A sell-out crowd of 6,488 Saint John’s largest of the season, watched the Sea Dogs take a third-period explosion to a 7-3 win over the Halifax Mooseheads Saturday at Harbour Station.
Charlie Coyle and Tomas Jurco gave the home crowd plenty of reason to cheer with two goals each as the Dogs outgunned their Maritime Division rivals to improve to 33-13-0-2. Jurco added an assist, and Danick Gauthier had a goal and a helper, with single goals coming from Stephen MacAulay and Aidan Kelly. Jonathan Huberdeau and Grant West chipped in two assists each and Mathieu Corbeil made 29 saves for the win against his former team.
Darcy Ashley, Martin Frk and Konrad Abeltshauser scored for Halifax and Zachary Fucale made 30 saves on 37 shots – many of them outstanding – before being relieved by Marc-Olivier Daigle. Daigle made four saves in 11:25 of work as the second-place Mooseheads fell to 26-16-1-3.
With Saturday's win the Sea Dogs are two points behind Shawinigan (who lost last night to Gatineau) for the overall league lead and remain first in the Maritimes Division 12 pts. ahead of Halifax.
Game Notes-
The first period started out with plenty of back-and-forth, but play was scrambly, with few shots on target.
The first period started out with plenty of back-and-forth, but play was scrambly, with few shots on target.
Ashley drew first blood for Halifax at the 10:09 mark of the first period, depositing the puck into a wide-open net as Corbeil got caught out of his net in a scramble.
Coyle evened the affair at 11:28, taking a breakaway feed from Huberdeau at the blueline, deking out Fucale and finishing on his forehand. Jason Seed had the other assist on the goal. Coyle added another just nine seconds later, (a team record) when Huberdeau intercepted a pass, and tossed a backhand dish to Coyle, who buried a one-timer for his fourth. The Minnesota Wild prospect has scored in all three games as a Sea Dog.
The Mooseheads had a great opportunity to equalize later in the period but Jonathan Drouin fanned on a one-timer with an open net.
After outshooting Halifax 13-10 in the first, Saint John came out strong again in the second. On the first shift of the frame Nathan Beaulieu fed Huberdeau for a one-timer that Fucale denied. Gauthier then made it 3-1 on a 2-on-1 with West at 7:38. West fed Gauthier a backhand pass and the overager buried it upstairs to Fucale’s blocker side for his team-leading 34 goal, with the other assist going to Oliver Cooper.
Shortly thereafter, Coyle got in behind the defence and had a chance at a hat trick denied by Fucale’s right pad. Fucale also came up with a big save on a Jurco deke to the backhand during a 4-on-4 midway.
The Sea Dogs then faced a 4-on-3 penalty kill when Huberdeau was called for goaltender interference at 11:44. The Saint John penalty killers turned in a great effort, highlighted by MacAulay laying down to block a shot, but Frk blasted a shot through Corbeil from the top of the left-wing circle at 12:41.
Saint John had several opportunities to extend the lead late in the second.
The Mooseheads equalized 45 seconds into the third. After a couple of nice stops by Corbeil, Abeltshauser threw a point shot through traffic that found its way into the net to make it 3-3.
But the Dogs pulled back into the lead 23 seconds later on MacAulay’s 11th of the year. Jurco fished the puck out from behind the net, got it out front to MacAulay, and his quick backhander found the back of the net.
Jurco then scored a goal of his own, when he took a pass in the high slot from Gauthier, and deked to his backhand to beat Fucale at 5:12. Just 20 seconds later Jason Seed appeared to score his first as a Sea Dog on a point shot that bounced past Fucale, but the goal was waved off with no explanation.
The Dogs added to the lead on Kelly’s eighth at 7:38 of the third. West drove hard to the net but was stopped by Fucale, who also stopped Jason Cameron’s rebound attempt, but couldn’t stop Kelly on the next one.
Jurco rounded out the summary at 8:35. The goal brought Fucale’s night to an end, as he gave way to Daigle for the rest of the evening. (from Sea Dogs website)
Three Stars of the Game-1. SNB - Charles Coyle
2. SNB - Tomas Jurco
3. SNB -Stephen MacAulay
The Sea Dogs visit the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Sunday, for a 4 p.m. start.
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