Recap: Sea Dogs lose 7-3

FINAL: Moncton 7, Saint John 3

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - The Saint John Sea Dogs' season came to a close on Wednesday at TD Station.

The Moncton Wildcats defeated the Sea Dogs 7-3 in Game 4 of their first round Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League playoff series, completing a sweep.

The Wildcats, as regular season champions, will now face the lowest remaining seed that advances in the second round of the playoffs. Moncton is looking to repeat as QMJHL champions.

The Sea Dogs, meanwhile, have not won a playoff series since capturing the President Cup championship in 2017. They've made the playoffs five times (including the 2021 provincial tournament thing) since then but have lost in the first round each time.

With the exception of Game 2, which required overtime, this series wasn't overly close and it was clear the Wildcats are several steps above the Sea Dogs. That was evident again on Wednesday with Moncton scoring seven straight goals before Saint John was able to net three in the third when the game was well out of reach.

Preston Lounsbury scored a pair of goals for Moncton while singles came from Alex Mercier, Gavin Cornforth, Teddy Mutryn, Gabe Smith and Kuzma Voronin. Rudy Guimond made 19 saves in the win.

Angelo Fullerton, Zachary Morin and Olivier Groulx scored for Saint John. Arseni Radkov made 32 stops in the loss.

LINEUP

Fullerton - Groulx - Rozzi

Héroux - Joseph - Donovan

Côté - Krayer - Gauthier

Morin - Seymour

Wasmer - Duhamel

Damphousse - Chartrand

Croteau - Baldwin

Drabczynski

Radkov

Courchesne

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without forwards Olivers Murnieks (injury) and William Yared (injury) along with defenseman Carl-Otto Magnusson (healthy).

NOTES: The Sea Dogs went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen with forward William Yared out with an injury... defenseman Carl-Otto Magnusson was Saint John's final healthy scratch... goaltender Arseni Radkov, who was pulled on Tuesday after allowing five goals on 15 shots, made a third straight start...Gavin Cornforth ends the series with six goals, scoring at least once in all four games... Jacoby Weiner played the last few minutes of the third period and allowed a goal on the only shot he faced... with two assists in this game, Alexis Joseph posted three helpers in the series... Angelo Fullerton had four shots... Saint John struggled in the faceoff circle in this series. Faceoffs were 34-28 in favour of the Wildcats in Game 4... attendance was 2,504.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: Training camp starts in August.