Recap: Sea Dogs tie 1-1

FINAL: Saint John 1, Moncton 1

MONCTON - The Saint John Sea Dogs opened the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League pre-season with a 1-1 tie against the Moncton Wildcats on Tuesday.

Free agent forward Dax Vader scored Saint John's lone goal, which came in the second period. Free agent netminder Rhett Stoesser allowed a goal on 21 shots in the first half of the game while returnee Eric Young stopped all 22 shots he faced in the second half.

The Wildcats outplayed the Sea Dogs in the first period, leading 1-0 on a Simon Binkley goal. Shots were 18-12 in favour of the Wildcats.

The Sea Dogs were able to turn things up a notch in the second period, leading to Vader's goal. Much of the offensive pressure on the night was produced by the top line of Natan Éthier, Alexis Gauthier and Brayden Campbell.

After a scoreless third period, the game headed to an entertaining overtime period with both teams having a few good chances. The game didn't go to a shootout, instead ending in a 1-1 tie.

Shots ended 44-39 in favour of the Wildcats.

LINEUP

Éthier - Gauthier - Campbell

Vader - Bouchard - Frenette

Renaud - Hodkinson - Chery

Donatelli - Baljak - Gravenor

Drabczynski - Dunlap

Lacroix - Metivier

Shahi - McFadden

Janulis

Stoesser

Young

NOTES: The Sea Dogs dressed three 20-year-olds for this game: forward Natan Éthier and goaltenders Rhett Stoesser and Eric Young... Brayden Campbell had six shots for Saint John while Oskar Drabczynski, Dax Vader and Cole Renaud had five each... Saint John went 0/4 on the power play, which included some five-on-three time. The team stuck with its regular lines on the man advantage for the most part... the Wildcats went 0/1 on the power play... assistant coaches Mark Lee and Tim Archambault ran the Sea Dogs bench... Josh Frenette and Alexander Hendry tried to fight in the third period but the officials broke the two up before it could start... no attendance was listed but there was a decent crowd on hand, especially considering it was a Tuesday night... the Wildcats were rocking their Memorial Cup jerseys with the huge Motorola ads... this was the first of three meetings between the Sea Dogs and Wildcats 

REPLAY

The game can be viewed in its entirety here.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs and Wildcats meet again tomorrow night at 7 p.m. in St. Stephen.