SUBWAY GAME RECAP: Sea Dogs Win 3-2 in Game 3
Ventsislav Shingarov made 44 saves and Brady Burns and Noah Reinhart each had a goal and an assist to lead the Saint John Sea Dogs to a huge 3-2 win over the Gatineau Olympiques in Game 3 of their QMJHL quarter-final series on Tuesday night.
Peter Reynolds added a pair of assists in the win to cut the Olympiques’ series lead to 2-1.
Olivier Nadeau led Gatineau with a goal and an assist in the game while Francesco Lapenna made 26 saves in the Olympiques net.
Just over two minutes into the first Alexis Cournoyer received the puck in the slot and made a nice move to shake a Gatineau defender for a point-blank shot only for Lapenna to come up with a huge glove save.
30 seconds after, Colin Ratt fed the puck from behind the Sea Dogs net to Haakon F. Hanelt in the slot, but Shingarov challenged the shot well and made the save.
Gatineau kept the pressure on, hemming the Sea Dogs in and eventually worked the puck to Antonin Verreault in the slot for an open chance, but Shingarov kicked the ensuing shot out with a left pad save.
The Olympiques made another strong rush just moments later and this time it was Samuel Savoie feeding a pass to a hard-charging Alexis Gendron, but Shingarov made another great read and got across to make the stop.
After fighting off a strong Gatineau powerplay, the Sea Dogs drew their own and capitalized as Burns fired a shot on from top of the left faceoff circle that Lapenna stopped Reinhart won the battle for the rebound and shoveled home the 1-0 goal for Saint John’s first lead of the series.
With just under three minutes left in the first, Savoie nearly connected with Gendron again on a great play off the rush, but this time it was broken up by a great defensive play from Nicolas Bilodeau, allowing the Sea Dogs to take the lead into the first intermission.
Shots after the first period were 16-14 for the Olympiques.
Gatineau got on the board 4:22 into the second with a powerplay goal of their own as Gendron finally found the back of the net, finishing off a tic-tac-toe play with Riley Kidney and Nadeau to tie it 1-1.
Sea Dogs almost had an answer just over the halfway mark of the second, breaking in on a 3-on-2 that saw Charlie DesRoches rocket a shot on the net only for Lapenna to flash the leather.
Just over two minutes later, Cole Burbidge won a puck battle in the corner of the Gatineau zone and hit Danny Akkouche with a pass in the slot that Akkouche ripped on the net, but Lapenna was again equal to the task.
The Olympiques answered with a glorious chance three and a half minutes later, coming in on a 3-on-1, only to make one too many passes and have the play broken up by a great defensive stop by DesRoches.
The two teams remained tied heading into the third.
Like the score, the shots after the second were also even at 23-23.
Nadeau came close to giving Gatineau the lead just 20 seconds into the third, getting the puck point blank in front only for his shot to be swallowed up by Shingarov.
Four minutes later, with the teams at 4-on-4, Pavel Simek took a great pad stop by Shingarov the other way for a 2-on-1 with Burns that he kept, shot, but could not beat Lapenna.
Saint John built off this with an ensuing forecheck, which led to Vince Élie winning a puck battle in the corner and centering it to Burbidge who put an off-balance shot just over the crossbar.
After killing off another heavy Gatineau powerplay, Burns put a sneaky shot through traffic off an offensive zone face-off that fooled Lepanna and found the back of the net, giving the Sea Dogs the lead with 8:36 to play.
Just 1:27 later, amidst some more 4-on-4 action, Nicolas Bilodeau made a great rush up the right wing, cut to the net, and roofed the puck past Lepanna to make it 3-1 Sea Dogs.
With just under three minutes to play, the puck popped out to Nadeau through a crowd, but he couldn’t jam it past a sprawling Shingarov.
The Olympiques pulled Lepanna shortly after, allowing them to take control with the extra man and work it to Luneau who let a bomb go from the point that Shingarov handled with another solid save.
28 seconds later, the man advantage proved too much for the Sea Dogs as Nadeau finally buried one to cut the lead to 3-2.
But that was as close as the Olympiques came as the Sea Dogs killed the clock to secure the 3-2 victory.
Final shots were 46-29 for Gatineau.
Alpine 3 Stars
1 Ventsislav Shingarov (44 saves)
2 Brady Burns (1G 1A)
3 Noah Reinhart (1G 1A)
Game 4 goes tomorrow night at TD Station. Puck drop is at 7 PM AST and you can get your tickets at the TD Station Box Office and online.
Game 5 will also be played at TD Station on Friday, April 7th at 7 PM AST. Tickets will be available shortly for this game.
The 50/50 pot for Game 4 is already growing, so be sure to purchase your tickets from anywhere in New Brunswick here.
