Courchesne has found his groove

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

Rafaël Courchesne has found his game of late.

The Saint John Sea Dogs rookie netminder set a new team record on the weekend for the longest shutout streak in team history. Courchesne set the mark with his second straight clean sheet on Saturday night, not allowing a goal for seven straight periods.

Courchesne made a third straight start on Sunday, stopping 26 shots in Saint John's 3-2 loss to the Drummondville Voltigeurs.

Courchesne is now 5-4 with a 2.56 goals against average and a .909 save percentage. He has the fourth best GAA in the QMJHL and seventh best save percentage. 

He's the only rookie to post a shutout this season – and he has two of them officially. Unofficially he has three given that he – despite stopping all 26 shots he faced – wasn't awarded a shutout on Oct. 29 after he left the game for a couple minutes.

From the start of training camp, the No. 1 goaltending position was up for grabs. It certainly feels like that job belongs to Courchesne for the time being.

As a team, the Sea Dogs are averaging 3.40 goals against per game and 31.51 shots against. Those are both improvements from where they finished last season (4.05 goals against per game and 36.10 shots against).

The Sea Dogs have a bit of a strange schedule this week, playing Charlottetown on Thursday and Moncton on Friday – both at home – before having the rest of the weekend off.