Cape Breton @ Saint John

[mrlittlewolf]

she would know gay guys!!! her b-friend is one!!!

[dogcatcher]

Got only words to say about last night's game....TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!!

[dogcatcher]

Dogs drop home opener
Good support: Despite losing to Cape Breton, Saint John draws over 5,000 fans

Andrew McGilligan
Telegraph-Journal
Published Saturday September 22nd, 2007
Appeared on page C12

SAINT JOHN - In the Saint John Sea Dogs' home opener, it was a former team member and a New Brunswicker spoiling the party in a 6-1 loss to the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action Friday night at Harbour Station.


Former Sea Dog Jonathan Laberge lit the lamp twice while Edmundston's Dean Ouellet added two assists, sending 5,062 fans home unhappy.

"We didn't come prepared, we didn't stick to our game plan and it showed on the scoreboard," Saint John's Ryan Sparling said. "We've got some things to work on."

The opening minutes of the first period produced little excitement until the eight-minute mark. The Screaming Eagles took back-to-back penalties, but Saint John could not capitalize.

Cape Breton opened the scoring as the two-man advantage ended. Laberge, fresh out of the box, stole the puck at his own blue-line and broke in on Saint John goalie Robert Mayer.

Laberge fired a wrist shot past the blocker of Mayer at the 10:10 mark of the period for a 1-0 Cape Breton lead. Ouellet picked up an assist.

In the final five minutes of the opening frame, the Sea Dogs came to life with several scoring chances, but all were turned away by Screaming Eagles netminder Olivier Bellevance-Roy.

The Sea Dogs gave the hometown crowd something to cheer about 31 seconds into the second. Sparling pounced on a rebound in front of the Cape Breton net and shoveled a backhand past a sprawled Bellevance-Roy to tie the game 1-1.

Cape Breton broke the tie on a four-on-three power-play. Defenceman Kyle Mariana redirected a cross-crease pass from Ouellet that just slipped by Mayer.

With Steven Anthony in the box for roughing, the Screaming Eagles made it 3-1 when Robert Slaney found the back of the net at the 17:29 mark with Ouellet and Laberge picking up assists. The period ended with the visitors holding their two-goal lead.

At the start of the third, the Sea Dogs found themselves in penalty trouble again as Chris Di Domenico took a slashing penalty just 1:05 into the frame. Once again, the Screaming Eagles took advantage. Mariana let loose a blast from the point that went into the top corner past a screened Mayer for a 4-1 lead.

The power-play trend continued at 11:47 when Nick MacNeil found himself all alone in the slot thanks to a nice feed from Francis Meilleur. MacNeil didn't waste the opportunity, ripping a shot past the glove of Mayer for a 5-1 Cape Breton lead. The goal was the fourth power-play marker for the Screaming Eagles.

The lead bulged to five goals at 16:03 of the third when Laberge notched his second of the night for a 6-1 advantage just as another Saint John penalty expired.

New Maryland native Mike Thomas gave the fans the only excitement of the third period when he dropped the gloves with Olivier Dame-Malka.

Thomas landed several big blows and won the fight easily, a lone victory in a night to forget for the Sea Dogs. Each team took 27 shots.

Saint John assistant coach Jim Midgley said the team took too many penalties.

"Obviously we can't kill them all off," he said. "Our all-around game wasn't great and I think that was evident."

The Sea Dogs are back on Harbour Station ice Sunday at 4 p.m. against the Lewiston Maineiacs. Saint John lost 4-1 to Lewiston in their previous meeting.

SCRATCHED: Minnesota Wild draft pick James Sheppard was not in the lineup for the Screaming Eagles as he's with the NHL club for their pro camp. Sea Dogs 20-year-old forward Jordan Knox was not in the lineup for Saint John.

The Sea Dogs need to release one 20-year-old to make room for newly acquired forward Alexandre Picard-Hooper. The decision will be between Knox, Travis Fullerton and Francis Charland.

BACK IN THE FOLD: The Moncton Wildcats welcomed three players back from NHL pro camps just in time for tonight's game against the Halifax Mooseheads. Forwards Randy Cameron (Detroit Red Wings), Scott Brannon (Red Wings) and Matt Marquardt (Columbus Blue Jackets) will join their teammates on the ice at 6 p.m. at the Moncton Coliseum.

TRADE: The Halifax Mooseheads and the Drummondville Voltigeurs were active on the trade front Thursday.

The Mooseheads acquired goaltender Pier-Olivier Pelletier as well as a fourth-round selection in 2009 from the Voltigeurs for winger Garrett Peters and third and seventh-round picks in 2008.

[dogstar]

Helps if the goalie makes a save. No clutch saves at all. Can't get beat on the short side on a partial breakaway with the d-man on your ass. laberge could not cut to middle so you have to take away short side. Grant - never liked him thought tonight he might show something-unfortunutely for the dogs I was wrong... he sucked!!

Turning point 5-3 early. when the d are playing catch from 30ft. out and there is an open lane down the middle please shoot instead of passing to the winger below the icing line. the cross crease play was taken away... adapt!!!

[LiskeIsMyHero]

mrlittlewolf said:

she would know gay guys!!! her b-friend is one!!!

haha thats so funny how old are you like 60 and you have to act that mature,obviously hes not gay if he has a gf.,and a hot one at that ;D

[berner]

Do people still want to cut Fullerton and just throw Mayer to the wolves? Last night's game is exactly why Fullerton is best kept for a few months, to help stabilize the goaltending and pick up the pieces (in a more than adequate way) when Mayer needs it. Something Fullerton can do better than Passingham, Dopud or Kennedy.

[canucklehead]

dogstar said:

Helps if the goalie makes a save. No clutch saves at all. Can't get beat on the short side on a partial breakaway with the d-man on your ass. laberge could not cut to middle so you have to take away short side. Grant - never liked him thought tonight he might show something-unfortunutely for the dogs I was wrong... he sucked!!

