Sea Dogs to face Wildcats in first round

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

MONCTON - For just the second time, the Saint John Sea Dogs will face the Moncton Wildcats in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League playoffs.

The Wildcats secured the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference on Saturday, defeating the Charlottetown Islanders 6-1. The Sea Dogs have been locked into the No. 8 seed for a couple weeks now but have been waiting to see who would finish first: the Wildcats or the Chicoutimi Sagueneens.

The Wildcats won nine straight games down the stretch to edge the Sagueneens in the standings. Moncton finishes as the QMJHL's top regular season team for a second straight year, posting a record of 50-10-2-2 for 104 points.

The playoff schedule has not been announced yet but the series will likely start Friday night at Avenir Centre. Games 3 and 4 will be played on Tuesday, March 31 and Wednesday, April 1 at TD Station, respectively.

The only other time the Sea Dogs played the Wildcats in a playoff series was the 2010 QMJHL final, which Moncton won in six games.

The Sea Dogs and Wildcats did technically meet in the playoffs during the 2021 COVID provincial tournament thing, which also included the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. Saint John won two of the three meetings against Moncton.

Saint John will be major underdogs in this series, finishing 15th overall in the QMJHL with a 23-36-5-0 record for 51 points. The Sea Dogs were 1-7-0-0 against the Wildcats in the regular season.

This will be the Sea Dogs' first playoff appearance since the 2023-24 season. They have not won a playoff series since the 2017 QMJHL final.