jacob Beaulieu each had three shots... Saint John went 2/2 on the power play... Justin Larose had eight shots for Victoriaville... this was the second shootout of the year for the Sea Dogs. The previous one went nine rounds... the game took nearly three hours to complete... Saint John is now 6-3-0-0 on the season... another light crowd on hand with announced attendance being 2,150.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs travel to Moncton on Thursday to play the Wildcats at 7 p.m.