Armada stun Wildcats in final second to force Game 7; Sagueneens advance to final

Sebastien Gervais/Blainville-Boisbriand Armada

A Justin Carbonneau goal with 0.5 seconds remaining in regulation time has forced a Game 7 in the semifinal playoff series between the Moncton Wildcats and Blainville-Boisbriand Armada.

After a Bill Zonnon faceoff win in the offensive zone, Carbonneau ripped a perfectly placed shot top corner on Wildcats goaltender Rudy Guimond to give the Armada a 3-2 lead – their first and only lead of the game.

Justin Carbonneau, at the very last second!!! 😤😤😤
@ArmadaBLB wins 3-2 and forces a Game 7, tuesday in Moncton!#QPlayoffs | #Proxi | @StLouisBlues | #stlbluespic.twitter.com/Fo2972BO0y

— QMJHL (@QMJHL) May 3, 2026

Xavier Villeneuve had tied the game at 19:12 of the third period with goaltender Zach Pelletier – who got the start in place of the injured William Lacelle – on the bench.

In short, the Wildcats were 48 seconds away from advancing to the Gilles Courteau Trophy final. Now they're hading back to Moncton to prepare for a Game 7 on Tuesday night. It will be fascinating to see if this devastating loss impacts the Wildcats at all.

Maël Lavigne also scored for the Armada. He has scored in five of the six games in this series.

Former Saint John Sea Dogs forwards Jacob Beaulieu and Elliot Dubé did not register any points in the victory. Beaulieu had one hit while Dubé had one shot.

Former Sea Dogs defenseman Max Vilen had one shot and was a +1 in the loss.

The winner of this series will take on the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in the QMJHL's championship series. The Sags defeated the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies 6-3 on Sunday to take the semifinal in six games. This will be Chicoutimi's first appearance in the league final since 1997.

Notebook: First round nearly completed

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Moncton Wildcats can book a trip to the second round of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoffs with a win on Monday night against the Baie-Comeau Drakkar.

The Wildcats took a 3-2 series lead with a 3-2 overtime win on Friday in Baie-Comeau. It's been an extremely tight series with three of the five games requiring overtime.

The Wildcats/Drakkar series is the only first round matchup remaining. Gatineau, Rouyn-Noranda, Drummondville and Rimouski all earned trips to the second on Friday with Game 5 victories over Saint John, Shawinigan, Victoriaville and Chicoutimi, respectively.

There were a couple upsets in round one. The Tigres finished 25 points ahead of the Voltigeurs and most predicted Victoriaville to take the series. The Volts kept those receipts.

Et bien… #GoRouges pic.twitter.com/YUy6FnjeFj

— Voltigeurs de Drummondville (@VoltigeursDRU) April 8, 2023

The Oceanic, meanwhile, technically upset the Sagueneens although they were seperated by just one point in the standings. Rimouski is quite familiar with first round upsets as the Saint John Sea Dogs found out last year.

2020-21 : 0,385 vs 0,662 vs SHA
2021-22 : 23 points d'écart vs SNB
2022-23 : 1 point d'écart vs CHI https://t.co/8hoY4zQXBY

— Mikaël Lalancette (@MikLalancette) April 8, 2023

In the Western Conference's second round, Sherbrooke will take on Drummondville and Gatineau will face Rouyn-Noranda. Quebec, Halifax and Rimouski have all advanced on the Eastern Conference side but are awaiting the outcome of the Wildcats/Drakkar series to see who they play.

FINAL NUMBERS

The Sea Dogs were outscored 30-5 in their five game first round playoff series against the Gatineau Olympiques.

Peter Reynolds finished with a team high three points (all assists). Nicolas Bilodeau, Brady Burns and Noah Reinhart each had a goal and an assist.

In net, Ventsislav Shingarov has recorded a league high 185 saves despite being pulled after 40 minutes twice in the series. Gatineau averaged 46 shots per game.

Gatineau's Zach Dean (six goals and seven assists) and Riley Kidney (two goals and nine assists) currently sit atop the playoff scoring leader board. Alexis Gendron has scored a league best eight goals.

