Zboril, Green Nominated For Awards

Sea Dogs defensemen Jakub Zboril and Luke Green are among the finalists for the QMJHL’s Golden Puck Awards.

Zboril, projected to be a first round pick in this year’s NHL Draft, has been nominated for the Michael Bossy Trophy as the league’s top professional prospect. He’s up against Halifax’s Timo Meier and Cape Breton’s Evgeny Svechnikov.

The award will be presented at the annual Golden Puck Awards in Montreal on April 8.

Both Zboril and Green are nominated for the Raymond Lagace Trophy as the defensive rookie of the year. Shawinigan’s Samuel Girard was also nominted.

The Raymond Lagace Trophy will be presented to the winner during the playoffs a pre-game ceremony.

The full list of nominees can be found on the QMJHL website.

Meanwhile, Nathan Noel is also nominated for this thing.

Here are the hashtags to use to vote for the QMJHL Social Media Star of the Year. pic.twitter.com/8ldx5Peo0u
— QMJHL (@QMJHL) March 25, 2015

#Hashtag it.

Photo: Marc Henwood/Station Nation

Sea Dogs Attendance Increases

For the first time in a few years, the Saint John Sea Dogs saw an attendance increase.

The Sea Dogs averaged 3,582 fans per game at Harbour Station this season, up from their average of 3,423 a year ago. It makes since given the positive direction the team is moving in and how the quality of play improved.

This is the first time Saint John has seen an attendance increase since they hit a franchise high 4,561 fans per game in 2011-12.

Here’s a look at Saint John’s year-by-year attendance numbers and where they ranked in the league.

Season	Total	Average
2005-06	156,694	4,477 (4th)
2006-07	134,354	3,839 (6th)
2007-08	139,214	3,978 (5th)
2008-09	133,613	3,930 (5th)
2009-10	140,779	4,141 (4th)
2010-11	152,237	4,478 (4th)
2011-12	155,060	4,561 (3rd)
2012-13	135,732	3,992 (4th)
2013-14	116,380	3,423 (5th)
2014-15	121,782	3,582 (5th)

Saint John’s largest crowd of the year came on New Year’s Eve against the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles with an announced crowd of 5,680. The smallest crowd of the year came on Oct. 12 against the Charlottetown Islanders with only 2,286 fans.

This year’s league average was 3,275 fans per game, down from last year’s average of 3,370. As usual, Quebec led the league (9,698) while Bathurst finished last (1,617).

Team Awards Announced

The Saint John Sea Dogs held their annual awards banquet tonight at the Delta Brunswick.

For a third straight year, goaltender Sebastien Auger was named the team’s most valuable player. Forward Nathan Noel also had a good night, winning three awards.

The following is the full list of award winners:

MVP – Sebastien Auger

Academic Player of the Year Award – Sebastien Auger

Three Stars Award – Nathan Noel

Fans Choice Award – Nathan Noel

Top Scorer Award – Nathan Noel

Community Service Award – Mark Tremaine

Team Player Award – Mark Tremaine

Top Defenceman Award – Thomas Chabot and Jakub Zboril

Rookie of the Year – Luke Green

Most Improved Player Award – Mathieu Joseph

The Sea Dogs open the playoffs up on Friday night in Baie-Comeau.

Photo: Sea Dogs Facebook

Notebook: Ryan Kenny Called Up

The Sea Dogs have brought in some reinforcements as the playoffs near.

The team announced yesterday that they have called up forward Ryan Kenny from the Miramichi Rivermen of the NB/PEI Major Midget Hockey League.

According to a Sea Dogs news release, Kenny is expected to join the team before they depart for Baie-Comeau. Game one of the first round playoff series is on Friday at 8:30 p.m. at the Henry Leonard Centre.

Kenny, in his third season with the Rivermen, had 18 goals and five assists in 31 games this season. He was held pointless in four playoff games. He finished third in the league in penalty minutes with 97.

A fourth-round pick of the Sea Dogs in the 2014 QMJHL Entry Draft, Kenny will help fill the hole left in Saint John’s roster left by the injured Adam Marsh.

RAMPAGE SIGN DeSERRES

Former Sea Dogs goaltender Jacob DeSerres signed an amateur tryout agreement with the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage last week.

DeSerres finished his fourth season with the University of Calgary Dinos last week with his team falling in the University Cup quarterfinals. In 15 regular season games with the Dinos this year, the Calgary native recorded an 11-4 record to go along with a 2.07 GAA and .920 SV%. He was part of a fantastic goaltending tandem with Kris Lazaruk.

The Rampage are, for now anyways, the AHL affiliate for the Florida Panthers. DeSerres attended Panthers rookie camp as a free agent last fall.

ROOKIE SCORING

Sea Dogs defenseman Luke Green finished third amongst 1998-born scorers this season.

Most productive 16yo (98-born) in the #QMJHL this season, Pierre-Luc Dubois leading the way follow by 2 defensemen. pic.twitter.com/gJbgmwSNRg
— Jérôme Bérubé (@Jerome_Berube) March 23, 2015

Green finished 14^th in overall rookie scoring while Adam Marsh finished 10^th with 44 points.

BUTTON SPEAKS

TSN’s Craig Button talks to News 95.7’s John Moore about a couple Sea Dogs.

First Round Schedule Released

The Saint John Sea Dogs begin their playoff run this Friday in Baie-Comeau.

The QMJHL released the schedule for the first round series between the Sea Dogs and Drakkar earlier today. The best-of-seven series will feature a 2-3-2 format with the first two games being held in Baie-Comeau.

Here is the schedule:

Game 1 - Friday, March 27th, Saint John at Baie-Comeau, 8:30 p.m.

Game 2 - Saturday, March 28th, Saint John at Baie-Comeau, 5 p.m.

Game 3 - Tuesday, March 31st, Baie-Comeau at Saint John, 7 p.m.

Game 4 - Thursday, April 2nd, Baie-Comeau at Saint John, 7 p.m.

Game 5 - Saturday, April 4th, Baie-Comeau at Saint John, 4 p.m.*

Game 6 - Monday, April 6th, Saint John at Baie-Comeau, 8:30 p.m.*

Game 7 - Tuesday, April 7th, Saint John at Baie-Comeau, 8:30 p.m.*

* If Necessary

Note the 4 p.m. start time for the Saturday game.

Tickets to games three and four are on sale now at the usual Harbour Station outlets.

This will be Saint John’s first playoff appearance since 2013 when they were swept in four games by the Halifax Mooseheads.

First Round Playoff Matchups Set

The playoff matchups for the first round of the QMJHL post-season are officially set. They are as follows:

(1) Rimouski vs (16) Victoriaville

(2) Moncton vs (15) Chicoutimi

(3) Blainville-Boisbriand vs (14) Gatineau

(4) Quebec vs (13) Cape Breton

(5) Shawinigan vs (12) Halifax

(6) Val-d’Or vs (11) Rouyn-Noranda

(7) Baie-Comeau vs (10) Saint John

(8) Sherbrooke vs (9) Charlottetown

The league has not announced the playoff schedule as of yet.

The Oceanic finished first overall in the standings with a 47-16-3-2 record for 99 points.

Moncton’s Conor Garland led the league in scoring with 129 points. Baie-Comeau’s Maxime St-Cyr was the only player to record 50 goals or more, scoring 54.