Recap: Sea Dogs lose 4-3 (SO)

FINAL: Moncton 4, Saint John 3 (SO)

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - Liam Kilfoil scored the lone goal of the shootout to give the Moncton Wildcats a 4-3 victory over the Saint John Sea Dogs on Friday at TD Station.

The Wildcats start the year with three straight road wins. The Sea Dogs, meanwhile, fall to 1-1-0-1.

Niko Tournas scored twice for the Wildcats in regulation. Shayne Gould also scored. Jacoby Weiner made 32 saves in the win.

Olivier Lemieux, Dylan Rozzi and Alexis Joseph scored in Saint John's home opener. Samuel Meloche made 22 stops in the loss.

After a wild first period that saw the two teams combine for three goals in the first 2:32 of the game, things settled in during the second and third periods. After generating 12 shots in the opening frame, the Sea Dogs had their struggles hitting the net in the following periods.

Tournas scored on a power play at 13:29 of the third period to give the Wildcats a 3-2 lead late. But, with Meloche pulled, Joseph scored with 1:15 remaining to send the match into overtime and eventually a shootout.

Shots ended 35-25 Saint John and saw the Sea Dogs record eight shots in overtime.

Much like last Saturday in Newfoundland, Saint John struggled with odd man rushes at times. Meloche had to make a few stops off breakaways and the Wildcats hit a few posts.

LINEUP

Morin - Joseph - Glance

Rozzi - Groulx - Donovan

Howard - Seymour - Lemieux

Cancik - Ozogany

Lanthier - Chartrand

Delarosbil - Damphousse

Williams - Charbonneau

Drabczynski

Meloche

Courchesne

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without forwards Alexis Gauthier (healthy) and Logan Roop (healthy) along with defensemen Jesse Dunlap (healthy) and Olivier Duhamel (injury).

PRE-GAME: With this being Saint John's home opener, the entire Sea Dogs roster was introduced. Representatives from TD, Moosehead and Irving took part in the ceremonial faceoff along with Scott McCain and Trevor Georgie. The game started nearly 20 minutes late. Apparently a lot of the pre-game theatrics did not go as practiced/planned.

NOTES: The Sea Dogs went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the first time this season... forward Alexis Gauthier, who played in both games in Newfoundland, was scratched while defenseman Oskar Drabczynski made his season debut... former Sea Dogs defenseman Max Vilen, who just returned from Tampa Bay Lightning camp, was out of the Wildcats lineup with an injury... this was the third home opener the Wildcats took part in. They played in the home openers for Charlottetown and Halifax last weekend. Moncton will play their first home game tomorrow... both teams scored on their first shots of the game... Liam Bursaw took a stick to the face from Oliver Ozogany in the second period. He left the game but did return for the third... Wildcats defenseman Adam Fortier-Gendron left the game late in the second period and did not return... Moncton went 1/4 on the power play. It's the first power play goal the Sea Dogs have allowed this season... Saint John went 0/1 on the power play and had their five-man power play exposed by the Wildcats a few times... Joseph recorded nine shots... Dylan Rozzi has scored in all three of Saint John's games... Ozogany recorded an assist for his first QMJHL point... attendance was 3,510.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Cape Breton Eagles tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. at TD Station.