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Post by eaglewatcher on Sept 13, 2009 12:35:49 GMT -4
Should make for a good Sunday afternoon. All our 20s back in town.
Missing Ashton,Mathieu, Luke and Olivier. Just something to get a thread started.
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Post by christopher on Sept 13, 2009 13:42:46 GMT -4
Stoked to hear that!
Just heard on the Giant that both MacNeil and Ward are back.
With those 2 back, who are our healthy scratches?
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Post by eaglewatcher on Sept 13, 2009 13:47:58 GMT -4
Brad Tesink not sure who the other will be.
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Post by canucklehead on Sept 13, 2009 13:53:13 GMT -4
Michael Kirkpatrick will be returning to the lineup for Saint John.
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Post by tostitos on Sept 13, 2009 14:34:47 GMT -4
Tesink is no longer with the Eagles, he's opted to join Woodstock Slammers.
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Post by christopher on Sept 13, 2009 14:41:24 GMT -4
I just realized that since all 3 20s are back with the team that it will obviously be Tesink and Gauthier who will not be dressed and ultimately released.
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Post by elementz on Sept 13, 2009 18:24:24 GMT -4
Recap?
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Post by hal on Sept 13, 2009 18:29:08 GMT -4
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Post by tostitos on Sept 13, 2009 18:30:17 GMT -4
Courtesy of Cookie... The Saint John Sea Dogs captured another exhilarating come-from-behind road win on Sunday afternoon, erasing an early two-goal deficit and defeating the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles by a score of 4-3 at Sydney’s Centre 200. Cape Breton looked strong in the first period, amassing a 3-1 lead over the course of the opening twenty minutes of play. The hosts ultimately tasted defeat however, as a determined, brimming-with-vigour Saint John team roared back in the second and third stanzas to take the spirited intradivisional showdown 4-3. The Port City’s major junior squad is now 2-0-0-0 on the young season, joining the P.E.I. Rocket as the lone undefeated teams remaining in the QMJHL Atlantic. Meanwhile, with the loss, the Screaming Eagles are 1-1-0-0. Olivier Ouellet (2), Tomas Jurco, and Nathan Beaulieu all scored for the Sea Dogs on Sunday, with Stephen Horyl (2) and Brad Cuzner replying for the home side. In a highly-impressive First Star of the Game performance, Marc-Antoine Gelinas picked up his first win of the year in net for Saint John, stopping 39 shots on the day and coming up with several highlight-reel-calibre saves. Gelinas allowed only one even strength marker on the day while shutting out Cape Breton for the final 48 minutes of the match. At the other end of the ice, second-year goalie Christopher Holden fell to 1-1 on the season after surrendering four goals on 26 shots faced between the pipes for the Screaming Eagles. The Sea Dogs got off to a quick start on Sunday, as Olivier Ouellet took advantage of an early Screaming Eagles turnover, burying his first goal of the season at the end of the resulting odd-man rush to give the visitors a 1-0 lead just 15 seconds into the game. Reigning Aliant M.V.P. Michael Kirkpatrick, making his season debut after spending the past week at Minnesota Wild Rookie Camp, picked up an assist on Ouellet’s game-opening tally, as did 19-year old winger Nicholas Pard. Cape Breton responded 4:13 later when a streaking Brad Cuzner beat Gelinas high, glove side on a quick snap shot to record the first goal of his QMJHL career, tying things up at one apiece in the process. The home team took a 2-1 lead at the 7:29 mark of the first when, on the power play, a crease-hovering Stephen Horyl pounced on a rebound produced by a Michael Ward point shot, chipping the puck over a sprawling Gelinas to register his first goal of the year. Horyl netted another man-up marker a few minutes later, this time wiring home a booming one-timer on a feed from Francis Meuilleur to put Cape Breton up by two. Slovakian forward Tomas Jurco cut the hosts’ lead in half in the 24th minute of play, corralling a loose puck at the side of the Screaming Eagles’ net and stick-handling around a down-and-out Holden prior to tucking a shot across the Cape Breton goal line to register the first offensive strike of his major junior career. Fredericton, NB native Zack Phillips also tallied his first QMJHL point on the play, recording an assist on the even-strength goal. Olivier Ouellet then produced the equalizer for Saint John 13:48 into the middle frame. The cunning speedster accepted a long outlet pass from defenseman Benjamin Lecomte in the neutral zone prior to bearing down upon Cape Breton’s net on a breakaway, fooling Holden with a backhand-forehand deke and firing a shot past the duped goalie’s blocker. Ouellet’s dazzling dangle gave the veteran forward his second goal of the afternoon and set the stage for an exciting third period. Some impressive work by Marc-Antoine Gelinas kept the home team from pulling back in front early in regulation’s final frame. The overage net minder stoned Viktor Hertzberg with a quick left pad save after the Swedish winger received a pass at the side of Saint John’s net with no defenders in sight during a short-handed situation for the visiting squad from south western New Brunswick. Gelinas’ efforts ultimately led the Sea Dogs to a successful penalty kill, a pivotal moment in the game. A rocket of a close-range one-timer off the stick of Nathan Beaulieu then gave Saint John a 4-3 lead with ten minutes remaining in regulation. The sophomore rearguard hammered home a picture-perfect cross-ice pass from Michael Kirkpatrick during a Sea Dogs power play to pick up his first goal of 2009-10 in timely fashion. Saint John was then able to withstand a late-match barrage of offensive pressure from the Screaming Eagles, enduring several close-calls and near-misses by Cape Breton shooters to wrap up their successful season-opening road trip in winning fashion. These two teams will meet again on Saturday night at 7pm in the Sea Dogs’ Season V Home Opener. Tickets to this much-anticipated match are available by calling the Harbour Station Box Office at (506) 657-1234. |
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Post by Art Vandelay on Sept 13, 2009 18:34:34 GMT -4
Well we had the game for the taking !
