Pens Make History; Moose Off To Final

Alex Grant and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins made some history on Wednesday night.

The Penguins advanced to the American Hockey League’s Eastern Conference Final with a 5-0 Game 7 victory over the Providence Bruins. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton lost the first three games of the second-round series but won the next four, becoming the third team in the 77-year history of the AHL to come back from a 3-0 series deficit and win.

The Pens will play the Syracuse Crunch in the in the Eastern Conference Final. In the West, Tomas Jurco and the Grand Rapids Griffins will take on the Oklahoma City Barons. The winners advance to the Calder Cup Final.

The Penguins finished fifth in the AHL’s Eastern Conference with a 42-30-2-2 record. The Bruins had the AHL’s best regular season record at 50-21-0-5.

Grant was a +1 with two penalty minutes in this game. Providence defenseman and former Sea Dog David MacDonald was a -1 with two penalty minutes.

Elsewhere on Wednesday night…

• The Halifax Mooseheads will play in the MasterCard Memorial Cup Final on Sunday, meaning that the national championship game will feature a QMJHL team for a third straight year. The Moose advanced straight to the final thanks to a 4-2 Portland Winterhawks win over the Saskatoon Blades. The Blades will now play the London Knights in tomorrow’s tie-breaker with the winner moving on to play in Friday’s semi-final against the Winterhawks.
• Also, via Buzzing The Net, Wednesday’s game featured this hit.

Big Win For Mooseheads

The Halifax Mooseheads steamrolled the London Knights on Tuesday night at the Memorial Cup.

Halifax scored five times in the first period en route to a 9-2 victory over the Ontario Hockey League Champions. It was a fabulous bounce back game by the Moose who were coming off a disappointing 5-2 loss to the Saskatoon Blades on Sunday.

With the win, Halifax can advance straight to Sunday’s championship game with a Portland Winterhawks win on Wednesday night. If Portland loses, the Moose would have to play in Saturday’s semi-final game.

London’s loss means the Knights will have to take the long route if they want to make it back to the final. London will play the loser of Wednesday’s Portland/Saskatoon contest in Thursday’s tie-breaker game.

Martin Frk had a hat trick for the Moose on Tuesday night while Darcy Ashley had two goals. Singles came from Ryan Falkenham, Luca Ciampini, Stefan Fournier, and Brent Andrews. Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin each had three assists. Zach Fucale made 26 saves in the win.

Former Sea Dog Stephen MacAulay had one assist, two penalty minutes, and a +1 rating.

Other Tuesday night notes…

• Tomas Jurco and the Grand Rapids Griffins advanced to the AHL Western Conference Final. They defeated the Toronto Marlies 4-3 to win the series in six games. Jurco was a -1 with four shots in the game. They’ll play the Oklahoma City Barons in the next round, a series that begins on Friday night.
• Wednesday night, Alex Grant and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins face David MacDonald and the Providence Bruins in Game 7 of their second-round series. The winner takes on the Syracuse Crunch in the Eastern Conference Final.

Sea Dogs Notebook

MEMORIAL CUP

Every team at the 2013 Memorial Cup sits at 1-1 entering action tonight. This evening, the Halifax Mooseheads battle the London Knights at 9pm and tomorrow the Portland Winterhawks take on the Saskatoon Blades.

All the possible scenarios about who advances to which game and how can be found on the CHL website.

The Mooseheads lost their first game of the tournament on Sunday night, a surprising 5-2 loss to the host Blades. The Moose have not lost much all year and they’ll need to rebound quickly.

MACAULAY

Former Sea Dog Stephen MacAulay is having a solid Memorial Cup so far. He sits fifth in tournament scoring entering tonight's game with two goals and an assist in two games.

Playing in his third straight Memorial Cup, MacAulay has two goals and two assists in 10 career games at the national championship. Despite all the success he has had at the junior level, he currently is not affiliated with a NHL club.

“In my mind I think I deserve a shot, hopefully an entry-level deal but if not, maybe something else,” MacAulay told the Chronicle Herald. “I think I’ve done everything I could do but one last Memorial Cup won’t hurt, especially if I play well and do well personally. I’m thankful for the opportunity.”

THE STATION

Forget to post this the other day so... here it is.

Stefan Fournier says the CUC looks an awful lot like Harbour Station in Saint John, N.B.
— Patrick King (@SNPatrickKing) May 17, 2013

Halifax, Summerside Both Lose

The 2013 Memorial Cup tournament just got a whole lot more interesting.

After having a decent game against the London Knights on Friday night, the host Saskatoon Blades defeated the No. 1 ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League, the Halifax Mooseheads, by score of 5-2 on Sunday night.

The Blades were swept in the first-round of the Western Hockey League playoffs and the franchise had basically forgotten how to win a playoff game until tonight.

