FLASHBACK FRIDAY: One Year Ago...

One year ago tonight, one of the most entertaining games of the 2009-10 season took place at the Moncton Coliseum.

The Moncton Wildacts held a 3-1 lead going into the second intermission against the Saint John Sea Dogs. The Sea Dogs have never had much luck in Moncton in terms of winning.

“We came in the room after the second period and no one was talking,” said Mike Hoffman to the Telegraph-Journal, via the SN post-game. “We were just thinking about what we had to do in the third period.

"All the boys were focused in the room and we went out there and dominated them in the third period. Coming back from 3-1 in Moncton isn't an easy thing to do.''

But Saint John did it, coming all the way back. Danick Gauthier scored early in the third and Yann Sauve tied it, eventually taking the match to a shootout. Mike Hoffman and Tomas Jurco scored in the breakaway challenge to pick up the extra point.

Probably the most memorable moment of the game came when Marco Cousineau made an unreal save in the dying moments to send the game to extra time.

Apparently, these are the highlights. For some bizarre reason, the goals are not in order.



And here is the shootout:




NOTES
- Nicola Riopel made his 2009-10 home debut for the Wildcats.
- Marco Cousineau made his Sea Dogs debut wearing red pads and a white mask.
- In the guess-how-many-jelly-beans-there-are contest, an incredible eight people had the winning amount.
- Mike Thomas was serving a suspension in this game. What a shock.

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Renewing a Rivalry

The worst part about the St. John’s Fog Devils departing for Montreal in 2008 was the realignment of the divisions.

It didn’t have a great affect on maritime based teams, but it did take away one of the Saint John Sea Dogs’ biggest rivals in the Lewiston MAINEiacs. Instead of playing six to eight games per season against each other, that total was shrunk to just two or three.

The two teams had created a nice rivalry over the three seasons they spent together in the Eastern Division. Although the Maineiacs were usually the better team – especially in 2006-07 when Lewiston won the President’s Cup – Saint John always put up an entertaining fight against the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s lone American team.

It wasn’t like the epic Saint John – Moncton rivalry from a year ago where both teams were serious contenders for the league title. This rivalry always seemed to revolve around one thing – fisticuffs.

According to HockeyFights.com, the Sea Dogs have dropped the gloves with the Maineiacs more than any other QMJHL team.

The following are some visual examples:

"That's what you get when you mess with the Maineiacs"



Notice Travis Fullerton in the first fight in this video:



One of our favourite fights:



No love for former Saint John fighting machine Brett Gallant in this video by the Lewiston broadcast crew. Also features current Sea Dogs Steven Anthony, Simon Despres, and Mike Thomas:



Danick Paquette was kind of a good fighter back in the day:

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Office Hockey

Some more amazing commercials from the past in today's Flashback Friday. Today, Alex Grant, Chris DiDomenico, and Splash (R.I.P.) make an appearance.



This ad makes us wonder: does anybody miss Splash at all? We don't.



Unreal pair of sneakers on DiDomenico.

Ed. Note: Each Friday, SN takes a look at a moment(s) in Sea Dogs history. In a continuing trend of random topics that make little sense to any current event, we look back at two the Office Hockey Chair-ity ads from the 2007-08 season.

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Four Goal Leads Aren't Always Safe

Ed. Note: Each Friday, SN takes a look at a moment(s) in Sea Dogs history. In a continuing trend of random topics that make little sense to any current event, we look back at two wins featuring four goal leads from the 2007-08 season.

Earlier this season, the Saint John Sea Dogs blew a 5-1 mid-second period lead to fall to the Drummondville Voltigeurs 7-6 in a shootout. Back during the 2007-2008 campaign, two memorable matches featured some whacky events surrounding four goal leads as well.

Back on October 27, 2007, the Sea Dogs climbed out of a 5-1 second period lead themselves. It was easily one of the most entertaining games ever played by the Sea Dogs (at the time). This game is also high on our list of the greatest Alex Grant moments in team history.

