Game Day 63 & 64: at Cape Breton

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SYDNEY, NS - The regular season comes to a close this weekend for the Saint John Sea Dogs.

The Sea Dogs will play a pair of road games against the Cape Breton Eagles to close out the 2025-26 season. Saint John has qualified for the post-season and is locked into the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference – but it's still not known who they'll play in the first round.

The Eagles, meanwhile, could still move up or down the standings depending on how things play out this weekend. These games (or at least Friday's, for now) do have meaning.

Both teams are on losing streaks. Saint John has lost four straight while Cape Breton has lost six.

This is the first meeting between the two since late November.

Friday's game has a 7 p.m. start at Centre 200 while Saturday's will begin at 3 p.m.

Stream/TV/Radio: FloHockey/None/None

Records: The Sea Dogs are 22-35-5-0 for 49 points (eighth Eastern/15th QMJHL) while the Eagles are 27-22-4-9 for 67 points (sixth Eastern/11th QMJHL).

Last games: The Sea Dogs are coming off a 5-1 loss in Charlottetown on Sunday. Angelo Fullerton scored Saint John's lone goal. Jase MacPherson made 34 saves in his first career QMJHL start. The Eagles are coming off a 2-1 overtime loss in Charlottetown last Friday. Reece Peitzsche scored Cape Breton's lone goal. Connor Towle made 27 saves in the loss. 

Notebook: Fullerton's impressive season

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

Angelo Fullerton is ending his junior career on a high note.

The 20-year-old forward has scored nine goals in his past nine games to give him 25 of the season, which is currently the Saint John Sea Dogs team lead. He's also posted 18 assists in the 59 games he has appeared in.

Fullerton spent the previous three seasons with the Cape Breton Eagles, who he and the Sea Dogs will visit for a pair of games this weekend. His previous career high for points in a season was 16. His previous high for goals was nine.

The Quispamsis native has more goals and points this season than his previous three seasons combined.

He's offensive contributions have likely exceeded expectations. Fullerton attended Sea Dogs training camp on a loan from the Eagles and was later acquired for a sixth-round pick.

Fullerton and fellow overagers Julien Wasmer and Maxime Côté were honoured before Saint John's final regular season home game this past Saturday.

ATTENDANCE IS IN

Saint John's final attendance figures are in – and they're positive.

Saint John will finish the regular season with an average attendance of 3,273 fans per game, a significant increase over last season's average of 2,811. This is Saint John's best attendance figure since the 2019-20 season when the team averaged 3,345 fans per game.

The Sea Dogs currently own the sixth best average attendance in the QMJHL. They haven't finished higher than fifth since the 2021-22 season.

Saint John had two big home crowds to end the season. Announced attendance for last Friday's game was 5,093 while Saturday's was 6,150 – which was a sell out. The Saturday crowd was the largest since the 2017-18 season (6,165).

The team is inching closer to those pre-pandemic totals, which is good news.

Former Sea Dogs to play in University Cup; Couture named goaltender of the year

A number of Saint John Sea Dogs alumni will be returning to the Scotiabank Centre ice this week for the University Cup.

The annual eight-team event begins Thursday afternoon in Halifax and will conclude with the championship game on Sunday. All games can be watched on CBC Gem and YouTube while the final will air on CBC TV.

Three teams from Atlantic University Sport are competing: the host Saint Mary's Huskies, conference champion UNB Reds and conference finalist Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus.

They'll be joined by OUA champion UQTR Patriotes; OUA finalist Windsor Lancers; OUA bronze medalist Queen's Gaels; Canada West champion Saskatchewan Huskies; and Canada West finalist Mount Royal Cougars.

Here are the former Sea Dogs who are on tournament rosters.

UNB: Nick Blagden, Peter Reynolds and Leighton Carruthers

UdeM: Jeremie Jacob and Justin Gendron

SMU: Connor Trenholm

Reynolds, who was seen with his arm in a sling during the AUS final, is presumably unlikely to play. UNB is hurting, which will be a storyline during this tournament – especially with the Reds getting a not-so-favourable schedule.

