Sea Dogs Sink The Attack In Overtime

Mississauga, ONT – Jonathan Huberdeau was the overtime hero for the Saint John Sea Dogs, as they defeated the Owen Sound Attack 3-2 in game four of the 2011 MasterCard Memorial Cup on Monday night.

With the win, the Sea Dogs move to 2-0 in round robin play, while the Attack fall to 1-1.

“They’re a great team,” said Attack goalie Jordan Binnington.  “They know how to use their skill and find each other on the ice so you have to be aware that the puck can go anywhere.”

Tomas Jurco was the leading scorer for Saint John in the game with a goal and an assist.  He also made some of the defenders look silly, with countless amazing dekes to avoid them.

“He’s a really skilled guy and is a fast player,” said defenseman Matt Petgrave.  “It’s tough especially as a defenseman to defend him.”

The Attack started well as Matt Petgrave’s shot from the side boards deflected off of defenseman Gabriel Bourret’s stick and between the legs of Jacob De Serres.

Bourret continued his unlucky play later in the period, taking a hooking penalty as he couldn’t handle captain Garrett Wilson’s speed to the outside.

The Attack didn’t take long to capitalize, as a shot from Michael Halmo at the point was tipped in front by Andrew Shaw, bringing the puck back across his body and by the outstretched pad of De Serres for the 2-0 lead.

The chippiness picked up near the end of the first after a huge save by De Serres on Michael Halmo with 11 seconds left keeping the game at 2-0.  Halmo then jumped on De Serres, starting a huge scrum with the only penalty going to Sea Dogs’ Simon Despres.

The Sea Dogs managed to kill this off, and after a penalty to Cameron Brace, Jurco continued to impress, as he made a great pass to Stanislav Galiev in front, who – on his off-hand – roofed it over the glove of Binnington, cutting the lead to 2-1.

Saint John continued to press towards the end of the period, but Binnington, with some help from his goal post, managed to keep them from scoring and give his team a lead heading into the third.

The Sea Dogs’ persistency finally paid off with 3:27 left in the game, as Jurco was able to pull the puck out from behind the net, flicking it into the upper half behind Binnington, ultimately sending the game to overtime.

Despres said that they were confident heading into the second intermission that they would come back in the game.

“We’ve been down before during the season,” he said.  “We knew what we had to do, just to push the pace and play a little more risky.  It worked out for us today.”

After a back-and-forth overtime frame, it was Huberdeau who made no mistake, taking a pass in the slot and putting it up top over top of Binnington’s blocker in the final few minutes.

“I felt we deserved better,” said a deflated Binnington.  “But that team played well and their goalie kept them in the game.”

Final shots were 49 to 44 in favor of Owen Sound.