Zachary Dean ties Maxime Talbot and Claude Giroux for 3rd most points (13) in a best-of-seven series, and Giroux for 2nd most in series to end in 5.

Olivier Nadeau scores for 4th time in series, tacking on an assist in each game in April. 217 points in 217 combined QMJHL GP. https://t.co/OVi4YIzqn5

— Geoffrey Brandow (@GeoffreyBrandow) April 8, 2023

Notebook: Playoffs off to entertaining start

HALIFAX - It wasn't a great opening weekend for the Saint John Sea Dogs but, for the most part, the first round of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoffs are off to a very entertaining start.

Six games went to overtime this weekend with three requiring double OT.

Three of the QMJHL's eight first round series - Baie-Comeau/Moncton, Drummondville/Victoriaville and Shawinigan/Rouyn-Noranda - are tied 1-1. Quebec, Halifax, Rimouski, Sherbrooke and Gatineau all carry 2-0 series leads.

Encore trop tôt pour juger, mais avec 6 prolongations en deux jours de séries #LHJMQ (en 16 parties), on peut parler du début de séries le plus chaudement disputé 1996.

Prometteur pour la suite...

— Mikaël Lalancette (@MikLalancette) April 2, 2023

The Mooseheads erased a 3-0 deficit to defeat the Eagles on Saturday night. Alexandre Doucet's game-tying goal, which came at 18:50 of the third period, was controversial. It was called a goal on the ice and it stayed that way after a review.

The Eagles even retweeted the below video.

Video of Alexandre Doucet's tying goal for the Mooseheads. The officials reviewed it before counting it. Good or bad call? https://t.co/JcC3vxvzeu

— Willy Palov (@WillyPalov) April 2, 2023

All eight series resume on Tuesday.

MORE TITAN TROUBLES

Here we go yet again.

Steve Turcotte of Le Nouvelliste reports that Steve Leal is still trying to finalize a purchase of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. Turcotte reports that Leal's first deal to purchase the club was rejected by the QMJHL but a new arrangement could be approved by June's Entry Draft.

It's been long believed that Leal, the president and CEO of Fix Network World, would like to purchase the Titan and eventually move them to the Montreal suburbs. The Titan have been rumoured to be relocating for about 15 years so... we'll wait and see what happens.

A major question/concern about a Titan move is how the division alignments will be impacted.

Oil Kings secure Memorial Cup spot

Andy Devlin/WHL

SAINT JOHN - The 2012 vibes keep getting stronger and stronger.

A few days after the Shawinigan Cataractes clinched a spot in the 2022 Memorial Cup, the Edmonton Oil Kings did the same, winning the Western Hockey League championship in six games over the Seattle Thunderbirds.

The Cataractes, Oil Kings and Saint John Sea Dogs all competed in the 2012 Memorial Cup in Shawinigan. The Ontario Hockey League was represented by the London Knights that year.

The Oil Kings swept their first two rounds of the WHL playoffs before needing five games to defeat the powerhouse Winnipeg Ice in the Eastern Conference final. Many assumed the winner of the Oil Kings-Ice matchup would represent the WHL at the Memorial Cup.

The Thunderbirds, who faced the Sea Dogs at the 2017 Memorial Cup, proved to be a worthy opponent, winning the opening game of the series and staving off elimination in Game 5. Edmonton proved too powerful in Monday's Game 6, outshooting Seattle 21-4 in the opening period en route to a 2-0 series clinching victory.

CHAMPIONS.#TheKingdom | #ChaseTheCrown | 👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑 pic.twitter.com/Wk1V1sCoQP

— y - Edmonton Oil Kings (@EdmOilKings) June 14, 2022

This is Edmonton's first WHL title since 2014. The team captured the Memorial Cup that year as well.

Edmonton has a loaded roster with eight NHL prospects. They are headlined by Dylan Guenther, Jake Neighbours, Sebastian Cossa, Justin Sourdif, Kaiden Guhle and Luke Prokop.