Going into this game, Saskatoon was riding a 13-game postseason losing streak.
— Damien Cox (@DamoSpin) May 20, 2013

Pretty much everyone had written off the Blades heading into the tournament. But after tonight’s display, this tournament just got a whole lot more fun.

Thanks to two quick goals in the third period, Saskatoon led 4-0 before the Mooseheads could finally get things going. Stephen MacAulay and Nathan MacKinnon quickly scored, making it a 4-2 contest. But despite some good pressure being applied by Halifax in the final minutes of the game, former Lewiston Maineiacs goaltender Andrey Makarov protected the lead. The Blades added an empty net goal with two seconds left which was a apparently a signal for everyone to throw their clappers and a single chair onto the ice (pictured above).

Halifax just could not get things rolling like they did on Saturday against Portland. It’ll be interesting to see how a team that has not faced much adversity all year deals with this kind of loss at the Memorial Cup.

Tomorrow, the Portland Winterhawks take on the London Knights. It Portland wins, every team at the tournament would be 1-1.

Elsewhere on Sunday…

• Unfortunately, the Summerside Western Capitals fell short in the RBC Cup final as they lost 3-1 to the Brooks Bandits on Sunday afternoon. None of the former Sea Dogs who play for the Capitals recorded a point in the game. A tournament record crowd 4,211 watched the game at Credit Union Place in Summerside.

Sea Dogs Alumni Game Coming This August

Heading into their ninth year of play, the Saint John Sea Dogs will hold an alumni game this August.

Full details on the event have not been announced yet – and that includes the roster. Here is what we do know, via the Twitter feed of Sea Dogs equipment manager David Kelly.

1st ever Wallace McCain memorial charity game August 24th 2pm at Harbour Station. Sea Dogs alumni vs UNB Varsity Reds alumni... dont miss it! 

There will be stuff going on all day long with the proceeds going to charity, going to be a lot of fun! 

Wallace McCain was a heck of a man and its an honour for us to have this game in his name! Alumni are pumped,we will announce the roster soon. 

Plan on guys like @ThommerBomber @therealturks10 @CaronJG @AlexBo125 @StAnthony16 @Durepos23 @agrant20 @RyanSparling_4 being there! 

Some guys schedules are dictated by their NHL team so we can't release the full team roster yet but it is going to be awesome!! 

If any businesses are interested in sponsoring the charity game please message me! 

One alumni said they wouldn't miss it for the world, hopefully our fans have the same excitement! It's a few months away but save the date!

For the Twitter challenged, the handles listed above of those of Mike Thomas, Michael Kirkpatrick, Jeff Caron, Alexandre Beauregard, Steven Anthony, Pierre Durepos, Alex Grant, and Ryan Sparling.

This should be a cool event.

Mooseheads Win Opener; Summerside Advances To RBC Cup Final

In a game that displayed the awesomeness of junior hockey, the Halifax Mooseheads won their first match of the 2013 Memorial Cup on Saturday night, defeating the Portland Winterhawks 7-4.

Nathan MacKinnon went into beast mode, recording a hat trick and adding an assist with a +4 rating. Jonathan Drouin, Luca Ciampini, Martin Frk, and former Sea Dog Stephen MacAulay also scored. Zach Fucale made 37 saves in the victory.

Troy Rutkowski had two goals for Portland while singles came from Seth Jones and Ty Rattie. Goaltender Mac Carruth was not good in this one, allowing seven goals on 35 shots.

This was a great game with plenty of momentum swings. It looked like the Winterhawks might go on to win the game in the second period as they led 3-1 early. But entering the third, it was Halifax in front by score of 6-3 thanks to a five-goal middle frame.

All eyes were on Jones, MacKinnon, and Drouin in this game. Jones wasn’t bad and Drouin was Drouin, but MacKinnon really stepped things up.

Also, via Deadspin, this happened tonight.

Halifax, 1-0, take on host Saskatoon, 0-1, on Sunday night.

Elsewhere on Saturday night…

• The Summerside Western Capitals will play in the RBC Cup final. The Caps advanced to the national championship game with a 3-2 overtime win over the Surrey Eagles. Former Sea Dog Danny Chiasson had a goal for Summerside. The Capitals will play the Brooks Bandits on Sunday night at 7pm in PEI.
• Alex Grant and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defeated the Providence Bruins 4-0. Grant had one shot and 12 penalty minutes. Former Sea Dogs captain David MacDonald had three shots and a fight for Providence. The Bruins now lead that AHL second-round playoff series 3-2.
• Tomas Jurco had an assist and three shots in the Grand Rapids Griffins’ 4-1 loss to the Toronto Marlies. The Griffins lead that series 3-2.
• An awful season of SNL comes to an end.