SUBWAY GAME RECAP: Mateiko Nets Hat Trick in Win Over Val-d’Or
Pavel Simek scored the game-winning goal with 2:30 left in regulation and added three assists to Saint John Sea Dogs (17-27-1-1) to a 5-4 win over the Val-d’Or Foreurs (19-27-2-0) on Wednesday night.
Eriks Mateiko had a stellar night for the Sea Dogs, scoring his first career QMJHL hat trick while Noah Reinhart scored one and Danny Akkouche added a pair of assists.
David Doucet and Thomas Larouche each had a goal and an assist for the Foreurs.
Ventsislav Shingarov made 31 saves to get the win for Saint John while William Blackburn stopped 24 shots in net for Val-d’Or.
William Provost almost put Val-d’Or up just over a minute in, as a point shot was deflected high up in the air that Provost got a stick on, but Shingarov got a piece of the puck and kept it out.
The Sea Dogs got on the board on the powerplay a few minutes later as Simek threaded a perfect pass from the faceoff dot to Mateiko in front who deflected the puck between his legs and under Blackburn for the 1-0 lead.
Three and a half minutes later, Louis Robin flew down the right wing for the Foreurs and centered the puck off a Sea Dogs defender and on to the stick of Nathan Brisson, but Brisson could not shovel the puck past Shingarov.
43 seconds later, Mateiko got the jump on a loose puck in the neutral zone, split two Foreurs defenders and sniped a shot over the shoulder of Blackburn into the top right corner for his second of the period and a 2-0 Sea Dogs lead.
Saint John almost added to their lead late on an extended 5-on-3, peppering Blackburn with high danger shots, but the Val-d’Or netminder kept them all out including a pair of great pad stops on Alex Drover and Cole Burbidge.
Shots in the first period were 16-12 for the Sea Dogs.
The Sea Dogs added to their lead 6:36 into the second period, again on the power play, as Nicolas Bilodeau fired a point shot that Noah Reinhart tipped past Blackburn to make it 3-0.
Just 1:11 afterwards, Val-d’Or finally responded as Vincent N. Fredette skated through all five Sea Dogs on the ice and put a shot under the glove of Shingarov to cut the lead to 3-1.
A little over three minutes later, the Foreurs on the power play this time, Robin fed Provost at the point who fired a hard slapshot that Doucet tipped past Shingarov to make it 3-2.
With 44 seconds left in the second, Mateiko cleaned up the rebound off a point shot from Akkouche for his first career QMJHL hat trick, giving the Sea Dogs a 4-2 cushion heading into the third.
Shots after the second were 26-23 for the Foreurs.
Val-d’Or pulled within one again just 2:25 into the third as Nathan Drapeau’s point shot was deflected in traffic and floated up and over Shingarov to make it 4-3.
The Foreurs continued to create traffic in front of the Sea Dogs net and four minutes later another point shot, this time from Larouche, found its way through the chaos and into the net to tie the game at 4-4.
With 2:30 left to play Nate Tivey made a long stretch pass to spring Simek for a breakaway who made a great move to put the game-winning goal past Blackburn to make it 5-4.
Final shots in the game were 36-29 for Val-d’Or.
Alpine 3 Stars
1 Eriks Mateiko (3G)
2 Thomas Larouche (1G 1A)
3 Pavel Simek (1G 3A)
The Sea Dogs continue their Quebec road trip tomorrow night against the Royun-Noranda Huskies. Puck drop is 8 PM AST and you can listen to the game on Sea Dogs Radio presented by TD at CFBC 930 AM or watch at watch.chl.ca.
February 17-20 head to TD Station for the One for All Festival presented by TD: three games and three tribute performances, capturing the spirit of the 2022 Memorial Cup’s One for All theme. Read more about the festival here and grab your tickets at the TD Station Box Office or online here: Elton John Tribute, Tina Turner Tribute, Lady Gaga Tribute.