The Oil Kings open the Memorial Cup on Tuesday, June 21 against the Cataractes at TD Station. They face the Sea Dogs the next night.

Cataractes, Oil Kings can clinch tonight

Ghyslain Bergeron/QMJHL

Two spots in the 2022 Memorial Cup tournament could be secured tonight.

The Shawinigan Cataractes and Edmonton Oil Kings carry 3-1 series leads into their respective Game 5s tonight. The Cataractes visit the Charlottetown Islanders at 5 p.m. while the Oil Kings host the Seattle Thunderbirds at 10 p.m. Both games are on TSN.

The Cataractes failed to clinch their first Quebec Major Junior Hockey League title on Thursday on home ice, falling 7-0. Shawinigan, having won the first three games of the series, still have the odds in their favour. It's been a tight series though, one that could easily have the Islanders up 3-1 right now.

The Cataractes will be without one of their top defenseman, Zachary Massicotte, due to a one-game suspension for a check to the head.

Cataractes Zachary Massicotte has been assessed a 5-minute major and game misconduct for a check to the head on Islanders Ben Boyd.#PresidentCup pic.twitter.com/cJWiEKstiW

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) June 10, 2022

In the Western Hockey League, the Oil Kings have won three straight games after losing the series opener. A win tonight would send them to the Memorial Cup for the first time since 2014.

Notebook: Stairs, Isles set for major Game 3

YouTube

CHARLOTTETOWN - For a few minutes, Dawson Stairs had scored one of the biggest goals in Charlottetown Islanders history.

The former Saint John Sea Dogs forward scored with 1:17 remaining in the third period to put the Islanders up 3-2 over the Shawinigan Cataractes in Game 2 of the President Cup final Sunday. The Cataractes would tie the game on a controversial power play and then win in it overtime, cancelling out a lot of the impact of Stairs' goal.

Dawson Stairs with a perfect tip on the Noah Laaouan blast! 👌#PresidentCup | #InMemoryOfGuy pic.twitter.com/xxhKnjGord

— QMJHL (@QMJHL) June 6, 2022

The Fredericton native was named the game's third star. Stairs now has two goals and seven assists in 12 playoff games this year.

The Islanders will need Stairs and all of the team's offensive players to be at their best in Wednesday's pivotal Game 3 in Shawinigan. Despite posting 38 shots in Game 2, Charlottetown's offense has struggled to create quality scoring chances against a well structured and committed Shawinigan group.

The Cataractes lead the best-of-seven President Cup final 2-0. The winner of the series advances to the 2022 Memorial Cup in Saint John.

NEW STORE

The new Area 506 Waterfront Container Village opens Wednesday in Saint John.

The Sea Dogs will be one of the vendors at the waterfront space, opening a new Sea Dogs Styles location.

The Container Village will also play a major role at the 2022 Memorial Cup, hosting the Bash on the Bay concert series.

Islanders, Cataractes to play in QMJHL final

CHL TV

The Shawinigan Cataractes are heading back to the President Cup final.

The Cataractes advanced to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's championship series with a come-from-behind 5-3 victory over the Quebec Remparts Wednesday night, winning the best-of-five semifinal series in five games.

Playing in front of 14,563 fans at Videotron Centre, the Cataractes erased a 3-1 deficit in the victory. Shawinigan tied the game at 3-3 early in the third period and then Pierrick Dube scored on a power play at 19:12 to make it 4-3. Dube added an empty netter to complete the hat trick and make it a 5-3 final.

Pierrick Dubé a le compas dans l'oeil!!

Revoyez son deuxième du match!!

⚡️ pic.twitter.com/Vyg44oWqca

— Cataractes de Shawinigan (@Cataractes_Shaw) June 2, 2022

The Cataractes' woes have been long documented. The franchise dates back to 1969 but has never won a President Cup championship. This will be their first trip to the final since 2016.

Shawinigan, who finished seventh overall in the regular season thanks to a season filled with injuries, will face the No. 2 seed Charlottetown Islanders in the President Cup final. Like the Cataractes, the Islanders have never won a league championship.

