Irked By Sea Dogs Effort...

Even though the Sea Dogs (36-13-0-2) won their fifth straight before 4,608 fans at Harbour Station defeating the visiting Blainville-Boisbriand Armada 6-3 on Sunday afternoon, head coach Gerard Gallant was less than pleased with his team due to their high risk plays and selfish efforts. 
“Brutal,’’ Saint John head coach Gerard Gallant said about his team’s showing, as reported in the Telegraph Journal.  “I thought we were loose and casual.’’

“It’s the same guys who want to make the fancy plays and long passes,’’ Gallant said. “When the other team had the puck, we were trying to intercept passes instead of playing defence. We can play really well or we can play games like today where it’s all about the cute play or the high-risk play. It doesn’t happen that often, but that game comes out every now and again, and today was one of them.’’

Gallant expressed concern that his team must be better for this weekend’s road games in Drummondville and Shawinigan.

“Hopefully, we’ll play our game,’’ he said. “Against Moncton (Thursday’s 1-0 win), they had three or four good scoring chances and that was it. Today was the complete opposite. We just wanted to play a pond game.’’

About the Game-

Sea Dogs defenceman Ian Saab was called for holding at the 13-minute mark of the first period, setting the stage for Cedric Paquette’s power-play goaljust over a minute later. Saab redeemed himself when he scored at 17:22 of the period, one-timing a blast from the slot after taking a  feed from Charlie Coyle.

Saint John took a 2-1 lead on Zack Phillips’ power-play goal at 19:36 of the first frame. Jonathan Huberdeau had the puck on the right side while Coyle screened Armada goalie Storm Phaneuf, who went down anticipating a shot. Huberdeau, however, found Phillips on the other side and the Minnesota Wild prospect fired the puck into an open net.

Paquette potted another power-play goal at 3:15 of the second period to tie the tilt. Jean-Christophe Laflamme scored on a breakaway at 14:18 of the second after stripping the puck from Dogs defenceman Nathan Beaulieu in the neutral zone.

Ryan Tesink set up Tomas Jurco on the power play to even the game at 16:52 of the second period. Huberdeau scored for a 4-3 lead shortly after and Dogs netminder Mathieu Corbeil preserved things with a great save on Raphael Pouliot late in the frame.

Corbeil  remained strong in the third period, stopping Olivier Hinse’s breakaway bid. Danick Gauthier cashed in on the power play at 17:48 and made it 6-3 with an empty-netter 21 seconds later.

“We have a lot of talent and sometimes we might overpass it or try to make the pretty play, but we have to put pucks to the net and outwork teams in front,’’ said Coyle, who notched two assists, as did Jurco and Charles-Olivier Roussel. “If we stick to that and just play simple, everything else will follow.’’

The Sea Dogs head to Drummondville for their next game on Friday night.