#1 Halifax vs #16 Saint John - Round 1 Preview

[reesor]

I'll toss this over here as well if you guys don't mind with a little less formatting than on the other board.

Halifax vs Saint John: Round 1 Preview

Mar 22	Saint John at Halifax 7:00 PM ADT
Mar 23	Saint John at Halifax 7:00 PM ADT
Mar 26	Halifax at Saint John 7:00 PM ADT
Mar 27	Halifax at Saint John 7:00 PM ADT
Mar 29*	Saint John at Halifax 7:00 PM ADT
Mar 31*	Halifax at Saint John 3:00 PM ADT
Apr 2*	Saint John at Halifax 7:00 PM ADT

Well the best regular season in Moose Country is over, and now it's time to get serious.  Round 1 sees the Sea Dogs roll into town to take on the Moose.  This is the first ever series between the 2 teams.  As far as franchises go, the only current franchises we have not played in a playoff series are PEI/Montreal, Sherbrooke, and Val d'Or.

Halifax:  58-6-3-1 119 Pts (1st in Maritimes Division, 1st Overall)

Saint John:  23-44-1-0 47 Pts (5th in Maritimes Division, 16th Overall)


Top Scorers:

Halifax:  Jonathan Drouin (49GP 41G 64A 105Pts), Marty Frk (56GP 39G 45A 84Pts), Darcy Ashley (66GP 26G 52A 78Pts)

Saint John:  Jacob Izacky (63GP 21G 17A 38Pts), Pierre Durepos (43GP 6G 25A 31Pts), Stephen Anderson (63GP 12G 15A 27Pts)

Halifax Team Stats: 

GF/Game:  5.10 (1st)
GA/Game:  2.59 (1st)
PP:  27.7% (2nd)
PK:  81.5% (4th)

Saint John Team Stats:

GF/Game:  2.54 (16th)
GA/Game:  3.99 (14th)
PP:  20.3% (12th)
PK:  75.3% (15th)


Goalies: 

Zach Fucale: 

Wins:  45 (1st)
SO:  2 (T7th)
GAA:  2.35 (2nd)
Sv%:  .909 (T3rd)

Sébastien Auger:

Wins:  22 (T11th)
SO:  0
GAA:  3.33 (11th)
Sv%:  .907 (5th)


Saint John Game Plan:

The game plan against the Moose will be the same for all teams that play them this playoff year.  You have to slow the game down.  Chip the puck in the Moose zone and forecheck hard to create turnovers.  Use your agitators like Saab and Villemaire to get in the Moose star's faces.  Frk has shown that he can be thrown off by this tactic, and until he proves otherwise, keep doing it.  Be careful of the scrums in front of the net.  The refs will be taking one person out of these scrums, and you don't want to give the Moose PP any more opportunities.

Auger has to be fantastic.  And he has been at points this season.  But he has to be the one to steal a game or 2 in this series.  If he is anything but spectacular, some games could get ugly.

Halifax Game Plan:

Halifax cannot be distracted by the tactics listed above.  They must remain focused, which can be tough when the world expects you to coast through this series.  They must maintain good habits and work ethic.  If games get to be blowouts, the can rest the top line.  But the work ethic should remain constant. 

Drouin - MacKinnon - Frk should be shown the video from their last 2 games, of them trying to make 8 passes before scoring a goal against the 16th and 18th place teams.  They have enough skill to go for quanitity of scoring chances rather than quality.  Get lots of shots on Auger and get traffic in front of the net.  Don't treat SJ any different than you'd treat Moncton.

Ciampini - Boudreau - Ashley have to embrace the playoff style.  Darcy Ashley is a playoff-type player, which is why I don't understand why he struggled last year.  But if Ciampini-Boudreau disappear, his points are going to suffer as well.  Ciampini and Boudreau have to start throwing hits to let the other team know they're there, even if it isn't their style.  Make SJ hesitant in their decisions by making them think they'll be hit each time they touch the puck.