The Islanders will be without Xavier Simoneau in Game 1. Simoneau was suspended one-game for a boarding major he took in Game 4 of Charlottetown's semifinal series against Sherbrooke.

The Islanders have home ice advantage for the final. The best-of-seven (yes, seven) series begins Saturday in Charlottetown. 

Notebook: Dogs' move nearly unprecedented

Embed from Getty Images

The Saint John Sea Dogs' decision to fire their head coach this close to the start of the Memorial Cup is nearly unprecedented - but it has happened before.

Way back in 2000, the Memorial Cup host Halifax Mooseheads were swept out of the second round of the President Cup playoffs by Brad Richards and the Rimouski Oceanic. Less than two weeks after their playoff exit, the Mooseheads fired head coach and director of hockey operations Bob Mongrain and named associate Shawn MacKenzie the interim head coach.

From CBC News on April 21, 2000:

"This wasn't done lightly," said team president Ken Mounce, who added it's a move that may have been long overdue.

"This was thought of for a few months and we looked at every possible avenue and we were very sensitive to the timing," Mounce continued.

The 2000 Memorial Cup began on May 20, so these timelines are quite similar to what the Sea Dogs are working with.

The Mooseheads finished 2-1 in round-robin play and were eliminated in the semifinals.

A few people have also pointed out that the BCHL's Chilliwack Chiefs fired their head coach less than two weeks before hosting the RBC Cup in 2018. The Chiefs went on to win the national championship.

Top 10 Sea Dogs Memorial Cup Moments: #10 - Misspelled merch gets fixed

(Ed. Note: In honour of 2022 Memorial Cup tickets going on sale to the general public on Dec. 6, we're counting down the top 10 Sea Dogs moments in Memorial Cup history.)

#10 - Misspelled merchandise gets fixed in Windsor

The 2017 Memorial Cup had some interesting merchandise.

Each of the four teams had signs like the below (I can't remember what Windsor's, as the hosts, said) that, at quick glance, made it seem like that particular team was the 2017 Memorial Cup champion.

I believe the intention was to show that the Sea Dogs were QMJHL champions.

Each of the four teams also had shirts and pucks. Unfortunately for the Sea Dogs, "Saint John" was spelled "St. John."

Notebook: Some notable AHL games

The American Hockey League released its full 2017-18 schedule on Tuesday.

Some potentially key dates for Saint John Sea Dogs alumni are:

• The Belleville Senators (Thomas Chabot, Chris DiDomenico and Paul Boutilier) begin their inaugural season on Oct. 6 in Laval against the Rocket (Simon Bourque). The Sens won't have their home opener until Nov. 1 due to building renovations.
• The Syracuse Crunch (Mathieu Joseph) open their season on Oct. 6 in Rochester.
• The Charlotte Checkers (Spencer Smallman, Julien Gauthier and Callum Booth) open the year in Hartford on Oct. 6. The Checkers will play in the Eastern Conference this season, so there will (hopefully) be lots of opportunities to see Sea Dogs alumni going head-to-head.
• The Rockford IceHogs (Matthew Highmore and Nathan Noel) begin play on Oct. 7 in Cleveland.
• The Ontario Reign (Bokondji Imama) visit San Antonio on Oct. 7 to begin their season.
• The Providence Bruins (Jakub Zboril) host Springfield in their season opener on Oct. 7.

The Sea Dogs had very few alumni playing full time in the AHL this past season, with Alex Grant (Providence), Stanislav Galiev (Hershey) and Brett Gallant (Cleveland) the only real mainstays. Stephen MacAulay (Springfield) and Eric Gelinas (San Antonio) also appeared in quite a few games during the 2016-17 season.

Predicting the IceHogs

Speaking of the AHL, the Chicago Blackhawks blog Second City Hockey recently predicted the roster of the team's top farm team, the Rockford IceHogs.

The blogs projects Matthew Highmore to centre the team's second line while Nathan Noel will centre the third. The team's forward unit is highlighted by Alex DeBrincat, who probably has a chance to crack the Blackhawks' lineup this year.