Turning point 5-3 early. when the d are playing catch from 30ft. out and there is an open lane down the middle please shoot instead of passing to the winger below the icing line. the cross crease play was taken away... adapt!!!

No clutch saves?

I thought he made some very nice saves to be honest how bout the team take the loss as a whole I felt like probably alot of the Rocket fans felt like when we were there. It's easy to jump on Mayer in a game like this but I blame the entire team they just didn't play well.

It's really frustrating as a fan I know I was pumped all day so this really sucked! Maybe all that pregame stuff had a negative effect on the team I dunno but I don't think jumping on Mayer is the best idea to be honest I half expected Fullerton to start only because the game in Lewy he started Fullerton because of all the pregame festivities but regardless it's done let's just hope they bounce right back just like the Rocket did their next game which was coincidently the MAINEiacs.

I know some were thinking send Mayer right back out but I have a feeling it will be Fullerton Sunday

[Judas In My Mind]

berner said:

Do people still want to cut Fullerton and just throw Mayer to the wolves? Last night's game is exactly why Fullerton is best kept for a few months, to help stabilize the goaltending and pick up the pieces (in a more than adequate way) when Mayer needs it. Something Fullerton can do better than Passingham, Dopud or Kennedy.

Throw him to the wolves? The team sucked hard last night...and still CB only got 27 shots on net. We haven't given up 30+ all year as of yet. It's not like he's facing 39.4 shots a game like Churchill did.

How do young players get better? They play and they practice. We pump Despres, Anthony, Sauve, Grant, etc etc out there, but when it comes to Mayer, a highly touted prospect in desperate need of experience in this league, we go "Oh let him split time with Travis". Mayer's development to hockey at this level gets stunted if he's playing 1 game a week at best.

Mayer has potential and talent. Obvious the organization believed that too or else they would have drafted a badly needed Euro forward instead of the goalie. As I said, I expected a rough month or so for Mayer needing to adapt to things over here and the game at this level, but if he plays he will get better.

Also after losing 2 games while only scoring 1 goal, you could also state a 20 year old forward is even more desperately needed, because obviously our same old problem is still around. We don't score many goals.

I stick by my original opinion on our 20 year old situation. I know I could end up being wrong. Not the first time.

[leahb]

Where were the super dogs at last nite

[Gallant-Unit(14-0-3)]

what song was that when we came out for the entrance?

[sharrow]

As the annoucer said this morning if Michael Vick owned these dogs he would have them all put down for a lack of fight, the team folded like a cheap suit.

[leahb]

sharrow said:

As the annoucer said this morning if Michael Vick owned these dogs he would have them all put down for a lack of fight, the team folded like a cheap suit.

Dont think it was quite that bad

[Hockey4Life]

gallantunit44 said:

what song was that when we came out for the entrance?

White Zombie - More Human than Human

[chillywack]

They got too confident after Sunday's win against PEI.

I'm not too worried, they'll bounce back Sunday against Lewiston.

[dogbert]

jrsuperstar said:

berner said:

Do people still want to cut Fullerton and just throw Mayer to the wolves? Last night's game is exactly why Fullerton is best kept for a few months, to help stabilize the goaltending and pick up the pieces (in a more than adequate way) when Mayer needs it. Something Fullerton can do better than Passingham, Dopud or Kennedy.

Throw him to the wolves? The team sucked hard last night...and still CB only got 27 shots on net. We haven't given up 30+ all year as of yet. It's not like he's facing 39.4 shots a game like Churchill did.

How do young players get better? They play and they practice. We pump Despres, Anthony, Sauve, Grant, etc etc out there, but when it comes to Mayer, a highly touted prospect in desperate need of experience in this league, we go "Oh let him split time with Travis". Mayer's development to hockey at this level gets stunted if he's playing 1 game a week at best.

Mayer has potential and talent. Obvious the organization believed that too or else they would have drafted a badly needed Euro forward instead of the goalie. As I said, I expected a rough month or so for Mayer needing to adapt to things over here and the game at this level, but if he plays he will get better.

Also after losing 2 games while only scoring 1 goal, you could also state a 20 year old forward is even more desperately needed, because obviously our same old problem is still around. We don't score many goals.

I stick by my original opinion on our 20 year old situation. I know I could end up being wrong. Not the first time.

First and probably only read of this thread. I think I mostly agree with you.

88.9 guys were way off base. Mayer stunk. I have no problem with that. He needs to play and learn. I thought his decision making was slow. He thought he had goal #2, but he's never seen quickness like this in Europe. He looked like he was focussing on technique rather than trusting it and playing the play. On a number of stops and goals he looked too mechanical.

He also goes down too quickly, and it seemed obvious CB was aiming high and winning.

I was not a fan of our breakout system. I know it's the 'new' way of doing things, but IMO the near forward at least has to stay low and support the breakout. Too many times the D were hung to dry with no one in sight. They had a lot of odd man chances on those turnovers.

Bellevance-Roy played great. CB must be really happy with their netminders.

Dido had a chip on his shoulder from the first drop. geez boy, ya gotta learn to play the game and not get caught up in that crap. It will only get worse if you react like that. That check where you got caught was totally clean. You're lucky you can still walk with no cane!

Anthony showed some brilliance. That one shift were he set up three guys was awesome! I can't wait till he's comfortable out there and JB is comfortable with him.

Interesting that PH was put with two older french guys. I guess he was hoping experience would overcome not playing together. It didn't work.

Amyot threw a check! 1st shift, I didn't check the box, but I saw were very few hits.

Damn I like Despres. I'm very curious to see how high he's picked. I'll bet a case of beer it's higher than Sauve!