Christopher Smith Recalled

The Sea Dogs have made their weekly goaltending swap.

The team announced this afternoon that they have recalled 17-year old goaltender Christopher Smith from the St. John's Privateers of the Newfoundland & Labrador Major Midget Hockey League.

Smith, a fifth-round pick by Saint John in the 2013 QMJHL Entry Draft, had a 1-11 record and a 5.29 goals against average in 14 games with the league’s worst team. St. John’s finished the regular season with a 5-18-0-1 record.

In 2012-13, Smith went 9-4 with a 2.76 GAA.

According to the release, the 6-1 and 165 lbs. netminder is expected to be in uniform this Friday when the Sea Dogs begin a three-in-three against the Rimouski Oceanic at Harbour Station.

Regular backup Antoine Landry remains out with a lower body injury. Chase Gaudet, who was Sea Dogs backup on this past weekend’s road trip and made 41 saves in a 6-1 loss in Rouyn-Noranda on Saturday, has been sent back to the Maritime Junior 'A' Hockey League’s Yarmouth Mariners.

January's Best

Sebastien Auger has been, not surprisingly, named the Vaughn Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Goaltender of the Month for January.

From the QMJHL website:

The 19-ear-old native of St-Augustin-de-Desmaures registered six wins while posting a 2.61 goals-against-average and .933 save percentage.

Auger pushed away a total of 415 saves during that span, an average of just under 36 shots per game, while registering two shutouts. One of those came against the red hot Val-d’Or Foreurs offence. He finished the evening with 53 stops and first star honours.

The goaltender is starting his third season with the Sea Dogs organization. He has recorded a total of 50 wins. His career save percentage is an excellent .911.

It’s the second time this season he has earned the award.

Auger was also named the QMJHL’s second star for January. Quebec’s Anthony Duclair and Victoriaville’s Jonathan Diaby were named the first and third stars, respectively.

News & Notes From Saturday's Game

Super Bowl Sunday. May the team that records the most footballs or whatever win!

Some stuff from last night’s game…

• The Huskies ended a five-game losing streak with the win.
• Saint John’s last Quebec road trip of the regular season ended with a decent 1-2 record. They lost 4-2 in Shawinigan and 6-1 in Rouyn-Noranda but did win 2-0 in Val-d’Or.
• Matthew Highmore scored the Sea Dogs’ only goal in the game 34 seconds into the second as he deflected a Thomas Chabot shot. That goal opened the scoring but Rouyn-Noranda would then score six unanswered.
• With Chabot picking up an assist on that Highmore goal, the rookie defender now has helpers in four straight games. He has six assists in his past six games.
• Definitely looked like Francis Beauvillier’s second period goal was kicked in. It was reviewed and still called a good goal.
• After doing a good job at containing the league’s best power play on Friday, the Sea Dogs allowed three man advantage goals on eight chances on Saturday. Saint John went 1-for-5.
• Sebastien Auger got some time off on Saturday as Chase Gaudet made his Sea Dogs debut in net. Although he allowed six goals, he did face 47 shots. He made some solid saves in the game. It was his first QMJHL appearance since December 11, 2012 when he was with Shawinigan.
• Saint John only had 16 shots on goal in the game and just three of them were considered dangerous. Yikes.
• Highmore had nine of Saint John’s 16 shots and two of the three dangerous ones. No other Sea Dog had more than one shot.
• Former Charlottetown Islander Jack Nevins had three assists, giving him eight points against Saint John this year.
• The QMJHL website had hits listed at 42-26 in favour of the Huskies. That is ridiculously high. I’m guessing any kind of contact was considered a hit.
• The Sea Dogs were without forwards Stephen Anderson (upper body), Joey Richard (shoulder), and Samuel Dove-McFalls (healthy) along with defensemen Michael Abbott (hand) and David Weckworth (upper body). Goaltender Antoine Landry also remains out with a lower body injury.
• Weckworth was injured in Friday’s game in Val-d’Or.
• With the loss, the Sea Dogs remain one-point back of the Sherbrooke Phoenix who hold the league’s final playoff spot. Shawinigan won last night, moving them within a point of Saint John. As usual, there are no games scheduled for Super Bowl Sunday.

RECAP: Ouch. Dogs Lose 6-1.

FINAL: Saint John 1, Rouyn-Noranda 6

ROUYN-NORANDA, Que. – A night after posting a 2-0 win in Val-d’Or, the Saint John Sea Dogs came crashing back down to earth.

The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies scored three times in the second and third periods to defeat the Sea Dogs 6-1 at Iamgold Arena on Friday. The win snaps a five-game losing streak for the Huskies while the Sea Dogs ended their final three-game Quebec road trip of the season with a 1-2 record.

Marcus Power had two goals for the Huskies while singles came from Jeremy Lauzon, Francis Beauvillier, Julien Nantel, and Liam O’Brien. Former Charlottetown Islander Jack Nevins had three assists. Alexandre Belanger only had to make 15 saves for the win.