More campers

Speaking of the Blackhawks, the team released details on its prospect camp, which will take place July 17-21.

As expected, the roster includes Sea Dogs forwards Matthew Highmore and Nathan Noel. Highmore signed with the club this past season while Noel was picked by the 'Hawks in the 2016 NHL Draft.

The camp roster also includes Montreal native Jake Massie, a 2014 fifth-round pick of the Sea Dogs who never reported to the team. Massie, who was selected by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2015 NHL Draft and later traded to Chicago, spent this past season at the University of Vermont.

Notebook: Memorial Cup coaches on the move

Danny Flynn is the last man standing.

With Seattle Thunderbirds head coach Steve Konowalchuk joining the Anaheim Ducks as an assistant, Flynn is the only remaining head coach from the 2017 Memorial Cup still in the CHL.

Over the past few weeks, Erie Otters head coach Kris Knoblauch has joined the Philadelphia Flyers as an assistant and Windsor Spitfires head coach Rocky Thompson has taken over head coaching duties of the AHLs' Chicago Wolves.

The Sea Dogs coaching staff has had a departure though with assistant Paul Boutilier joining the AHL's Belleville Senators as an assistant.

Renewal rate

The Sea Dogs announced this past week that 97% of season tickets have been renewed for the 2017-18 season. It's the highest renewal rate prior to July 1 in team history.

“We are so pleased with our season ticket renewal rate,” said Ben Zayandehroudi, vice-president of ticket sales and marketing, in a press release.”The response to this year’s early renewal deadline has been tremendous. Season Ticket Members have provided positive feedback on our new, innovative programs as well.

“This puts us on track to increase our season ticket base from last season. We have the best fans in the Q!”

The Victoriaville newspaper La Nouvelle recently compared season ticket prices around the QMJHL. Rouyn-Noranda ain't cheap.

Mayer re-signs

Former Sea Dogs goaltender Robert Mayer has signed an extension with Swiss league team Genève-Servette HC through the 2020-21 season.

Mayer has spent the past three seasons with the National League A club. Last season he posted a 2.53 goals against average and a .926 save percentage in 49 games.

The 26-year-old spent two seasons with the Sea Dogs from 2007 to 2009, posting a 42-39 record to go along with a 3.41 GAA and .893 SV%.

NOTEBOOK: Sea Dogs return home

SAINT JOHN - The Sea Dogs returned home from the 2017 Memorial Cup on Saturday afternoon and were welcomed back by a group of fans at Saint John Airport.

Team president and general manager Trevor Georgie spoke to the crowd that greeted the Dogs home.


CBC New Brunswick spoke to some players when they returned to Harbour Station.

TOURNAMENT LEADERS
Julien Gauthier ended up leading Saint John in Memorial Cup scoring, recording two goals and four assists for six points in four games. His four assists also led the team.

Joe Veleno finished with the Sea Dogs lead in goals, registering three. Veleno was held pointless in his first two games but posted three goals and an assist in his final two.

Mathieu Joseph finished second on the team in points with five (two goals and three assists) while Thomas Chabot and Spencer Smallman had two goals and two assists each.

SOLD OUT
After a tournament full of empty seats, the WFCU Centre was sold out for Sunday's Memorial Cup final between the host Windsor Spitfires and the OHL champion Erie Otters.

Tickets were apparently sold out by Thursday morning. The Spitfires clinched a spot in the championship game on Wednesday night.

Tickets were going for as much as $1,000 on Kijiji, according to AM 800.

ALL-STARS
Here's the Memorial Cup tournament all-stars:

The 2017 #MCMemorialCup All-Star Team includes Vilardi, DeBrincat, T. Raddysh, D. Raddysh, Sergachev and DiPietro. pic.twitter.com/rF7gUECuKY

— CanadianHockeyLeague (@CHLHockey) May 29, 2017

All players are either from the Spitfires or Otters.

Erie's Dylan Strome was named tournament MVP.

