Dogs' goalie stones Eagles in road win
Published Monday October 12th, 2009
Hockey Gelinas earns shutout in Saint John's eighth victory of season
SYDNEY, N.S. - Marc-Antoine Gelinas is taking advantage of his opportunity.
The 20-year-old netminder made 37 saves in the Saint John Sea Dogs' 4-0 win over the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles Sunday before 3,221 fans at Centre 200 in Sydney, N.S. It was Saint John's first shutout win of the season and the second of Gelinas' Quebec Major Junior Hockey League career.
Gelinas stopped 30 of 32 shots in Saturday night's 5-2 win over Cape Breton, marking the first time Saint John has started the same goalie in back-to-back games. Sunday's start made it three straight for Gelinas, who backstopped the Sea Dogs to a 5-3 win in Victoriaville on Oct. 4.
"I've had the chance to play (three) games in a row and I'm glad about having that chance,'' said Gelinas, 3-0 this season versus Cape Breton. "The guys did a good job in front of me, they scored enough goals and I did my job when I needed.''
Gelinas was especially sharp in the second period when the Screaming Eagles applied intense pressure.
"He was outstanding in the second period when we stopped playing for a while,'' Saint John head coach Gerard Gallant said. "We had an unbelievable start to the game and it was 4-0 (before the 11-minute mark of the first period) and then we had some penalty trouble and we stopped playing.''
The Sea Dogs improved to 5-1-1-0 on the road and 4-0 overall against the Screaming Eagles. Three of those victories have come at Centre 200, where Saint John posted a 4-3 triumph on Sept. 13, Gelinas' first win of the campaign. The Sea Dogs improved to 8-3-1-0, while Cape Breton fell to 5-4-1-1.
"It was a great weekend, there's no doubt,'' Gallant said. "But it was disappointing to watch the way we played in that second period, and it all starts with discipline.
"Maybe the guys were confused with some of the calls, but we have to keep playing. When you stop playing, you start playing in your zone and you start tripping guys and hauling guys down.
"You can't quit,'' continued the coach. "You look at the clock and you think it's going to be a blowout and you let the other team back in, and that's when Gelinas stood tall. There's no way this was a 4-0 game.''
Saint John took a 1-0 lead when defenceman Simon Despres scored a short-handed goal at 2:08 of the first period. The 18-year-old took possession of the puck at the Cape Breton blueline and cruised into the zone and beat Christopher Holden with a backhander on the short side. The Sea Dogs went up 2-0 on Stanislav Galiev's power-play goal at 6:07 of the opening session.
Thirty-seven seconds later, 16-year-old Jonathan Huberdeau scored a rebound goal for a 3-0 lead, prompting Cape Breton head coach Mario Durocher to pull Holden in favour of Melvin Day. Holden returned to the cage a couple of shifts later.
Just past the halfway mark of the period, Tomas Jurco wired a wrister off the post. The puck eventually squirted to Kevin Gagne at the left point and the Edmundston native fired it past Holden for a 4-0 lead at 10:52.
At the other end of the ice, Gelinas stopped eight shots in the first period, including two in close on 20-year-old Michael Stinziani. Cape Breton's Morgan Ellis was called for checking-from-behind with 1:40 left in the first stanza, but the best scoring chance came when Screaming Eagles centre Taylor MacDougall was stoned by Gelinas.
The Sea Dogs had 19 seconds left in the power play at the start of the second period, but they failed to capitalize. A few minutes later, Saint John was called for too many men on the ice, giving Cape Breton a chance to gain some momentum.
But the hosts failed to generate any serious offensive threats in their attempt to get back into the game. Things got worse for Cape Breton when Stephen Horyl missed an open net. Shortly after that golden opportunity, the Screaming Eagles went back on the power play, but their man-advantage miseries continued.
With a little less than eight minutes left in the middle session, Gelinas made another fine stop on Stinziani, who was robbed on a rebound attempt as the Saint John netminder slid across the crease and stacked the pads. That was one of many scoring chances in the second period for Cape Breton, which held a 22-8 shots edge to lead 30-26 overall in that category through 40 minutes.
Gelinas was called for delay of game at 5:32 of the third period, but the Screaming Eagles' power play continued to stutter. Saint John forward Nicolas Pard was called for hooking at 11:12 of the final frame, but the Sea Dogs' penalty-killing unit came through and kept Cape Breton scoreless again, one of nine power-play opportunities.
In Saturday's 5-2 win, Steven Anthony and Nathan Beaulieu each had a goal and an assist for Saint John, which held period leads of 2-0 and 3-2. Olivier Ouellet, Jurco and Nick Petersen also scored for the Sea Dogs, who went 1-for-4 on the power play and held a 42-32 shots edge.
Viktor Hertzberg and Nick MacNeil replied for Cape Breton. Luke Adam assisted on both goals for the Screaming Eagles, who went 1-for-5 on the power play.
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AT HOME: Cape Breton netminder Olivier Roy missed Sunday's game due to the death of his grandmother. The 18-year-old Edmonton Oilers' prospect stopped 37 of 42 shots in Saint John's 5-2 win Saturday night.
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ON THE ICE: Twenty-year-old Sea Dogs forward Mike Hoffman skated in Sunday's warm-up. The Ottawa Senators' prospect suffered a hairline fracture to his left foot on Sept. 23 and hasn't played since. He's hoping to be in the lineup when Saint John hosts Moncton next Saturday.
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WELCOME BACK: Fredericton's Mike Thomas wore an 'A' in Sunday's contest, the first time the 19-year-old has played since Sept. 23. The 19-year-old winger had been serving a six-game suspension for being the aggressor in a fight.
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