By: Jeremy Fraser

  A third period comeback attempt by the Screaming Eagles came up short as the Saint John Sea Dogs hung on to beat Cape Breton 4-3 on Friday night at Centre 200.

  Sea Dogs left winger Scott Oke led the charge for the defending Memorial Cup champions as he netted a pair of goals in the win for Saint John who improve to 27-6-2-1 on the season. Kevin Gagné and Zack Phillips also found the back of the net for the Sea Dogs. Logan Shaw replied for two goals of his own for the Screaming Eagles who fall to 14-21-0-1 on the season. William Carrier scored the Screaming Eagles only other goal in the game.

  Saint John got on the board first in the contest as Scott Oke’s shot deflected off Screaming Eagles defensemen Connor Rogers’ skate and in, the goal was Oke’s eighth of the season on the powerplay at 3:30 of the opening period, Pierre Durepos and Danick Gauthier were given the assists. The Sea Dogs would take a 2-0 lead at the 4:13 mark of the first period as Kevin Gagné found the back of the net on a point shot beating Screaming Eagles goaltender Philippe Trudeau, Jason Cameron and Oliver Cooper added the helpers on the goal.

  In the second period, Zack Phillips gave the Sea Dogs a 3-0 lead on a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play on the powerplay at 7:11 of the period, Danick Gauthier & Stephen MacAulay were given credit for the assists on the powerplay marker. Saint John went up 4-0 at the 8:29 mark of the middle frame as Scott Oke scored his second goal of the game (ninth of the season) beating Trudeau on the blocker side, Stephen Anderson picked up the lone assist on the goal.

  In the third period, William Carrier cut the Sea Dogs lead to three as he fired home his 12th goal of the season beating Saint John goaltender Mathieu Corbiel-Theriault on the glove side at 2:40 of the period, Jonathan Brunelle and Morgan Ellis added the helpers. Glace Bay’s Logan Shaw cut the Sea Dogs lead in half as his broke through two Sea Dogs defensemen and fired a backhander that fooled Corbiel-Theriault on the blocker side at 3:07, the goal was Shaw’s 12th of the season, Denis Kindl and Dany Potvin recorded the assists. Shaw would then pull Cape Breton to within one as he scored his second goal of the game (13th of the season) shorthanded at the 8:05 mark of the period, the goal was unassisted. Cape Breton did have a number of chances late in the period to tie the game however could not find the back of the net.

  Mathieu Corbiel-Theriault made 28 saves in the win for Saint John, his record improves to 21-6-0-0 while Philippe Trudeau turned aside 22 of 26 shots in the loss for Cape Breton, his record falls to 7-10-0-1.

  The Screaming Eagles next game is Sunday (December 18th) as they host Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin and the Halifax Mooseheads in round four of the “battle of Nova Scotia”. Game time is scheduled for 4:00pm at Centre 200.

Friday night game notes:

Not in the lineup for Cape Breton: Stephen Woodworth, Kyle Farrell, Jean-Simon Deslauriers and Raman Hrakarenka (Attending world junior Division 1 championship with team Belarus)

Not in the lineup for Saint John: Forwards, Jonathan Huberdeau (world juniors, team Canada), Devon Oliver-Dares (hurt), Tomas Jurco (world juniors, team Slovakia), Ryan Tesink (hurt) and Stanislav Galiev (wrist injury) along with defensemen Nathan Beaulieu (world juniors, team Canada)

Warm-up: The Cape Breton Screaming Eagles used special RBK 1-piece sticks during the warm-up that were raffled off following the game in support of the YMCA Strong Kids program.

Pre-game: Cape Breton Regional Police Cheif Peter MacIssac along with YMCA Strong Kids Campaign Chair Danielle Campbell dropped the ceremonial puck.

First QMJHL game: Screaming Eagles defensemen Billy Hartley played his first career Quebec Major Junior Hockey League game on Friday night, he was a +2 in the game. Hartley was called up by the Screaming Eagles on Wednesday. Before the call up Hartley was playing with the Yarmouth Junior ‘A’ Mariners of the Maritime Junior Hockey League.

Fight: There was one fight in the game. William Cochrane (Cape Breton) Vs. Denis Creighton (Saint John).

Final shots on goal: 31-26 infavor of Cape Breton.

Cape Breton went 0/2 on the powerplay while Saint John went 2/5.

Dickies hardest working player of the game went to Logan Shaw.

Three Stars:

1st – (SNB) – Scott Oke (2g, 2pts)
2nd – (CAP) – Logan Shaw (2g, 2pts)
3rd – (CAP) – William Carrier (1g, 1pt)

Attendance at Centre 200 on Friday night – 2,910