Friday, May 11, 2012

POSTSCRIPT: Sea Dogs 8, Oceanic 0


A collection of recaps from last night’s 8-0 Saint John Sea Dogs win over the Rimouski Oceanic…

Our recap. The Sea Dogs completed a President’s Cup final sweep over the Oceanic on Thursday night at Colisee de Rimouski, winning their second consecutive Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Championship.

News 88.9’s recap. Featuring Tim Roszell’s goal calls.

SaintJohnSeaDogs.com’s recap. Stanislav Galiev had a hat trick and added two assists as the Sea Dogs became the first repeat Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champions since the Gatineau/Hull Olympiques in 2003 and 2004.

The Canadian Press’ recap. "Our first few goals were all about shooting the puck from the slot," Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant said. "Guys were going hard to the net. It's a simple game and we played it to perfection."

L’Avantage’s recap. Saint John’s offense exploded last night to sweep the series.

Le Journal de Quebec’s recap. The Sea Dogs will head to Shawinigan next week to play in the Memorial Cup tournament for a second straight year.

SN Live Blog Replay. What a performance.

SERIES: With the win, Saint John wins the best-of-seven Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Championship Series 4-0. They are the first team to sweep their final series since the Lewiston Maineiacs (RIP) did so back in 2007.

BACK-TO-BACK: The Sea Dogs are just the seventh team in league history to win back-to-back President’s Cups and the first since the 2003 and 2004 Hull/Gatineau Olympiques. Cool stuff.

MISSING IN ACTION: Scratches for Saint John were forwards Oliver Cooper (healthy), Grant West (healthy), Dylan McGuigan (healthy) and Devon Oliver-Dares (healthy) along with defensemen Jordan Moore (healthy). Goaltender Richard Tingley has also joined the club but was scratched.

The Sea Dogs dressed seven defensemen and 11 forwards for this one.

FIRST PERIOD: What a start by the Sea Dogs last night. They led just 1-0 halfway through the first but scored four more times in the second half of the period to lead 5-0 after 20 minutes. Tomas Jurco scored twice in the frame. Saint John outshot Rimouski 20-7.

GALIEV: Stanislav Galiev had a huge game. He recorded a hat trick and added two assists to give him 16 goals and 19 helpers in just 17 playoff games. His 34 points ties him with Charlie Coyle for the most in the league this post-season with 34.

"My legs felt good and I wanted to be dangerous with the puck every time," Galiev told The Canadian Press. "I'm just having fun and this will be a great memory. I've had three great seasons here and we're looking forward to the Memorial Cup."

JURCO: Tomas Jurco also had a big game for Saint John. He had two goals and three assists and finishes the playoffs fourth in team scoring with 13 goals and 16 assists for 29 points.

Jurco scored a goal in every game of this series and finished with five in the four games.

COYLE: Charlie Coyle, who had an assist on Thursday, was awarded the Guy Lafleur trophy as the playoff’s Most Valuable Player. He is the first American player to win the award since Pat LaFontaine in 1982-83.

Coyle finishes the post-season in a tie for the most playoff points with 34. He recorded 15 goals and 19 assists in 17 games.

CORBEIL: Goaltender Mathieu Corbeil certainly proved he can perform in the playoffs with his play over the past month. He made 24 saves in last night’s win to earn his first shutout of the playoffs this year.

The 20-year old played every minute of action for Saint John in the playoffs. He compiled a 16-0-1 record to go with a 0.917 save percentage and a 2.18 goals against average.

BIG PLUS: Even if you aren’t a fan of the plus/minus category, you have to be impressed with some of the numbers a few Sea Dogs put up last night. Zack Phillips, Tomas Jurco, and Stanislav Galiev were all a +6 while Charles Roussel and Nathan Beaulieu were both a +5.

POINTS: Defensemen Ian Saab and Nathan Beaulieu had multi-point nights, recording two assists each. It was a big night for Saab considering he only had one assist in the playoffs entering the game.

Zack Phillips, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Danick Gauthier all finished with a goal and an assist each.

SWEEP: This was the third series the Sea Dogs swept this post-season. Their only playoff loss was an overtime defeat in Chicoutimi in the third round. Impressive.

STAYING HERE: This is the third straight year a Maritime based team has won the President's Cup with Moncton winning in 2010 and Saint John in 2011 and 2012. Halifax in 2013? We'll see what happens. 

CELEBRATION: We got a bunch of celebration video in a separate post that can be seen here.

NOTES: Stanislav Galiev had a Sea Dogs high nine shots on goal… Charlie Coyle, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Ryan Tesink all recorded two hits… every Rimouski player finished with a minus rating… Jerome Gauthier-Leduc led the Oceanic in shots with four… Petr Straka and Robbie DeFulviis each had three hits… Rimouski’s power play went 0/4… sellout crowd of 5,062 watched the match. The crowd got thinner as Saint John’s goal count got higher… this Cup clinching win was certainly less dramatic than last season’s double-overtime thriller… Tomas Jurco’s first period goal ended up being the Cup winning goal… Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant has now won the President’s Cup four times – twice as a player and twice as a coach.

OUT OF TOWN: Edmonton took a 3-2 series lead in the WHL Championship Series with a 4-3 win over Portland.

Tonight at 8pm on Sportsnet, London can advance to the Memorial Cup with a win over the Niagara IceDogs. The Knights lead that series 3-1.

NEXT GAME: Saint John will play either London or Niagara on Saturday, May 19 at 8pm in their first game at the Memorial Cup.

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