Thursday, February 7, 2013

GAMEDAY 51 - vs Rocket

GAMEDAY
PEI Rocket vs Saint John Sea Dogs
Tonight at 7:00pm
Radio: News 88.9 | Webcast: Telus | TV: None | Live: @station_nation
Harbour Station – Saint John, NB
PREVIEW
SAINT JOHN – Two teams. Two different kinds of streaks.

The Saint John Sea Dogs host the Prince Edward Island Rocket this evening at 7pm at Harbour Station. The Sea Dogs will be looking to end a six-game losing streak while the Rocket will look to win their fourth straight.

Both teams have something to play down the stretch. The Sea Dogs, who sit 15th overall in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, are just trying to make the playoffs. On the flip side, the Rocket, who sit eighth overall, are in quite a battle in the middle of the standings to try and get home ice advantage for the first-round.

Saint John enters play today with a 19-30-1-0 record and sit fifth in the Telus Maritimes Division. Over their six-game losing skid, they have picked up just one point and that came last Saturday in Shawinigan where they lost in overtime. The Dogs are 1-8-1-0 in their past 10 games.

Scoring has certainly been an issue over the past month for Saint John with the departure of Jonathan Huberdeau and the trading of many veterans. Jakub Izacky is the club’s active leading scoring with 15 goals and nine assists for 24 points in 45 games.

Meanwhile, the Rocket enter action with a 28-20-2-0 record. They sit third overall in the Maritimes and are well behind the second-place Moncton Wildcats and first-place Halifax Mooseheads.

PEI is home to two of the league’s top scorers. Josh Currie sits second in scoring with 78 points while Ben Duffy sits fourth with 77.

Tonight's game will kick off another busy few days for the Sea Dogs. They travel to Bathurst tomorrow and host the Rimouski Oceanic on Sunday.

THE NUMBERS
PEISaint John
Record28-20-2-0 (3rd Maritimes)19-30-1-0 (5th Maritimes)
Home Record17-7-1-010-14-0-0
Road Record11-13-1-09-16-1-0
Goals For/Game3.62 (8th)2.55 (15th)
Goals Against/Game3.40 (9th)3.82 (14th)
Shots For/Game20.86 (7th)27.30 (14th)
Shots Against/Game31.57 (12th)34.63 (15th)
Overall PP21.5% (11th)20.6% (13th)
Home PP24.4% (7th)20.0% (12th)
Road PP18.8% (12th)21.2% (9th)
Overall PK80.2% (6th)75.8% (16th)
Home PK87.5% (2nd)78.6% (13th)
Road PK74.4% (11th)73.1% (14th)
PIM/GAME18.016.0
Attendance1,7413,797

LEADING SCORERS
PEI
PlayerGPGoalsAssistsPoints
Josh Currie50393978
Ben Duffy50304777
Victor Provencher49201535

Saint John
PlayerGPGoalsAssistsPoints
Jonathan Huberdeau30162945
Jakub Izacky4515924
Pierre Durepos2741317

GOALTENDERS
PEI
GoaltenderRecordGAASV%
Antoine Bibeau18-10-1-02.810.912
Maxime Lagace10-10-1-04.020.871

Saint John
GoaltenderRecordGAASV%
Sebastien Auger19-22-1-03.220.907
Alex Fournier0-8-0-05.910.833

LAST GAMES
The Sea Dogs are coming off a 3-2 overtime loss to the Cataractes in Shawinigan on Saturday. Spencer Smallman and Noah Zilbert scored for Saint John. Sebastien Auger made 42 saves in the loss.

The Rocket are coming off a 2-1 win over the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles on Friday in Charlottetown. Louick Marcotte and Jack Nevins scored for PEI. Maxime Lagace made 25 stops for the win.


HEAD-TO-HEAD
The Sea Dogs are 1-3-0-0 against the Rocket this season while PEI is 3-0-1-0 against Saint John.

Their last meeting was on January 5 at Harbour Station where the Rocket defeated the Sea Dogs 2-1. Jimmy Oligny and Ryan Graves scored for PEI while Jakub Izacky connected for Saint John. Antoine Bibeau made 27 saves in the win and Sebastien Auger made 33 in the loss.


CEREAL
The Sea Dogs are asking fans to bring donations of nutritious cereal or breakfast bars to today’s game. All cereal collected will go to the breakfast programs at seven Community/PALS Schools in the city of Saint John. The only request is that the cereals be healthy and nutritious.

BOGO
Fans who purchase a ticket to the Feb. 7 Sea Dogs game versus the PEI Rocket and receive a voucher for a complimentary ticket to the Feb. 14 game against the Shawinigan Cataractes as well.

Fans who have already purchased tickets are also able to take advantage of the great offer. Anyone with a purchased ticket (offer not valid for complimentary tickets, ie. $0.00 value on ticket) can bring their game ticket to Sea Dog Central on Thursday, Feb. 7 and pick up a voucher that can be exchanged at the box office for a free ticket to the contest against the Cataractes.

If fans are unable to claim their voucher at Sea Dogs Central on Feb. 7, vouchers can be claimed with their Feb. 7 ticket at the Sea Dogs office up until 4:30 p.m. Feb. 14.

NOTES
  • Rocket forward Yan-Pavel Laplante is expected to make his season debut tonight. He has missed all season due to shoulder surgery. He had 21 points in 57 games with the Rocket last season.
  • Josh Currie is second in the league in scoring with 78 points. Ben Duffy is fourth with 77.
  • Currie is second in the league in goals with 39.
  • Duffy is tied for first in assists with 47.
  • Duffy is ninth in power play assists with 20.
  • Currie leads the league in shorthanded goals with nine.
  • Louick Marcotte is fourth in first goals with six.
  • Patrick McGrath leads the league in penalty minutes with 149.
  • Alex Micallef is second in shorthanded assists with four.
  • The Dogs and Rocket meet again three more times this season.

OUT OF TOWN
Drummondville at Rouyn-Noranda - 7:30 PM EST

NEXT GAME
The Sea Dogs travel to Bathurst tomorrow to face the Titan at 7:30pm.

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