Recap: Sea Dogs lose 4-3

FINAL: Saint John 3, Halifax 4

Trevor MacMillan/Halifax Mooseheads

HALIFAX - The Saint John Sea Dogs let a strong start slip away in a 4-3 loss to the Halifax Mooseheads on Friday at Scotiabank Centre.

The Sea Dogs had a quality start to the opening frame and led 2-1 after one. But the Mooseheads outshot Saint John by a combined 22-11 in the final two periods, taking the lead early in the third period and netting the winner late.

Oleg Kulebyakin's first QMJHL goal at 15:46 of the third was the difference. Daniel Walters, Patrick McNab and Quinn Kennedy also scored for Halifax. Owen Bresson made 24 saves in the win.

Zachary Morin, Dylan Rozzi and Alexander Donovan scored for Saint John. Justin Robinson made 27 saves in the loss.

The Sea Dogs got off to an excellent start with Morin scoring just 1:22 in as the Mooseheads defense was caught snoozing a bit early on. Despite that, Halifax tied things up at 5:31 when Walters netted his first of the season.

Saint John carried a 2-1 lead into intermission thanks to a power play goal at 14:18. Rozzi finished off a nice passing play by ripping a shot past an outstretched Bresson. 

The Mooseheads grabbed some momentum back in the middle frame, outshooting the Sea Dogs 9-3. McNab tied the game up at 2-2 with his first of the season at 3:25.

Just 35 seconds into the third, Kennedy scored to give the Mooseheads their first lead of the night. The Sea Dogs would even things up though when Donovan's first QMJHL goal at 8:10 made it a 3-3 game.

Just when it was feeling like an overtime night, Kulebyakin beat Robinson with a wraparound to give the Moose a 4-3 advantage. Saint John pulled Robinson with 90 seconds remaining and did get some strong offensive zone pressure applied late in the game – but it wasn't enough.

LINEUP

Éthier - Murnieks - Morin

Fullerton - Joseph - Donovan

Groulx - Yared - Rozzi

Krayer - Dubé - Beveridge

Wasmer - Chartrand

Zubek - Duhamel

Drabczynski - Baldwin

Robinson

Courchesne

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without forwards Alexis Gauthier (healthy) and Jacob Beaulieu (healthy) along with defensemen Max Vilen (healthy) and Vincent Croteau (healthy).

NOTES: Everett Baldwin returned from Tamp Bay Lightning training camp and made his QMJHL debut. He did a solo lap at the start of warmup... with Baldwin insterted on the backend, Vincent Croteau was a healthy scratch. Patryk Zubek moved up to the second paring to take his spot... Jacob Beaulieu was Saint John's final scratch for a third straight game... Quispamsis native and Mooseheads forward Liam Kilfoil made his season debut after returning from Detroit Red Wings training camp... Saint John scored their first power play goal of the season after going a combined 0/7 on opening weekend. They finished 1/2 in this game... with two assists in this contest, Olivers Murnieks now has five helpers in three games this season... Alexander Donovan scored his first career QMJHL goal in the third period, tying the game at 3-3. Oskar Drabczynski recorded his first career QMJHL point on the goal as well... Donovan had a Saint John high four shots... this was Saint John's first road game of the season... the Mooseheads thought they had scored into en empty net with 39.3 seconds remaining but the goal was called back due to an offside... light crowd by Halifax standards. Attendance was 6,542.

Solo lap for Everett Baldwin ahead of his QMJHL debut. pic.twitter.com/Pe0bavDf44

— Jamie Tozer (@station_nation) September 26, 2025

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs and Mooseheads meet again tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at Scotiabank Centre.