My Take:

Halifax in 4.  This series won't be as ugly as Saint John vs Cape Breton a couple years ago, or Lewiston vs Drummondville a couple more years ago.  I actually think there will be a close game thrown in there because of Auger.  But Halifax should prevail by next Wednesday to give themselves 9 days of rest before the next round.  We can only hope that we get through round 1 injury free.  But there will be some bumps and bruises along the way.  I thought to myself:  "Do we start Clarke one game?".  Nope.  We have to maintain the "Playoff" mentality throughout, and the way you do that is by playing your best lineup every game.

Go Moose!

[porkchop]

Saint John has played the Moose pretty well this year, for a bad team........three 1 goal games, and a 2 goal game, including a win........it wouldn't surprise me, if SJ takes one, with Auger being the difference.........Fucale has brought his numbers up good though, late in the season, in meaningless games, against bottom feeders, so he might do ok... ..........the one loss will wake Halifax up, and they will go unbeaten the rest of the way through.

[DropThePuck]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Auger win one game for the puppies in this series. I'd love to see him win 4, but that's just crazy talk.

Go Dogs Go!

[DropThePuck]

Another key for the Dogs would be hit the Moose HARD....just listening to Tim Rozell and he claims that Villemaire and MacKinnon have a little history. I suspect you will see Villemaire in Wonderboy's face on a regular basis....now obviously the Moose have many weapons but if the Dogs can silence at least one or two of them, Auger could potentially take care of the rest and steal a game or two.....here's hoping anyway.

Go Dogs Go.

[reesor]

Mar 20, 2013 8:29:53 GMT -4 DropThePuck said:

Another key for the Dogs would be hit the Moose HARD....just listening to Tim Rozell and he claims that Villemaire and MacKinnon have a little history. I suspect you will see Villemaire in Wonderboy's face on a regular basis....now obviously the Moose have many weapons but if the Dogs can silence at least one or two of them, Auger could potentially take care of the rest and steal a game or two.....here's hoping anyway.

Go Dogs Go.

I hope they do that, because it'll be awesome practice for the Moose. Like a trial run to see how well our top line can ignore or brush off the gamesmanship of the opposition. You can bet teams like PEI, Val d'Or, Drummondville and Rouyn-Noranda will be taking notice of how well we do.

Go Tigres.

[porkchop]

I think once Halifax comes upon a team that will get more than 4 shots per period, their downfall will eventually be goaltending.

[reesor]

The thing about Fucale is he's better when teams get more shots on him. It was his knack of giving up 2 goals on 15 shots that was annoying. He's had plenty of fantastic performances this year when facing 30+ shots.

Barring a comeback by Rimouski (Which is still entirely possible), it's looking like we'll play Gatineau in round 2. Gatineau has been a thorn in our side in the playoffs. Swept away the 07-08 team in the semi-finals, and beat us at home in game 7 of the President's Cup final in 03 (Friggin Talbot). And with the job they're doing on Rimouski, Halifax is going to have to be on their toes. It won't be as easy of a series as it looks on paper. But Halifax has raised their level of play aginst tough competition all year.

At least they know what they're up against. They know Drouin/MacKinnon will be shadowed. So they'll have a week to prepare for it.

[porkchop]

Halifax will get an easy ride to the finals, because of a couple upsets.........Fucale won't have to be good until at least the semis...average will do.

Impressive series for Halifax, although it's what most expected.......the stat that sticks out to me is Frk with 8 points in the 1st game, and only 2 in the next 3.

[reesor]

Mar 28, 2013 9:40:03 GMT -4 porkchop said:

Halifax will get an easy ride to the finals, because of a couple upsets.........Fucale won't have to be good until at least the semis...average will do.

Impressive series for Halifax, although it's what most expected.......the stat that sticks out to me is Frk with 8 points in the 1st game, and only 2 in the next 3.

Except for our top line in game 1, our points were very spread out throughout the whole series. 11 forwards got at least 1 goal. Everyone except Alcalde, Lindsay and Hardie have at least one point (Even Fucale has one). Hopefully a different person steps up every night and gives us that scoring depth we've been talking about.

We're hopeful to have Falkenham back for game one next Friday night, so that will allow us to roll 4 lines that can score.