Just how remarkable was this game at the time? Just look at the Sea Dogs’ website game recap opening paragraph:

Harbour Station bore witness to an event fraught with awesomeness on Saturday night, as the Saint John Sea Dogs earned their tenth win of the season in amazingly dramatic fashion, erasing a four-goal deficit in handing the St. John's Fog Devils a 6-5 shootout loss.

Alexandre Leduc opened the scoring at 13:47 of the first period to give Saint John a 1-0 lead 20 minutes. But the Fog Devils would score five straight goals – including two from current Cape Breton Screaming Eagle Taylor MacDougall - in the opening 15:17 of the second period to take a 5-1 lead.

But then the Sea Dogs’ comeback began. From the Sea Dogs’ recap via Our Sports Central:

Scott Howes then pulled the Sea Dogs to within three of the Fog Devils' lead with 2:04 remaining in the middle frame, firing a shot that deflected off of a St. John's defenseman prior to finding the back of the net and earning the 20-year old winger his fourth tally of the season. Chris DiDomenico then scored on the power play with 24.3 seconds on the clock - unleashing a howitzer of a slap shot from the slot that put the home team right back in the game as the contest reached the forty minute mark.

The Sea Dogs moved to within one of the St. John's lead midway through the third period, as Alexandre Leduc notched a power play marker to make the score 5-4 with 11:06 remaining in regulation.

At the 17:03 mark of regulation's final frame the 3,590 fans in attendance at Harbour Station erupted into an unabashed frenzy as star defenseman Alex Grant led an odd-man rush into Fog Devils territory, beating Allen with a hard backhand shot to produce the equalizer and send Saturday's match into overtime.

The breakaway contest saw both teams failing to score in the opening round prior to T.J. Brennan and Chris DiDomenico exchanging goals in the second. After Travis Fullerton stymied Ryan Graham's attempt in the third round, the stage was set for the Sea Dogs to win the game as their third shooter took the ice - Alex Grant.

The Sea Dogs Captain did not disappoint on his scoring attempt, beating Allen with a nifty shot to earn the skate-off goal and complete the incredible comeback which had begun late in the second period.

"This was definitely a huge character-building win for our team," said the Sea Grant following the thrilling victory. "We didn't play our best game out there tonight, that's for sure, but we found a way to win and that's all that matters. Hopefully we can carry this momentum into Tuesday's game against Lewiston."

Grant = clutch.

On November 16, 2007 that same season, Saint John almost blew a four goal lead under bizarre circumstances.

The Sea Dogs held a 4-0 lead in Chicoutimi after two periods – but then the lights went out. A power outage at the George Vezina Centre caused the third period of the game to be moved to November 18.

But an offensive surge by the Sagueneens tied the game at 4-4 on the unexpected Sunday afternoon tilt, forcing overtime where Chris DiDomenico recorded his 20th of the season to give Saint John a 5-4 win. The worst part of having to play the Sunday game was the fact that the Rogers Sportsnet crew was in town for the ADT Canada-Russia Challenge which was played on the following day in Chicoutimi. Saint John’s epic collapse was then brought up on the nationally televised contest.

"It was definitely a strange set of circumstances, but we're very happy to be taking these two points home with us," said DiDomenico following the wacky road victory to the Sea Dogs’ website.

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: The Drakkar

The Baie-Comeau Drakkar are really, really bad.

After losing their first game of the year, the Drakkar pulled off a 3-1 victory over the Shawinigan Cataractes on September 12.

They haven’t won since.

Baie-Comeau has now lost an unreal 21 straight games. They are the owners of a 1-17-2-3 record which places them last in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League standings and seven points out of a tie for the last playoff spot.

The Drakkar return to the ice this Saturday in Lewiston where they could lose their 22nd second straight game – the same amount of games the Saint John Sea Dogs won consecutively last season. Just imagine going two months without winning a game.

On Saint John’s 22-game streak of pure awesomeness, the Drakkar gave the Sea Dogs not one, but two scares.

The first was on October 30, 2009 when Michael Kirkpatrick’s miracle goal off a faceoff with 3.6 seconds left at the Henry Leonard Centre tied the match. Kirkpatrick would then win the game in a shootout to give Saint John an unlikely 3-2 victory.

