Sea Dogs have one more stop on comeback journey
The Saint John Sea Dogs are a win away from claiming the 2022 Memorial Cup, which is an impressive accomplishment for a team that sat idle for more than a month waiting for the start of the tournament.
The Sea Dogs booked their spot in the final with a 5-3 come-frombehind win against the Shawinigan Cataractes at Harbour Station arena on Saturday. New York Islanders prospect William Dufour — the QMJHL player of the year — scored four goals, including a natural hat-trick inside of seven minutes in the second period.
The Sea Dogs will face the winner of the semifinal between the Cataractes and Hamilton Bulldogs on Monday. The final takes place Wednesday.
“At the beginning of the tournament, I didn't want to have any regrets and I knew before this game I would have only two or three games left in my junior career,” Dufour said. “Now, I just have one game left, so I wanted to give everything I have and I'm going to do the same thing on Wednesday.”
Saint John finished third in the QMJHL Eastern Conference standings with a 47-17-1-3 record, but fell in the first round of the playoffs to the Rimouski Oceanic.
Due to the season being disrupted by the pandemic, the playoffs in the QMJHL were best-of-five series up until the final, and the Sea Dogs lost Game 5 at home 4-3 in overtime.
After being eliminated, Saint John fired head coach Gordie Dwyer and brought in University of New Brunswick legend Gardiner Macdougall to run the team at the Memorial Cup. In 22 years at UNB, Macdougall has won seven national championships.
Now, Macdougall is a win away from adding a Memorial Cup championship to all his university accolades.
“I remember when I was a young coach in Flin Flon (Man.) and we retired Bobby Clarke's jersey, we retired Reggie Leach's jersey and Bobby Clarke was the general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers at the time,” Macdougall said. “In the wee hours of the morning at the historic Flin Flon hotel, I had a chance to ask Bobby Clarke about Mike Keenan. He had won in university, he won at the American Hockey League, took the Flyers to a division final and then the Stanley Cup Finals and he told me, `He hasn't done anything yet.'
“So, I've used that as a bit of a motto as a coach. We're in a bottom-line business. This (Saturday) was history for the city, the Sea Dogs and the players, but we're fortunate, we have time to regroup, and we have to find ways to get better the next three days, because we know we have a top-quality opponent.”
There were questions whether the Sea Dogs would be competitive at the Memorial Cup against the WHL champion Edmonton Oil Kings, OHL champion Bulldogs and QMJHL champion Cataractes.
The Sea Dogs had 38 days from the time they were eliminated and their opening game in the Memorial Cup tournament.
Along with Macdougall, the Sea Dogs brought in former NHL heavyweight Rocky Thompson as an adviser. Thompson was coach of the Windsor Spitfires in 2016-17 and went through a similar experience, getting knocked out of the first round of the OHL playoffs as Memorial Cup hosts. The Spitfires then went on to win the Memorial Cup tournament.
“He's been an excellent resource for us,” Macdougall said earlier in the tournament. “He's been through this before.”
The Sea Dogs training camp approach to prepare for the tournament has worked. The Sea Dogs opened with a 5-3 win against the Bulldogs, then were edged out 4-3 in overtime by the Oil Kings before defeating the Cataractes. Saint John finished first in the round robin and now have three days to prepare for the final.
Against the Cataractes, the Sea Dogs fell behind 3-0 in the first period but Dufour took over, starting with two goals in 21 seconds to pull his team back to within a goal.
The Islanders' fifth-round pick in the 2020 NHL entry draft then completed his hat trick, driving to the net and finishing off his own rebound.