Here's a look at the quarterfinal schedule:

Thursday, 1 p.m.: No. 5 Mount Royal vs. No. 4 Windsor 

Thursday, 7 p.m.: No. 1 Saskatchewan at No. 8 Saint Mary’s 

Friday, 1 p.m.: No. 6 Moncton vs. No. 3 UQTR 

Friday, 7 p.m.: No. 7 Queen’s vs. No. 2 UNB

The semifinals take place Saturday with the bronze and gold medal games happening on Sunday. That means UNB will have to play – and win – three games in three days if they want to bring the University Cup back to Fredericton.

A lot to figure out in final weekend

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

It will take the final weekend of the regular season to determine who the Saint John Sea Dogs will play in the first round of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League playoffs.

The Sea Dogs, who are locked into the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, will play the team that finishes first. That will be either the Moncton Wildcats or the Chicoutimi Sagueneens.

Heading into this weekend's action, the Wildcats will play the Charlottetown Islanders twice while the Sagueneens will take on the Quebec Remparts.

The Wildcats have won seven straight games after a weekend sweep in Newfoundland. They'll now face an Islanders team that has won three straight.

The Wildcats are 4-1-0-1 against the Islanders this season but both losses came in their most recent meetings. Charlottetown defeated Moncton 6-5 in a shootout on Feb. 20 and 2-0 the next day. The Wildcats have lost just one time since then.

Chicoutimi, who have just one loss in their past eight games, is 6-0-0-0 against Quebec this season.

These weekend sets have meaning for the Islanders and Remparts as well as they continue to battle for positioning. The games Friday, at least, shouldn't feature any load management situations. We could certainly see that on Saturday depending on Friday results.

Robinson makes MHL playoff debut

AMHERST, NS - In his first playoff start with the Summerside Western Capitals, former Saint John Sea Dogs goaltender Justin Robinson made 32 saves in a 4-2 loss to the Amherst Ramblers on Monday.

The Western Capitals had a bad start, getting outshot 21-9 in the first period and trailed 3-0 halfway through the second period. Summerside turned things around in the second half and made a game of it, but it was too late to complete a comeback.

Robinson was named the game's third star. He did not start Game 1 on Saturday in Summerside, which the Western Capitals won 3-2.

Still wearing Sea Dogs gear (even though he is Moncton Wildcats property now), Robinson posted a 4-3-1 record with Summerside in the regular season along with a 2.93 goals against average and a .890 save percentage.

Former Sea Dogs defenseman Matthew MacLean was also in the Capitals lineup. On the Amherst side, former Sea Dogs Darien Reynolds and Jeremie Richard both dressed. Reynolds left the game in the second period after taking a bit hit along the boards.

The pews are nearly full on a Monday night in Amherst. I don’t come here enough. Such an awesome barn. pic.twitter.com/tatbiqcJNk

— Jamie Tozer (@station_nation) March 16, 2026

Summerside is the top seed in the South Division but finished just seven points ahead of the Ramblers.

Game 3 is Thursday back in Summerside.

The other South Division playoff series has the Truro Bearcats up 2-0 on Mitchell Wagner and the Pictou County Weeks Crushers. The Bearcats have outscored the Crushers 11-1 so far.

In the North Division, the top seeded Grand Falls Rapids trail the Chaleur Lightning 2-0. With a goal and two assists, former Sea Dogs forward Ben Cross was named the third star in Chaleur's 6-3 win over Grand Falls on Sunday.

The Rapids feature former Sea Dogs Reid Calder, Coen Miller and Jonah Leard.

The other series has the Edmundston Blizzard leading the West Kent Steamers 1-0.

Recap: Sea Dogs lose 5-1

FINAL: Saint John 1, Charlottetown 5

Noah Murray/Charlottetown Islanders

CHARLOTTETOWN - The Saint John Sea Dogs lost a fourth straight game on Sunday at Eastlink Centre.

Playing their third game in three days, the Sea Dogs fell behind in the first period and were never able to get back into the game, falling 5-1 to the Charlottetown Islanders.

The Sea Dogs just didn't seem to have the same level of energy we've seen from them in recent games, which is understandable given this was the club's third game in as many days and second in less than 24 hours. Saint John struggled to create quality scoring chances, registering just nine dangerous shots.

Angelo Fullerton scored Saint John's lone goal, which came in the third period with the Sea Dogs trailing 4-0. Affiliate goaltender Jase MacPherson made his QMJHL debut in the Saint John net, making 34 stops in the loss.

William Shields scored four goals for Charlottetown while Owen Conrad added a single. Donald Hickey made 21 stops in the win.