Hockey Saint John's eight consecutive wins longest streak in team's five-year history

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SCOTT BRIGGS
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL

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The Saint John Sea Dogs' dominance on the road continued with a 6-1 win over the Rimouski Oceanic in front of 3,156 fans on Sunday at the Rimouski Coliseum.

After allowing Patrick Delisle-Houde's power-play goal at 6:40 of the first period, Marc-Antoine Gelinas made 22 saves and the Sea Dogs' offence took care of the rest en route to their eighth straight win, a franchise record. Saint John's 10-2-1-0 road record is tops in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and it's a major reason the club leads the overall standings in the 18-team circuit.

"(Sunday's) game was one of the best of the year,'' Saint John head coach Gerard Gallant said. "It was a total team effort and we played a good team. We executed well in all three zones. We're very happy with the performance.''

Saint John forward Steven Anthony tied the tilt at 13:20 of the first period and the Sea Dogs took a 2-1 lead on Simon Despres' power-play tally just 1:23 later. Saint John went ahead 3-1 when Nick Petersen scored at the 17-minute mark of the opening stanza and the visitors took their two-goal lead into the intermission.

Petersen potted his second at 1:42 of the second period and Mike Hoffman found the mark on the power play at 8:26, giving the Sea Dogs a 5-1 lead they would hold through 40 minutes.

Despres' second power-play marker made it 6-1 at 8:38 of the final frame and the Port City squad cruised from there, winning the third of the three-game road trip through Quebec.

Hoffman and Michael Kirkpatrick each had three assists for Saint John, while Stanislav Galiev tallied two helpers for the winners. After Rimouski's first goal, Saint John's penalty-killing unit shut down five Oceanic power plays. Rimouski (8-8-3-0) brought the league's top power play (29.1 per cent) into Sunday's contest. The Sea Dogs went an impressive 3-for-8 on the power play.

"We simplified it,'' Gallant said about his team's man-advantage effectiveness.

"(Sea Dogs associate coach and director of hockey operations) Mike (Kelly) talked to the guys about getting more shots to the net, and we had better traffic.''

The Sea Dogs (16-4-1-0) return to action Wednesday at 7 p.m. against the Halifax Mooseheads at Harbour Station.

In Friday night's game in Baie-Comeau, Kirkpatrick tied the game with two seconds left in regulation and then scored the shootout winner in Saint John's 3-2 victory.

Sea Dogs forward Zack Phillips opened the scoring just before the 17-minute mark of the first period before second-period goals by Simon Olsson and Guillaume Goulet gave the Drakkar a 2-1 lead.

Hoffman, Jonathan Huberdeau and Tomas Jurco also scored for Saint John in the shootout. Sea Dogs netminder Karel St. Laurent made 26 regulation saves and then stopped 2-of-5 in the shootout. The road trip began with Thursday night's 3-1 win in Chicoutimi.

"We had a tough game in Baie-Comeau, but I thought Sunday the guys were re-energized,'' Gallant said. "We had some really good puck possession and guys were working hard.''