Friday, September 12, 2014

RECAP: Dogs Lose 3-2 (SO)

FINAL: Saint John 2, Charlottetown 3 (SO)
CHARLOTTETOWN, PEI – It was a tough opening night loss for the Saint John Sea Dogs on Friday evening at Eastlink Centre.

Despite leading twice in the game, nearly doubling the Islanders in shots, and carrying a lot of the even strength play, the team suffered a 3-2 shootout loss to Charlottetown. The Isles' victory comes after dropping both pre-season games to the Sea Dogs last weekend.

Adam Bateman and Julien Tessier each scored their first QMJHL goals in the loss. Imports Jurij Siska and Jakub Zboril also picked up their first Q points. Sebastien Auger had a fairly light night, making 14 saves.

Charlottetown had goals from, shockingly, Kameron Kielly and Daniel Sprong. With Mason McDonald away at Calgary Flames camp, Daryl MacCallum got the start and made 29 saves.

The scoring started just 34 seconds in as Batemen opened things up with a hard shot that beat the Isles netminder.

Charlottetown tied things at 1-1 at 13:50. Spenser Cobbold sprung Kielly on a breakaway who then slid a backhand shot under Auger.

Jurij Siska had a good chance later on in the period as his shot rung off the post.

Shots were 11-4 in favour of Saint John in the opening frame.

In the second, the Sea Dogs continued to heavily outshoot the Islanders. Daniel Del Paggio had a good chance early on but was denied.

Later on, Del Paggio fed Adam Marsh but the American forward fired the puck off the crossbar. Then, while shorthanded, MacCallum made a nice pad save off of a Samuel Dove-McFalls shot from the slot.

The Sea Dogs retook the lead with 19 seconds remaining in the period. Mathieu Joseph passed the puck to Jakub Zboril in the middle of the offensive zone. The import defenseman then threaded a great pass to Tessier who was parked down low. The rookie had an open net to score his first QMJHL goal and give the Dogs a 2-1 advantage.

Shots were 15-3 in favour of the Sea Dogs in the second stanza.

The Islanders tied it at 4:18 of the third. Bailey Webster coughed up the puck in his own zone and the Dogs could never recover. Eventually, Sprong was in front and beat Auger with a shot to tie things at 2-2.

Later on, Oliver Cooper sped ahead of Saint John’s defense but was denied by Auger. The Isles had just seven shots in the frame but did create some quality opportunities.

A questionable boarding call was given to Nathan Noel with eight seconds left in regulation. The Dogs would manage to kill it off, though.

It was a quick overtime with shots 3-2 in favour of Saint John.

In the shootout, Kielly and Noel exchanged goals in the first round. In the second, Sprong and Siska were stopped. Filip Chlapik scored to open the third round, meaning Spencer Smallman had to score to keep things going. But Smallman was stopped, giving the Isles the win.

TURNING POINT/BIG MOMENT
Daniel Sprong’s third period goal that tied the game at 2-2 really gave the Islanders a spark in the third. Shots were only 7-2 in favour of Charlottetown in the frame, but they started to get things going.

SN THREE STARS
3. Camera dude that slipped on the ice after the game
2. Mark Tremaine – blocked shots like a boss
1. SJ PK – had a busy night, killing off all eight of Charlottetown’s power plays

TWEET OF THE NIGHT
STATS

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without forwards Nikita Li (healthy), Matthew Highmore (Montreal Canadiens rookie camp), and Mitchell Dempsey (Boston Bruins rookie camp) along with defensemen Braydon Blight (suspended) and Olivier LeBlanc (Columbus Blue Jackets rookie camp). Also, goaltender Bobby Dugan (upper body) did not dress and forward Taylor Fielding has left the team.

NOTES
See the blog tomorrow.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs are in Moncton on Sunday at 4:00 p.m. to battle the Wildcats.
Posted by at
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)