Move ahead a couple weeks to November 12, 2009, which is one year ago today (and the only reason this post makes any sense at all with regards to Flashback Friday), former Sea Dogs goaltending prospect Simon Giroux put on one of the sickest goaltending performances of the year.

Giroux, who was acquired by Saint John from the Drummondville Voltigeurs during the 2009 holiday trading period, allowed just three goals on 54 shots in the loss. His Drakkar team would fire just 19 shots – six of them being considered dangerous – on Sea Dogs netminder Karel St. Laurent.

Giroux’s performance saw him plastered in the Telegraph-Journal the next day sitting next to a trash can (which can be seen above).

Pierre Durepos scored his first career goal in the second period which would prove to be the winner as Saint John went on to win their 12th straight match 4-2. The crowd of 2,671 was, and still is, one of the lowest in franchise history.

Baie-Comeau would finish the 2009-10 season with a 21-40-4-3 record.

But despite all this, Sarah Connors spotted a Drakkar fan who was brave enough to wear his teams jersey to the Boston Bruins game last night.

Photo Credits: Telegraph-Journal, Sarah Connors

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: The Super Series

Just three days away from the opening game of the 2010 Subway Super Series, it’s time to take a look back at what was the 2008 version of the tournament which featured a stop in Saint John.

On November 19, 2008, Harbour Station played host to Game Two of the ADT Canada-Russia Challenge – now called the Subway Super Series. The game was seen coast-to-coast on Rogers Sportsnet and RDS just as this Monday’s Super Series will be from Harbour Station.

According to Wikipedia, the Canadian Hockey League has a 36-4-2 all-time record against the Russian juniors in this event and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League all-stars have a 9-3-2 record. The Ontario Hockey League has never lost a game.

In front of a capacity crowd of 6,451 fans at a rocking Harbour Station, the Russian team defeated the QMJHL all-stars 4-3 to pick up a rare victory over the Canadians.

Andrey Marygin opened the scoring at 14:21 of the first. Team QMJHL got rolling at 1:18 of the second when Maxime Sauve scored. But the Russians would take the lead back at 3:05 with a shorthanded goal and then a two goal lead at 6:46. But Luke Adam, who made his NHL debut a few days ago with the Buffalo Sabres, put the ‘Q’ all-stars back within a goal at 8:20.

In the final frame, the visitors took a two goal lead again at 16:01. The Canadians would respond nine seconds later but it wouldn’t be enough as the Russians went on to victory by score of 4-3.

Here are the highlights:




NOTES

• Just like in 2008, Rogers Sportsnet’s broadcasting crew is expected to involve Rob Faulds and Sam Cosentino.
• Four Sea Dogs played in the game for Team QMJHL: defensemen Alex Grant, Yann Sauve, and Simon Despres and forward Steven Anthony replaced the injured Chris DiDomenico. On Monday, four Sea Dogs will once again play for their league while Stanislav Galiev will suit up for Russia.
• Mike Hoffman played in the game as a Drummondville Voltigeur. He was traded to Saint John in the off-season.
• Alex Grant was named the player-of-the-game for Team QMJHL. The Pittsburgh Penguins prospect will be an honourary captain on Monday night. He had an assist in the game.
• To view the official game sheet, click HERE.

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: The Sea Dogs Painting

We stumbled across a gem on YouTube today.

As you can see in the video, the Saint John Sea Dogs were featured in some kind of infomercial awhile back for the special CHL paintings that were sold at every rink a couple of years ago. It looks like it was photoshoped in so every team probably had a video feature at one point.

The guy (and the dog) in the video are certainly not the Shamwow guy as far as salesman go.

This looks like a commercial that is played during a telethon on PBS.




Max is a beast. What a lucky dog.

(Ed. Note:‘Flashback Fridays’ is a weekly feature here on SN. Each week, we look back at an event that went down over the past six years in Sea Dogs history. Send any suggestions to stationnation@yahoo.ca.)