Recap: Sea Dogs lose 8-1

FINAL: Chicoutimi 8, Saint John 1

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - It was a night to forget for the Saint John Sea Dogs.

The Chicoutimi Sagueneens scored three times in a 2:04 span in the first period and never looked back, cruising to an 8-1 win over the Sea Dogs at TD Station.

Saint John didn't have a bad start to the game – but things escalated real quickly. Chicoutimi opened the scoring at 13:52, scored another at 14:55 and then made it 3-0 at 15:56 to give the Sags a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes.

The Sagueneens scored another early in the third before Ben Cross redirected a Nate Tivey shot at 3:05, making it 4-1 at the time. But the goal didn't seem to impact the game too much as Chicoutimi continued to roll.

Thomas Desruisseaux netted a hat trick while singles came from Nathan Lecompte, Christophe Berthelot, Korney Korneyev, Emile Guite and Kassim Gaudet. Raphael Precourt only had to make 18 saves in the win.

Justin Robinson made 33 saves in the loss.

Shots in the game ended 41-19 with Saint John recording just seven dangerous shots. Chicoutimi looked very much like one of the top teams in the QMJHL.

The good news: Saint John can quickly forget about this game with another home contest on Friday night. The bad news: that game is against an even better team as the Memorial Cup host Rimouski Oceanic make their lone visit of the season to TD Station.

LINEUP

Rozzi - Groulx - Yared

Peddle - Dubé - Beveridge

Morin - M. Krayer - Cross

Calder - Beaulieu - Wagner

Tivey - Amyot

Bilodeau - Mann

Lumsden - MacLean

Robinson

Weeks

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without forwards Darien Reynolds (injury) and Dylan Krayer (healthy) along with defensemen Julien Bonnet (healthy) and Olivier Duhamel (injury).

NOTES: This was the ninth straight game that the Sea Dogs allowed the first goal... this was the second time this season the Sea Dogs allowed eight goals in a game... Ben Cross' goal was his first since Dec. 14... Dylan Rozzi and Jacob Beaulieu were both a -4... both teams went 0/2 on the power play and faceoffs were 38-38... this was the first meeting of the season between Saint John and Chicoutimi... attendance on a snowy Thursday night was 1,845.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs take on Eriks Mateiko and the Rimouski Oceanic tomorrow night at 7 p.m.