Sunday, November 30, 2025

Recap: Sea Dogs lose 5-2

FINAL: Cape Breton 5, Saint John 2
Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs
FREDERICTON - It was a new location but the same struggles for the Saint John Sea Dogs on Sunday.

The Cape Breton Eagles scored three times in the first period and outplayed the Sea Dogs for much of the night, earning a 5-2 win at Fredericton's Aitken Centre. This was the first of three "home" games the Sea Dogs will play on the UNB campus this season.

The Sea Dogs once again made too many defensive errors and struggled to generate quality scoring chances. Even when Saint John got back within two goals late in the second period, it still felt like a huge mountain to climb given the team's recent struggles. 

Saint John was outshot 39-30 – and 19-8 in the second period – with only nine of their shots being considered dangerous. The Sea Dogs also went 0/5 on the power play. 

The loss was Saint John's fourth straight, dropping them to 10-14-1-0 on the season. The Eagles, thanks to back-to-back wins over the Sea Dogs, are now four points up on Saint John in the standings.

Reece Peitzsche scored a hat trick for Cape Breton while Maxime Sauthier and Rory Pilling added singles. Connor Towle made 28 saves in the win.

Alexis Joseph and Angelo Fullerton scored for Saint John. Rafaël Courchesne was pulled early in the second after allowing four goals on 12 shots. Justin Robinson stopped all 26 shots he faced in relief.

LINEUP
Morin - Murnieks - Gendron
Rozzi - Groulx - Yared
Fullerton - Joseph - Donovan
Héroux - Dubé - Beaulieu

Vilen - Baldwin
Wasmer - Chartrand
Croteau - Duhamel

Courchesne
Robinson

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without forwards Alexis Gauthier (healthy), Matthew Krayer (healthy) and Egan Beveridge (healthy) along with defensemen Patryk Zubek (healthy) and Oskar Drabczynski (healthy).

NOTES: Forward William Yared and defenseman Cameron Chartrand returned to the Saint John lineup. They both missed Saturday's game with injury or illness... defenseman Julien Wasmer also returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch on Saturday... affiliate player Nolann Héroux played a second straight game for Saint John. He had an assist on Alexis Joseph's goal, giving him three helpers in his limited QMJHL action this season... former Sea Dogs forward and current UNB Red (and Fredericton native) Peter Reynolds joined the Sea Dogs coaching staff on the bench... just like Saturday, the Eagles scored on their first shot of the game... Reece Peitzsche has five goals in his past three games... Rafaël Courchesne has allowed four or more goals in each of his past three appearances... Romain Litalien had three assists... Joseph had a goal and an assist... Joseph and Zachary Morin each had four shots... faceoffs were 35-28 in favour of the Eagles.
FREDERICTON THINGS: A trapezoid was painted behind the nets – which isn't there for UNB games... the Sea Dogs used the visitors bench at the Aitken Centre... nobody shovelled the ice during media timeouts... the second period started a few minutes late with intermission activities going long... it was oddly cold inside the building... maybe I'm just an old man yelling at clouds at this point, but it was refreshing to watch a junior hockey game without ads being read or played during every other stoppage... announced attendance was 3,103, but that looked a little generous.
HIGHLIGHTS

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