Recap: Sea Dogs lose 3-2 (OT)

FINAL: Saint John 2, Moncton 3 (OT)

Daniel St Louis/Moncton Wildcats

MONCTON - Losses don't get much more heartbreaking than that.

The Saint John Sea Dogs blew a 2-0 lead in the final minute of regulation time in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Moncton Wildcats on Saturday at Avenir Centre. The Wildcats now lead the best-of-seven first round series 2-0 as things shift to Saint John for the next two games.

The Sea Dogs had taken a 2-0 lead at 9:46 of the third period when Zachary Morin scored. Saint John was playing with confidence and energy following the goal – but it simply wasn't meant to be on this night.

The Wildcats pressed hard in the final few minutes and finally broke through. Niko Tournas scored with 51.8 seconds remaining and then Gabe Smith connected with 4.3 seconds left, sending the match into overtime. Gavin Cornforth, who had a hat trick in Friday's Game 1, scored at 11:00 of extra time to give the Wildcats an improbable come-from-behind victory.

It was a cruel outcome for Saint John, who played just about as well as they possibly could against a superior opponent. Angelo Fullerton netted the Sea Dogs' other goal while goaltender Arseni Radkov, in his first start since his fighting suspension, was excellent in net, making 47 stops in a first star performance.

Rudy Guimond made 22 saves in the win.

LINEUP

Fullerton - Groulx - Donovan

Morin - Joseph - Seymour

Rozzi - Yared - Gauthier

Héroux - Krayer

Wasmer - Duhamel

Dmphousse - Chartrand

Magnusson - Baldwin

Drabczynski

Radkov

Courchesne

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without forwards Olivers Murnieks (injury) and Maxime Côté (injury or sickness) along with defenseman Vincent Croteau (healthy).

NOTES: Saint John went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen with forward Maxime Côté being listed as injured or sick... goaltender Arseni Radkov returned to Saint John's net after completing his five-game fighting suspension... forward Angelo Fullerton left the game in some pain early in the second period but quickly returned... Saint John has opened the scoring in both games of this series... the Wildcats recorded 50 shots for a second straight game... Fullerton had six shots... faceoffs were 45-21 in favour of Moncton... Saint John went 0/2 on the power play while Moncton went 0/3... Saint John was credited with just four dangerous shots... Caleb Desnoyers had nine shots... this was Saint John's first overtime playoff game since the infamous Game 5 loss to Rimouski in the opening round of the 2022 playoffs... attendance was 4,509.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The series shifts to Saint John for Game 3 on Tuesday night. Game time is 7 p.m.