QMJHL Saint John Sea Dogs

Voltigeurs Down Sea Dogs, 4-3

Published on December 5, 2008 under Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL)
Saint John Sea Dogs News Release


SAINT JOHN, NB --- The Saint John Sea Dogs gave the seventh-ranked team in Canada all they could handle on Friday night, battling the Drummondville Voltigeurs hard for sixty highly-competitive minutes of major junior hockey at Harbour Station. After falling behind 4-2 midway through the match, the Sea Dogs pulled to within one of the Voltigeurs in the latter half of the second period but were unable draw any nearer, ultimately losing the match by a single goal.

Keven Charland, Michael Kirkpatrick, and Chris DiDomenico all scored for the Sea Dogs in a losing effort, while Robert Mayer made 30 saves in suffering his twelfth defeat of 2008-09.

At the other end of the ice, Marc-Olivier Vachon (2), Yannick Riendeau, and Dany Masse all tallied markers for Drummondville in what was hard-fought road win, while Antoine Tardif stopped 14 of the 17 shots sent his way in registering his 16th victory of the season.

The home team jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on Friday when veteran winger Ryan Sparling fed his fellow Cape Bretoner Michael Kirkpatrick a picture-perfect pass deep in Drummondville territory. The 18-year old centre promptly deposited the puck to the back of the Voltigeurs' net, earning his team-leading 21st goal of the season in the process.

Midway through the opening frame, superstar centre Chris DiDomenico doubled Saint John's lead, one-timing a high slap shot past Tardif following a successful face-off win by Sparling in the visitors' zone.

Two minutes later, the Voltigeurs produced their first goal of the night in transition, with Marc-Olivier Vachon finishing off a nice passing play by sliding a low shot across the Saint John goal line to pull the visitors to within one of the hosts.

Drummondville scored twice more in the latter stages of the first period, pulling ahead 3-2 as Friday's contest reached the twenty minute mark.

At the 3:46 mark of period number two, Drummondville winger Yannick Riendeau was awarded a penalty shot after being subtly impeded on a breakaway during a man-down situation for the visitors. The 20-year old made no mistake on his attempt, putting on a dazzling stick handling showcase prior to netting his 21st goal of the season to put his team up 4-2.

Eight minutes later, Saint John pulled back to within one of their opponents, as veteran winger Keven Charland banged home a rebound produced by an Alexei Dostoinov shot to tally his ninth marker of the 08-09 campaign, providing quantitative verification of what had been a highly-impressive shift for the recently-formed SKA line.

Robert Mayer came up with several stellar saves in the second half of the middle frame, keeping the Sea Dogs within immediate striking distance of their Central Division-dwelling adversaries as the evening's final intermission was arrived upon.

Regulation's final frame saw a decidedly defensive style being utilized at both ends of the ice, as the two talented squads combined for only 13 shots on goal during a gritty closing twenty minutes of play.

Despite registering some strong scoring chances in the late-going, Saint John was unable to produce the equalizer on Friday, with Drummondville still owning a one-goal lead as the final buzzer sounded at Harbour Station.

Up next for the Sea Dogs is a Saturday night showdown versus Victoriaville. The action gets underway at 7:00pm as Saint John looks to end their four-game losing streak with a strong performance against the Tigres.

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Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League Stories from December 5, 2008


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