Windsor Spitfires win 2017 Memorial Cup

Embed from Getty Images

The Windsor Spitfires are 2017 Memorial Cup champions.

The Spitfires won their third Canadian Hockey League championship with a 4-3 victory over the Erie Otters on Sunday night at the WFCU Centre.

The victory ended a perfect run for the Spits at the Memorial Cup, going 4-0 with two wins over Erie to go along with victories over Saint John and Seattle. Windsor has now won 12 straight Memorial Cup games going back to 2012.

It was a thrilling game with both teams leading at certain points and neither leading by more than a goal.

Windsor's Aaron Luchuk scored what proved to be the game winner at 5:07 of the third period. The Otters had some terrific offensive pressure happening throughout the third but could not beat Spitfires goaltender Michael DiPietro, who was by far the best netminder in the tournament.

The Otters came this close to tying it late:

This game. #MemorialCup pic.twitter.com/0X78hachVr

— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) May 29, 2017

The loss ends quite a run for the Otters, who completed their fourth straight 50-win season. They still won the OHL title this year (their only title during this four-year run), which is impressive.

NOTEBOOK: Otters confident in Timpano heading into tonight's semifinal

Embed from Getty Images

WINDSOR, Ont. - Troy Timpano's stats don't look that great at this year's Memorial Cup.

The Erie Otters netminder is sporting a 3.73 goals against average and a .823 save percentage heading into tonight's semifinal contest against the Saint John Sea Dogs.

Otters head coach Kris Knoblauch told reporters Friday morning at WFCU Centre that the numbers aren't representative of Timpano's play so far.

"We've done a good job at keeping the shots down, so that's why his save percentage doesn't look really good," said Knoblauch. "Numbers can be misleading a lot of time."

Knoblauch added that he feels Timpano didn't have much of a chance on the goals he has allowed so far in the tournament.

Timpano has been known to let in the occasional bad goal. He's also very active with the puck, which can create some interesting moments.

The netminder posted a 13-4-1 record to go along with a .895 SV% and 2.73 GAA during the OHL playoffs.

"We changed goalies a little bit throughout the playoffs where (Joseph) Murdaca came in, and he came up big. The players believe that Troy is our goalie. He's the guy that got us here throughout the regular season and playoffs."

LOOKING TO ADVANCE
The Otters are looking to advance to their first Memorial Cup final tonight.

This is the second ever Memorial Cup appearance for the Otters and their first since 2002. In '02, Erie lost 5-4 in overtime to the Victoriaville Tigres in the tournament semifinal. The Otters blew 3-0 and 4-2 leads in that game, with Victoriaville's Danny Groulx tying the game with five seconds remaining in the third period.

The Kootenay Ice defeated the Tigres 6-3 in the 2002 Memorial Cup final.

HUBERDEAU TALKS 2011
The Canadian Press caught up with Jonathan Huberdeau this week to talk about the Sea Dogs' 2011 Memorial Cup win.

"I'm watching them a lot," Huberdeau told CP about this year's Sea Dogs. "It's fun to always follow your team and it's great they have a chance to win this year."

Read the full story here.

Sea Dogs to play Otters in semifinal

WINDSOR, Ont. - The Saint John Sea Dogs will have a rematch with the Erie Otters on Friday.

The OHL champion Otters defeated the Windsor Spitfires 4-2 in the final round robin game of the Memorial Cup on Wednesday at WFCU Centre. The result means the host Spitfires earn a berth in Sunday's championship game while the Otters will play the Sea Dogs in Friday' semifinal.

The Spitfires scored twice in the first period and added another early in the second. While the Otters applied steady offensive pressure several times throughout the game, the result never really felt in doubt for Windsor.

Jeremiah Addison scored a hat trick while Mikhail Sergachev added the other. Kyle Maksimovich and Taylor Raddysh scored Erie's goals. Windsor goaltender Michael DiPietro was excellent in net, making 33 saves in the victory. Erie's Troy Timpano made 15 stops in the loss.

The Windsor victory gives the Spitfires an impressive 11 straight Memorial Cup wins dating back to the team's championship run in 2009.

