RECAP: Power Up. Dogs Win 2-1.

FINAL: Bathurst 1, Saint John 2

SAINT JOHN – Fortunately for the Saint John Sea Dogs, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan have the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s worst power play.

The Sea Dogs gave the Titan seven power play opportunities but only allowed one goal in a 2-1 victory on Sunday afternoon at Harbour Station.

In a game that started a half hour late due to a power outage, Saint John had a 2-0 lead after one. But the Titan turned it on a bit in the second and carried that over into the third. The Sea Dogs gave Bathurst plenty of man advantages – some of which were questionable - to get back into the game but, led by the goaltending of Sebastien Auger, were able to hang on.

Auger made 39 saves in the win. Not to take anything away from the Saint John netminder’s performance, but the Titan didn’t have a ton of quality scoring chances in this game despite recording 40 shots.

Stephen Anderson and Matthew Highmore scored for the Dogs. Highmore also had an assist. Anderson meanwhile left the game in the second period after taking a huge hit from Anthony Gingras.

Raphael Lafontaine scored the Titan’s only goal. Jacob Brennan made 27 stops in the loss.

FIRST PERIOD

Noah Zilbert had the first good chance of the game as he cut in front of the goal after a faceoff. Jacob Brennan made a nice poke check to stop the scoring chance. A few minutes later, Nicolas Dumulong put a big hit on Kelly Bent.

Stephen Anderson opened the scoring at 7:27. Anderson went in alone and made a lovely deke to his backhand, beating Brennan up high to make it 1-0 Saint John.

Bathurst’s league worst power play went to work at 8:29 but didn’t do much.

Mark Trickett took a tripping penalty at 13:48 and then Jake Primeau joined him in the box at 14:00 to give the Dogs a long five-on-three advantage. At 15:08, Olivier LeBlanc fired a pass from the point to Matthew Highmore who was parked near the dot. Highmore one timed the puck past Brennan to give Saint John a 2-0 lead.

Marcus Cuomo and Dumulong dropped the gloves at 19:38 for what could be classified as a “spirited tilt.”

Shots in a solid opening period for Saint John were 11-7 in favour of the Sea Dogs.

SECOND PERIOD

Not a whole lot happened in the first half of the second period.

At 8:52, Oliver Cooper went off for rouging. Then at 10:36, LeBlanc headed off for tripping. But the Sea Dogs produced a couple of good kills and didn’t allow the Titan to get too many shots on net.

At 18:44, Anthony Gingras leveled Anderson with an open ice hit near the blue line. Cooper came to Anderson’s defense and fought Gingras with Cooper picking up the extra penalty. Anderson was helped off the ice by Sea Dogs athletic therapist JP Laciak and did not return.

Shots in the second stanza were 14-10 in favour of the Titan.

THIRD PERIOD

The Sea Dogs killed off the Cooper penalty that carried over into the third and then killed off an Alexander McQuaid tripping penalty as well.

Highmore had a great chance to make it 3-0 Dogs as Mathieu Joseph set him up with a nice pass but he fired wide of the net.

As bizarre sequence at 8:03 resulted in another Titan power play, despite there appearing to be goaltender interference by Bathurst on Auger. On that man advantage, Raphael Lafontaine scored at 9:22 to make it a 2-1 game.

Saint John then went to the power play at 10:26 but couldn’t get much going. The Titan went to yet another power play at 14:42 but could not tie things up. Cuomo had a great shorthanded opportunity during the sequence, though.

Bathurst pulled Brennan in the final minute but were unable get much setup. That would be all she wrote as the Dogs skated away with a 2-1 win.

Shots were 19-8 in favour of Bathurst in the third and 40-29 overall.

Saint John went 1-for-3 on the power play while Bathurst went 1-for-7.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs hit the road and take on the Rimouski Oceanic on Thursday night.