Matthew Highmore scored the game’s first goal in the second period but that would be Saint John’s only marker in this one. Chase Gaudet, called up this week to replace the injured Antoine Landry, made 41 saves in his Sea Dogs debut.

The Sea Dogs struggled to get much going offensively in this game. They only recorded 16 shots in the game – three of them being considered dangerous/difficult. Highmore had nine of the 16 shots.

Saint John went 1-for-5 on the power play while Rouyn-Noranda went 3-for-8. This a night after the Sea Dogs were able to keep the league’s best power play off the scoreboard.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Rimouski Oceanic on Friday night at Harbour Station.

GAMEDAY 51 - at Rouyn-Noranda

A preview of today’s game between the Saint John Sea Dogs and Rouyn-Noranda Huskies…

When and where: Tonight at 8:00 pm AST, Iamgold Arena

TV/Radio: TELUS Webcast/News 88.9

Records: The Sea Dogs are sixth in the Telus Maritimes Division and 17^th overall in the QMJHL with a 16-30-1-3 record for 36 points. The Huskies are fifth in the Telus West Division and ninth overall with a 26-18-3-2 record for 57 points.

Last games: The Sea Dogs are coming off a 2-0 win in Val-d’Or last night. Sebastien Auger made 53 saves for the shutout. The Huskies are coming off an 8-5 loss at home to the Foreurs on Thursday. Jean-Sebastien Dea had two goals.

2013-14 head-to-head: The Sea Dogs are 0-1-0-0 against the Huskies this season while Rouyn-Noranda is 1-0-0-0 against Saint John.

Last meeting: November 30^th at Harbour Station when the Huskies defeated the Sea Dogs 5-3. Jean-Sebastien Dea had two goals in that game.

Ex-Sea Dogs on the Huskies: None

Random stat: In his past three games combined, Sebastien Auger has allowed four goals on 113 shots.

SJ notes: This is the final game of a three-game Quebec road trip for the Sea Dogs… this is the final regular season game for the Sea Dogs outside of the Maritimes… one-point back of the final playoff spot entering action today… 5-4-1-0 in their last 10 games… Sebastien Auger improved his league best save percentage to .921 with a 2-0 shutout win last night… 3-5-1-0 against Telus West Division teams… Thomas Chabot has five assists in his past five games.

R-N notes: Losers of five straight and are 3-7 in their last 10 games… solid 15-8-0-1 at home this year… Marcus Power is third in the league in scoring with 73 points and leads the circuit in assists with 52… Jean-Sebastien Dea is fourth in goals with 36… Dillon Fournier is 10^th in defensemen scoring with 32 points… 4-2-0-2 against Maritimes Division teams… Huskies have lost four straight at home.

News & Notes From Friday's Game

The league’s top offense was no match for Sebastien Auger last night.

Auger posted his second shutout in less than a week with a stunning 2-0 road win over the Val-d’Or Foreurs. The Sea Dogs goaltender made 53 saves, including 24 in the third period. He was simply spectacular in this game.

Val-d’Or has scored the league’s most goals this season, has the league’s best power play, and features the league’s top scorer in Anthony Mantha. Despite all that, the Foreurs couldn’t score a goal on the Sea Dogs.

Along with picking up his second shutout of the year, Auger improved his already league best save percentage to .921. He also made some team history last night.

Sebastien Auger's win tonight is the 50th of his career, tying the @SeaDogsHockey record for career reg season wins by a goalie (Corbeil).
— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SeaDogsHockey) February 1, 2014

Last night’s game certainly gives you some hope if the Sea Dogs make the playoffs. I also think there will be some playoff teams this spring who will regret not swinging a deal to acquire Auger.

Some other stuff from the game…

• The Foreurs have scored a league high 222 goals this season. The Sea Dogs have scored 122 – 100 fewer than Val-d’Or – which is the second fewest in the league.
• Lost in the Auger stuff was rookie Mathieu Joseph finally scoring his first career QMJHL goal on a power play in the second period. Joseph has come really close to scoring over the past few games and everyone knew it would come eventually. Joseph now has a goal and six assist in 14 games with the Sea Dogs.
• Rookie defenseman Thomas Chabot got an assist in Joseph’s goal, giving him five assists in his past five games.
• The Sea Dogs had just one shot in the third period and it was Oliver Cooper’s empty net goal. Shots were 24-1 Val-d’Or.
• Foreurs goaltender Antoine Bibeau made some quality saves in this game as well. He made 19 stops in the loss, including a really nice stick stop in the second period after being caught in no man's land.
• Congrats to Sea Dogs equipment manager David Kelly who took part in his 600^th Sea Dogs game last night.
• The Sea Dogs were without forwards Stephen Anderson (upper body), Joey Richard (shoulder), and Lukas Walter (healthy) along with defensemen Michael Abbott (hand) and Will Thompson (healthy). Goaltender Antoine Landry also remains out with a lower body injury.
• With Sherbrooke picking up a point last night, Saint John is now one-point back of the Phoenix for the final playoff spot with a game in-hand. Intense times. If things keep going the way they are now, the Sea Dogs have a realistic chance of finishing as high as 14th.