- Interesting note that on the Q website it had Ward with the "C" and Stinziani , MacNeil and Meuiller with "A's".
- I was reallly impressed with Cuzner tonight . He plays his heart out every shift . I felt bad for him when he took that penelty in the 3rd when Beaulieau scored the winner.
- Holden was solid overall but gave up way too many rebounds and was sloppy handling the puck.
- I thought that Greer had a very rough night . If i have to sit through the year with him as our 5-6 D-man . I wont have any nerves left . Everytime he's on the ice it looks like he's delivering a baby.
- As for the Sea Dogs:
I was impressed by a few Sea Dogs tonight , with Kevin Gagne being the most impressive.
Gagne looks to be much improved from last year . He has more confidence and looks faster and stronger.
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Post by Clubber Lang on Sept 13, 2009 19:44:12 GMT -4
Well we had the game for the taking ! - Interesting note that on the Q website it had Ward with the "C" and Stinziani , MacNeil and Meuiller with "A's". - I was reallly impressed with Cuzner tonight . He plays his heart out every shift . I felt bad for him when he took that penelty in the 3rd when Beaulieau scored the winner. - Holden was solid overall but gave up way too many rebounds and was sloppy handling the puck. - I thought that Greer had a very rough night . If i have to sit through the year with him as our 5-6 D-man . I wont have any nerves left . Everytime he's on the ice it looks like he's delivering a baby. - As for the Sea Dogs: I was impressed by a few Sea Dogs tonight , with Kevin Gagne being the most impressive. Gagne looks to be much improved from last year . He has more confidence and looks faster and stronger. Shaw needs to pick up his game and quick. Even though he was selected a star last game it was totally based on the score sheet and not the game played. MacIntosh and Chaisson are in over their heads in this league but Cuzner was a pepper pot all night for the eagles. Lapostelle looks a little lost out there along with Hertzberg but I am pretty confident they will be fine. Kirkpatrick is a very intelligent player and sees the ice very well. When Saint John get back Sauve and Despres along with Thomas, Anthony, Petersen and if they are lucky enought to get hoffman look out. |
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Post by senatorz2 on Sept 13, 2009 19:48:11 GMT -4
Today it was a good game for the first period.. the Eagles let go for the middle period and most of the third.. i taught that Cuzner Bourgeois and a few others had good games.. Chiasson had good shifts but didnt have that many.. he had 2 great scoring chance in the first period.. one on the wrap arround and then another one on a deflection.. hopefully he will be able to play regularly some times cuz once given a chance he will probly be able to play in this league..
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Post by Deer on Sept 14, 2009 9:27:08 GMT -4
Enjoyable game despite the loss. Much better calibre of play than Friday's opener, and pretty intense hockey for September. Good passing on both sides, both teams' powerplays looked good and moved the puck quickly, guys were fearlessly blocking shots - far from the sloppy, disjointed hockey you usually see the first weekend.
Kind of a puzzling game for the Eagles. First they give up a goal so quickly into the game that if you blinked you missed it. Then the rest of the period they dominated ridiculously. After falling behind 0-3 in the shots early, they outshot SJ 21-3 the rest of the stanza, with very few of those 21 shots being harmless. Passing on that first powerplay unit was awesome, guys were extremely hungry for loose pucks, really from minutes 2 to 20 the team played pretty much absolutely perfect.
Then for some reason there was very little jump in the second period, and SJ scored twice to tie the game. Little jump again in the first half of the third. Then a wild flurry at the end with numerous chances to tie it. There never seemed to be a middle ground - we were either all over them, or asleep at the switch.
