Host Sea Dogs take first bite at Memorial Cup

SAINT JOHN 5,

It was dog eat dog in the opening game of the 2022 Memorial Cup.

The host Saint John Sea Dogs, coming off a 38-day layoff, took a bite out of the OHL champion Hamilton Bulldogs with a 5-3 win at TD Station arena Monday.

Ryan Francis had two goals, and Yan Kuznetsov, William Dufour and Peter Reynolds also scored for the Sea Dogs, while goaltender Nikolas Hurtubise made 17 saves.

Ryan Winterton scored two goals and Avery Hayes had the other for the Bulldogs, who had a 22-game winning streak heading into the OHL final, but have since lost four of their past eight games. Goaltender Marco Costantini made 30 saves.

The Edmonton Oil Kings and Shawinigan Cataractes play the second game of the round robin (4 p.m., TSN) on Tuesday.

“We came into the game knowing we were going to be fresher,” said Sea Dogs forward Philippe Daoust, who had three assists. “They've had a long playoff run and the support of all our fans gave us a lot of energy and it was amazing out there.”

The Sea Dogs had not played since being eliminated in the opening round of the QMJHL playoffs by the Rimouski Oceanic on May 12, losing Game 5 of the best-of-five series in overtime.

The early exit prompted a coaching change as Gordie Dwyer was fired and replaced by University of New Brunswick coaching legend Gardiner Macdougall and former NHL heavyweight Rocky Thompson. Macdougall has run the men's hockey team at UNB for the past 22 years, winning seven national championships in the process. He temporarily left the program to help the Sea Dogs and had his new team buzzing in the first period.

“The guys were excited to play,” Macdougall said. “If you look at the building tonight, it was a great atmosphere. I think any time you're the hosts, you want to build momentum in this tournament and I think the crowd was like a seventh man for us tonight.

“You can't script it any better than scoring the first goal. It was an exciting night for our group.”

Kuznetsov opened the scoring 2:17 into the game as his point shot hit a leg in front and bounced in past Costantini. Winterton tied it 1-1 on the power play at 8:43. He was left alone in the slot and muscled a shot through Hurtubise.

Francis restored the lead for the Sea Dogs with 3:29 left in the period. Costantini had stopped Daoust from in tight, but believed the puck had squirted past him and knocked it loose from under his pads sliding around. Raivis Kristians Ansons collected the puck and lifted backhand shot into the net, which hit the stick of linemate Francis heading in. Kristians Ansons was originally awarded the goal, but it was later changed.

“We felt good,” Kristians Ansons said. “We felt that the game was in our hands and we were able to take over for a little bit. It was a really good start for us; we scored the first goal early and the second period was really good for us as well. In the next games, though, we have to try and play the third period as good as we played the first and second.”

Dufour made it 3-1 just under 11 minutes into the second period. He took a pass in tight from Daoust from behind the net, and roofed a shot over the shoulder of Costantini.

The Sea Dogs were able to maintain their two-goal advantage due to an outstanding save by Hurtubise. Saint John was caught on a line change and Ethan Sims was sent off on a breakaway with Hayes. Sims slid the puck over to Hayes, who one-timed his shot, but Hurtubise was able to get across his net and made an outstanding pad save.

“I had just got back to the bench and I looked back and saw they had a breakaway,” Daoust said. “When he passed it across, I thought it was going to be bad for us, but Hurtsie made a great save and that was really big for us and we were all excited on the bench.”