The Wildcats took an early penalty to start the game, but got a fortunate break as Shingarov misplayed the puck right to Taibel for an unassisted, short-handed goal to make it 1-0 Moncton just 42 seconds in.

The Sea Dogs responded six minutes later as a dumped-in puck hopped over a Wildcat defender’s stick and onto the stick of Peter Reynolds who set up Élie and he fired a wrist shot past Filion to tie the game 1-1.

Alexis Daniel almost regained the lead for the Wildcats with under four minutes left in the period as he was sprung on a breakaway only for Shingarov to slam the door shut, leaving the two teams tied 1-1 after 20 minutes.

Shots after the first period were 10-6 for the Wildcats.

26 seconds into the second, former Sea Dog Connor Trenholm maneuvered his way through three Saint John skaters to get a close shot on Shingarov but could not find the back of the net.

Preston Lounsbury skated in on a breakaway four minutes afterwards but Shingarov got just enough to keep it from crossing the line.

The Sea Dogs then mounted some pressure on the power play, with the best chance coming from Nicolas Bilodeau setting up Brady Burns for a one-timer from the right faceoff dot, but Filion got across to make the save and cover the rebound before any of the multiple Sea Dogs in front could get to it.

Daniel had another great chance for Moncton just over the halfway point of the second, receiving the puck with speed in the slot, deking past a Sea Dogs defender, but his shot again could not find an opening past Shingarov.

Five minutes later Etienne Morin made a great rush up the ice, split the Saint John defense but was also denied by a great pad save by Shingarov.

The Sea Dogs caught the Wildcats back the other way in transition on a 2-on-1 and Burns set up Reinhart who made no mistake putting the puck by Filion, giving the Sea Dogs a 2-1 lead heading into the third.

Shots after the second were 26-15 for Moncton.

The Wildcats tied the game 5:42 into the third as a Sea Dogs clearing attempt took a weird bounce right to Loshing who put a cross-ice pass to a wise open Vincent Labelle who fired it past Shingarov to make it 2-2.

With eight minutes to play, Élie won a foot race to a puck just inside the Moncton zone and managed to get a quality shot off, but he put it just to the left of the goal.

With 5:02 left, Ianniello took a sharp angle shot from the left corner that snuck its way past Filion to give the Sea Dogs the 3-2 lead.

The Wildcats would put a flurry of shots on in the dying seconds but ran out of time and 3-2 would stand as the final score.

Final shots were 35-24 for Moncton.

Alpine 3 Stars

1 Vincent Labelle (1G)

2 Jonas Taibel (1G)

3 Peter Reynolds (1A)

Full Stats

The Sea Dogs are on the road again Saturday, February 25th for the first of back-to-back games with the Cape Breton Eagles. Puck drop is at 7 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.

The Sea Dogs only have five more home games left this season so be sure to redeem your flex vouchers while they’re still valid at the TD Station box office!