In the end, it's hard to believe we lost considering how good things looked after the first. But hopefully it serves as a lesson that you can't get too comfortable when things are rolling along great, even though it's natural and easy for that to happen.
Awesome to see Cuzner pop his first Q goal, crowd gave him a huge cheer. He's becoming an early crowd favourite, and overall had an excellent first weekend as an Eagle. Too bad he took the penalty that led to the game winning powerplay goal, but he was still our most impressive rookie all weekend.
Holden didn't look as comfortable Sunday as he did Friday against Halifax. However you couldn't really blame him for any of the goals, except that he was deep in his net on Ouellet's breakaway goal (to tie it at 3-3).
Speaking of that goal, it happened four-on-four.... and wouldn't have happened five-on-five. No idea how such a gaping hole was left down the middle for Lecomte to hit Ouellet with that long breakaway pass. We have pretty much all the lanes taken care of five-on-five, but four-on-four we looked lost. Maybe something that needs to be worked on in practice.
One big plus, as mentioned earlier, is the powerplay. It was by far our fatal flaw in the loss to Quebec in last year's playoffs. But it looked fantastic yesterday - especially Ward on the point and Horyl down low. Of course Horyl scored two beauty goals from that down low spot. One a rebound from a near-impossible angle, into the top corner. The other a laser beam one-timer. Both real goal scorer's goals. Excellent pickup he was in that Ward-Finn trade last year. Every year lately, we seem to have a right shot doing excellent work in that hole down low on the powerplay. Two years ago it was Clendenning. Last year it was Nicky Chouinard. This year, Horyl seems ready to thrive in that spot (where he struggled against the Remparts last year).
Thought Hertzberg looked a fair bit more comfortable than in the opener. Hopefully he'll come along more and more each game, and by a month's time or so will be fully integrated into our system and the North American style.
Ellis was perhaps our most consistent player all weekend. Great all-around game and composure, he's like a man at 17. The Micallef-Greer pairing though can be a bit scary. Thought JS Fournier looked really at home on the point on the second powerplay both games, and was also better defensively than I expected. He'll be a nice addition.
For SJ, what a rebound for Gelinas after a first period where he was being shot at like a fish in a barrel. He was visibly frustrated after the third goal snuck through his armpit, but never gave up another afterward. His best stop IMO was on that Taylor MacDougall redirect with just over a minute left. EXCELLENT read-and-react to sprawl and get a blocker on it at the very last second. After looking a bit shaky at times in the first, he was on top of everything the rest of the way. Was very vocal and involved the rest of the way, and on second thought maybe coulda been first star instead of third.
Kirkpatrick looked great, especially as the game wore on. Was owning that left wing side on their powerplay. He'd get the puck, hold on to it until the proper pass option came along, and in the meantime it was like our PKers were scared to go near him or he'd make em look foolish. His cross-seam pass to Beaulieu for the game winner was a beaut.
Speaking of Beaulieu, he and Kevin Gagne had solid games on defence - two good sophomores there. I also liked rookie blueliners Gabriel Bourret and Pierre Durepos - Bourret has a nice shot and good offensive instincts.
Their Euros both looked good. Galiev with the obvious flash and dangles, maybe needing a bit of time to put the whole package together. Jurco more of a meat and potatoes type, but smart player, who showed very good patience in sliding his goal home on the third or so whack at it.
Overall the Sea Dogs showed great calmness and perseverence in coming back for the win. They kept their focus and didn't waver at all in periods 2 and 3. Big difference from the easily-rattled, immature team they had under Jacques Beaulieu last year that could fall apart at the seams at any moment. It's only two games in, but new coach Gerard Gallant definitely seemed to have them all on the same page yesterday.
Good crowd involvement even though attendance was barely over 3,000. We were treated to an entertaining and intense game, a rarity for both September and a Sunday afternoon. Fun day at the rink and hopefully the Eagles can take some valuable lessons from the loss.
Should be a good rematch between these two on Saturday in their rink. And I look forward to seeing the Dogs for a doubleheader next month on Thanksgiving weekend.
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Post by canucklehead on Sept 14, 2009 9:40:26 GMT -4
Great read! Thanks Deer!
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Post by christopher on Sept 14, 2009 10:30:32 GMT -4
- I thought Horyl played a great game (obviously). Hopefully he can keep the momentum and put up some big numbers this year. His second goal was a beauty.
- I like what I'm seeing from Cuzner/Bourgeois. Those two give it their all every shift. Glad to see Cuzner get his first Q goal out of the way.
- I found MacNeil and Ward to be a bit sluggish. I mean, both had noteably good shifts throughout, but, they seemed a bit tired to me (which I guess is to be expected after returning from a pro camp)
- Hertzberg has some of the best hand/eye coordination I've ever seen. He's like a hawk. I watched him pick off 3-4 passes in the offensive zone and create some great scoring chances.
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