We're streaking!#OHL clubs continuing impressive runs at #MCMemorialCup.

GAME 6 PREVIEW: https://t.co/uckK1EfM2P pic.twitter.com/I7BJ8kY4VZ

— OntarioHockeyLeague (@OHLHockey) May 24, 2017

Most will not forget the previous meeting between the Sea Dogs and Otters, which took place on Monday. Erie had little trouble with Saint John, dominating much of the game in a 12-5 victory.

The winner of Friday's game will, obviously, play the Spits on Sunday.

Game time for Friday's do-or-die semifinal is 8 p.m. The game can be seen coast-to-coast on Sportsnet.

NOTEBOOK: Sea Dogs will find out semifinal opponent tonight

Embed from Getty Images

WINDSOR, Ont. - The Saint John Sea Dogs will find out who their Memorial Cup semifinal opponent is tonight.

The Sea Dogs advanced to Friday's semifinal game with a big 7-0 victory over the WHL champion Seattle Thunderbirds last night at WFCU Centre. Saint John will play the loser of tonight's game between the Erie Otters and Windsor Spitfires. The winner of tonight's match will advance directly to Sunday's championship game.

Tonight's game will be a heavyweight tilt between the two teams that have been by far the best at this year's tournament. Both are 2-0 with Erie outscoring opponents 16-7 and Windsor outscoring teams 10-3.

Erie and Windsor met four times during the regular season. Here are the results:

Sept. 22: Erie 1, Windsor 4
Dec. 16: Windsor 3, Erie 4
Feb 12: Windsor 4, Erie 5 (SO)
March 9: Erie 4, Windsor 2

Although the game will played in the Spitfires' building, the Otters will be the home team tonight.

NOTEBOOK: Sea Dogs look for big rebound in do or die game tonight

Embed from Getty Images

WINDSOR, Ont. - Saint John Sea Dogs head coach Danny Flynn tried to explain his team's 12-5 loss to the Erie Otters following the game last night.

"We knew how tough it would be," said Flynn. "Our passing and our decisions with the puck have been well below average. In a tournament like this you've got to make good reads and you've got to move the puck. We've turned pucks over we've mishandled pucks. They must have stolen 30 pucks from us tonight.

"It was a strange game. They got five on the power play. We got five (goals) throughout the game. Usually when you score five goals at a Memorial Cup you're in the game - we weren't in the game."

Flynn said the team will try and throw that game away and move on from it as quickly as possible. The team will have to move on quickly from it, playing a do or die game this evening against the Seattle Thunderbirds.

"We've got a sudden death game (Tuesday)," said Flynn. "We've got a great group of kids. They hate to lose. I think we were a little surprised at how good the teams are in this tournament. I think we've been on our heels a little bit, especially when they scored first shot today. We've got to regroup. Those two games are gone. We have to do what Windsor did in Rimouski when they went 0-2, win that third game and live to fight another die."

Game time tonight is 8 p.m. The winner will play in Friday's semifinal against the loser of tomorrow's Erie/Windsor game.

D'ORIO IN
When Alex D'Orio took over for Callum Booth in the Saint John net, it was his first game action since March 18. D'Orio did not play at all in the QMJHL playoffs.

It looked as though D'Orio was going to come in earlier than he did, but Booth quickly retook the net. Flynn explained the move after the game.

"I was trying to buy a little time," the coach said. "By putting the backup goalie in - young guy, good goalie - who hasn't played for quite a while, I was going to try to put him in, slow the game down. Then I elected just to call a time out and talk to them at length rather than put the goalie in and try and get a quick message. I knew the game was slipping as it was and I wasn't worried about the time out late in the game or anything like that. I wanted a longer time to talk to them so I put Callum back in."

Last night's game was the first time Booth had been pulled since allowing four goals on 21 first period shots on Feb. 22 against Bathurst. Saint John ended up losing that game 8-7 in overtime.

Saint John Library catches Memorial Cup fever

WINDSOR, Ont. - The Saint John Free Public Library is showing its support for the Sea Dogs' Memorial Cup run in a unique way.

