Sea Dogs Slip To No. 4

A tough weekend has dropped the Saint John Sea Dogs down two spots to No. 4 in the BMO CHL MasterCard Top 10 Ranking this week. The latest edition of the rankings were released this afternoon.

The Sea Dogs, icing a depleted lineup because of injuries and world junior selection camp, played a three-in-three against two divisional opponents. Saint John fell 3-2 to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Friday night at Harbour Station but rebounded with a solid 7-3 win over the Halifax Mooseheads on Saturday. Then on Sunday afternoon, it was the Mooseheads beating the Sea Dogs 3-2 in Halifax.

Saint John now sits second overall in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with a record of 26-10-0-1 and are just 5-4-0-1 in their last 10. But given the amount of lineup juggling the team has been forced to do, the Dogs are still playing pretty well.

Three other QMJHL team cracked the top 10 this week. They are the Quebec Remparts at No. 3, Shawinigan Catarcates at No. 6 and the Mooseheads at No. 10. The Victoriaville Tigres were an honourable mention. For Halifax, it was the first time they have appeared in the top 10 since the 2007-08 season.

The weekly rankings of the Canadian Hockey League’s Top 10 teams are selected by a panel of National Hockey League scouts.

Here are the BMO CHL MasterCard Top 10 Rankings for week 13.

1. London Knights (24-6-0-1)
2. Tri-City Americans (25-7-0-0)
3. Quebec Remparts (26-6-2-1)
4. Saint John Sea Dogs (26-10-0-1)
5. Plymouth Whalers (21-8-2-1)
6. Shawinigan Cataractes (23-9-2-2)
7. Kamloops Blazers (23-9-1-0)
8. Edmonton Oil Kings (22-8-1-2)
9. Kitchener Rangers (21-9-1-0)
10. Halifax Mooseheads (21-9-1-2) 

Honourable Mention:
Moose Jaw Warriors (20-9-3-1)
Ottawa 67's (18-9-3-1)
Victoriaville Tigres (21-11-0-2)

In Buzzing The Net’s Dynamic Dozen this week, the Sea Dogs were ranked second.

Saint John closes out the first half of their 2011-12 campaign this weekend with two road games. They travel to Sydney to play the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles on Friday and then go to Moncton to take on the Wildcats on Sunday.