Observations:
Puck battles won - Sea Dogs 107 Islanders 78. Enough said.
Even strength puck possession - within a minute for each team's totals. Very evenly played game at 5 on 5.
SOG show 24-22 Islanders. The game sheet shows 23-23. Looks like they are very accurate whoever does it in Charlottetown. Both teams' D played excellent - as did the forwards coming back. There were several hit posts and crossbars - but when you're talking under 25 shots against by each team - it was a playoff style game.
TOI: D Villeneuve (27:30) and F Lawrence (21:11) for Saint John. D Laaouan (24:33) and F Budgell (24:15) for Charlottetown. Cormier was only a few seconds behind Laaouan for Islanders' D-men.
SOG: Cormier (7) and Lawrence (6). Lawrence led all players with 5 chances from the home plate area.
Hits: Laaouan and Cam MacDonald each had 5 hits.
Shot Blocks: Cormier and Dufour each had 4 blocks to lead their respective teams.
Takeaways: Goaltender Lapenna led all players with 14 - the first time I've seen a goalie lead the way. Biakbutuka had 11. For Saint John - Sevigny, DesRoches and Poirier all had 11. Lapenna loves to come out and play the puck. It looks like they must count a goaltender coming out behind his net to stop a dump in around the back of the net as a "takeaway."
Lapenna seemed to make a really big first impression not only on me - but also on the broadcasters as they commented on his strong play and effective puckhandling several times.
Vincent Despont did play and I watched a few of his shifts to verify. He played a total of 2:21 over 5 shifts. He had only 1 shift in the 2nd and then didn't see the ice again. I didn't see an injury or anything else noteworthy.