Taking a chapter (ha!) out of the Toronto library's Blue Jays playoff tweets, the Saint John Library has been tweeting pictures of appropriately titled books in an effort to support the Dogs - and chirp opposing cities.

Here's the library's tweet from Friday, when the Sea Dogs were set to face the Windsor Spitfires:

Hey, @windsorpublib, ready for the Memorial Cup?@erielibrary @SPLBuzz @KCLS - you're next!#GoSeaDogs #PortCityRise pic.twitter.com/nWEp0bFpE7

— Saint John Library (@SaintJohnFPL) May 19, 2017

And here's their tweet from today ahead of the Sea Dogs' 8 p.m. game against the Erie Otters:

Some @SJSeaDogs thoughts between games at the #MCMemorialCup.@ErieLibrary, what say you?#PortCityRise @windsorpublib @SPLBuzz pic.twitter.com/xc9ojaNsNH

— Saint John Library (@SaintJohnFPL) May 22, 2017

These tweets are fire, as the kids say.

Neither rival library has responded to the tweets.

Toronto area libraries have gone viral over the past couple years for its book spine tweets about Blue Jays playoff games.

Shout out to all the libraries out there.

NOTEBOOK: Spits got off to great start

Embed from Getty Images

WINDSOR, Ont. - The Windsor Spitfires couldn't have asked for a much better start to their Memorial Cup tournament.

The Spitfires came flying out of the gate on Friday at WFCU Centre, going on to defeat the QMJHL champion Saint John Sea Dogs 3-2.

"I thought I had a really good start," said Windsor goaltender Michael DiPietro on Saturday. "We came out strong and we came out fast. I think it was all of the excitement we built up inside of us. As the game progressed we just kept it at that level and then translated it into a win."

The only real significant issue for the Spits was closing the game out. Saint John applied some steady offensive pressure in the final five minutes, scoring twice and nearly tying the game in the final minute.

"We haven't really been in that situation in a while and I think it was good for us that we did finally close it out," said DiPietro, who made 20 saves in the victory. "It was a good learning experience. We move on from it. Our focus is on Seattle."

The Spits take on the WHL champion Seattle Thunderbirds tonight at 8 p.m.

GETTY PICS

Embed from Getty Images

Getty Images has some cool photos from Friday's Sea Dogs Memorial Cup opener against Windsor. Check them out here.

ON A ROLL
The Spitfires are on a serious roll when it comes to Memorial Cup games. The team has now won nine straight games at the tournament, dating back to 2009 in Rimouski. Windsor went 4-2 at the '09 event and then went 4-0 in 2010 to win back-to-back titles.

Nerves hurt Sea Dogs in opener

Embed from Getty Images

WINDSOR, Ont. - The Saint John Sea Dogs aren't afraid to admit they were nervous in their 2017 Memorial Cup opener on Friday night.

"I think we came out nervous and we were uncharacteristic of ourselves," said overage forward Matthew Highmore on Saturday. "We gave ourselves a chance at the end but it was just a little bit too late."

The nerves hit Saint John early as the team got off to a rough start, allowing the host Windsor Spitfires to have several quality scoring opportunities. The Spits carried that momentum for much of the game, defeating the QMJHL champions 3-2.

"It’s just kind of the moment. I think we were so excited, looking forward to this for the past week and half, the build up… it’s just one of those things that you can’t really explain," said Highmore. "It just kind of happens. We’ll learn from it and we’ll be much, much better on Monday."

Sea Dogs head coach Danny Flynn also felt the team got off to a nervous start - and it cost his team.

"We started nervous. Windsor won the first five minutes and it gave them confidence," said Flynn. "We started on our heels. Having said that, it was only 1-0 after one. But they did a good job at hemming us up in our own end and working us hard. They had a lot of offensive zone time and we didn’t."

If there was any team at this year's tournament that seemed prepared to beat the nerves, it was Saint John. The team has players with Memorial Cup and World Junior Hockey Championships experience.