CHAMPIONS!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
GATINEAU, Que. – In an arena where eight championship banners hang, the Saint John Sea Dogs captured the team’s first President’s Cup.
In just their sixth year of existence, the Sea Dogs accomplished the feat against the most decorated franchise in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, defeating the seven-time league champs and one-time national champs 3-2 in double overtime at the Robert Guertin Arena Sunday.
Alexandre Beauregard scored the winner as Saint John clinched the best-of-seven series in six games, and advances to the MasterCard Memorial Cup in Mississauga, Ont., from May 20 to 29, where they will attempt to become the ninth QMJHL team to win the national championship.
Stanislav Galiev and Jonathan Huberdeau also scored for Saint John and Jacob DeSerres made 34 saves for the win. Philip-Michael Devos and Adam Janosik scored for Gatineau and Maxime Clermont turned away 52 shots in the loss.
Click HERE http://en.lhjmq.qc.ca/schedule/show/game/58599 for a complete score sheet from Sunday’s matchup.
Galiev opened the scoring at 4:12 of the first period. Jonathan Huberdeau set him up in front with a great pass from behind the net and Galiev roofed it. The puck went in and out and the red light did not go on, so Huberdeau deposited the rebound into the open cage for good measure. Video review confirmed Galiev’s initial shot was in.
Gatineau’s Cody Linteau had a great rebound chance in the eighth minute with DeSerres down in the splits, but the goalie was able to slide across and make an incredible left pad save. The Olympiques did break through at 11:12 when Devos knocked in a rebound on a goalmouth scramble.
With just over a minute to go in the first, Ryan Tesink set Danick Gauthier up with a pass from the right wing into the slot, but Clermont stopped his deke to the backhand to keep the first frame even, despite a 19-7 shots advantage for Saint John.
At 3:20 of the second period, 16-year-old Sea Dogs rookie Devon Oliver-Dares dropped the gloves with Mathieu Talbot in just his fifth QMJHL game and first since Sept. 19. Penalties on both sides led to a 4-on-3 power lay for the Dogs just over a minute later, and Sea Dogs coach Gerard Gallant called a timeout to set up for the man advantage. It was Gatineau, however, that got the best chance, when Jean-Gabriel Pageau got a short-handed breakaway that DeSerres denied in the sixth minute of the second. DeSerres made another great save with the right pad save on a Tye McGinn wraparound attempt in the 12th minute.
The early part of the third period was an up-and-down affair with both teams misfiring on chances and struggling desperately to clear pucks out of their zone. The Dogs had a great chance when Huberdeau fed a trailing Eric Gelinas off the rush at 10:15, but Clermont swallowed up his one-timer. After Gatineau stopped a Sea Dogs rush in the 15th minute of the third, the Olympiques came back the other way. Devos fed Janosik jumping into the play and his wrist shot beat DeSerres to make it 2-1 at 14:38.
It came down to the final minute of regulation and, having already used his timeout, Gallant switched goaltenders to Mathieu Corbeil to gain just those extra few breaths for his top skaters. Michael Kirkpatrick won a faceoff outside the offensive blueline and Corbeil headed to the bench for the extra attacker. The Sea Dogs maintained sustained pressure in the zone, Galiev got it to Huberdeau at Clermont’s left and he beat the goaltender to tie it up.
In the first extra frame, Lafontaine had the first dangerous chance, getting the puck with some time to left of DeSerres, but the goalie came out to make the stop and held on for a faceoff. Huberdeau had a chance at the other end in the eighth minute of the first OT, corralling Beaulieu’s low shot in front, but he couldn’t bury it. Gatineau gave the Dogs a scare about nine minutes in when, after a Philippe Halley rush down the left wing, Nicolas Deslauriers swatted at a rebound that bounced up and off the top of the net.
Saint John had a glorious opportunity late in the first OT when Mike Thomas knocked the puck away from Hubert Labrie at the left point to create a breakaway chance. Labrie was called for interference with 5:06 left in OT as he stopped the Saint John captain from skating loose, but Gatineau came up big on the penalty kill. Kirkpatrick had another chance late in the first OT when he batted a fluttering puck out of the air but Clermont held on, spurring chants of his name at the Guertin with 1:19 to go.
Thomas fed Jurco in close in the third minute of double OT with a laser of a cross-crease pass from the right wing, but Clermont stuck out the right pad to knock the Slovakian’s shot away. Kirkpatrick, Huberdeau and Galiev had a great shift in the fourth minute with Pierre Durepos and Simon Despres on the points, buzzing around the net with sustained pressure, but they couldn’t get a clean shot past Clermont. The unit was all over Gatineau again on their next shift, when Durepos snuck in from the left point to take a cross-ice feed from Kirkpatrick, but Clermont stacked the pads to rob him on the on-timer, Saint John’s 53rd shot of the night.
The Sea Dogs appeared to get their second power play of overtime 9:16 into the second extra frame when Deslauriers shot the puck over the glass for a delay of game call. The penalty was called, Deslauriers sent to the box and the time put up on the score clock. Then the four officials got together for a discussion as the crowd booed mercilessly, then in a bizarre twist, the referees un-called the penalty.
It didn’t matter though, as Beauregard fired a shot from the left wing that beat Clermont high to the glove side and clinched the championship at 15:45 of double overtime.
