2012 MasterCard Memorial Cup: Sea Dogs set to face elements, Edmonton

SHAWINIGAN, Que. — The wisps of fog snaked around players' legs as the final minutes ticked down Sunday night at the MasterCard Memorial Cup.

It was a clear sign the ice at Centre Bionest is bad. The Canadian Hockey League airlifted Mike Craig, son of NHL ice-making guru Dan Craig, into town on Sunday to try to cool the building as temperatures rose above 30 C (86 F) in the Mauricie Region.

One method is taping cardboard over all windows to block out sunlight. All but one entrance is sealed off during the day to limit letting in the humidity. Plastic wrap was also placed over all entrances to the seats to try to trap in the arena's coolness.

Call the ice a drawback. Call it a reality of a sport where it's verboten to even think of shortening the season — Shawinigan Cataractes defenceman Brandon Gormley surely spoke for the vast majority when he said, "this is the time of year when you want to be playing" when asked if he wouldn't rather play the Memorial Cup a month sooner on surer ice — but the ice is what it is.

The cliché that the puck bounces on both teams is just a dodge. A torn-up or wet playing surface can mean much more to one football team than another, depending on its style of play. The same has to be true in hockey. The slick, skilled Sea Dogs had trouble adapting to the elements in their opening 5-3 loss to London, which exacerbated the frustration of trying to break down London's tight defence. The defending champions hope they'll be out of their funk as they go into the fog tonight vs. the Edmonton Oil Kings (7 p.m. ET/5 p.m. MT, BTN livechat, Sportsnet/TVA Sports/NHL Network USA).

"It's 30 degrees outside and any time you try to play a hockey game on ice like that, it's tough," Sea Dogs coach Gerard Gallant said on Monday morning. "It's not just the ice here but it's the ice everywhere at this time of the year. It's been frustrating, especially for our skill guys. You just got to be strong and do the right things with the puck."

'No idea where it's going'

The Sea Dogs used their off-day to Sunday to try to adapt. They have played into May for three consecutive seasons but to a man, this ice is as questionable as any they faced during their playoff runs.

"You can't make those touch passes and you can't be as risky," said Montreal Canadiens first-rounder Nathan Beaulieu, who runs the first power play. "Everything has to be hard. You know those sauce passes aren't going to work so you have to work on getting pucks in deep, because pucks are bouncing everywhere. You can't pinch as much. You have to adapt.

"You have no idea where it's going. It's got to be direct passes, passes off the wall, everything's got to be hard."

Last season, the Sea Dogs went 3-0 on the road in the QMJHL final against the Gatineau Olympiques while playing in sauna-like conditions at ancient Centre Robert-Guertin. Beaulieu said that environment was a little like what Saint John is dealing with in Shawinigan.

"The ice was pretty good in Gatineau last year, but it's a little different," Beaulieu said. "That atmosphere was crazy. It was hot with a lot of people jammed into a small building. This building is a little more open so you feel a little more loose out there. It has its similarities but it's not the same."

Priority 1 for Saint John is a better power play. They went 1-for-5 vs. London and the goal came with their top-six forwards, including Charlie Coyle, Jonathan Huberdeau and Tomas Jurco, watching from the bench.

"Edmonton has got a good defence, they work hard, we have to get pucks in deep," centre Zack Phillips said. "It seemed like Shawinigan had success [against Edmonton] when they were getting a lot of pucks to the net and then they would have bodies there in front. We worked on that [Sunday] because that's something we didn't do well."

Much like Portland

The Oil Kings, fresh off a two-day break since shading Shawinigan 4-3 on Friday, feel like they already beat a Saint John-like squad to get here. They won a seven-game WHL final over the Portland Winterhawks, whose big guns Sven Bärtschi and Ty Rattie tallied 215 regular-season points and 67 in the post-season. That compares a little with Saint John. Edmonton's back four, the Mark Pysyk-Keegan Lowe and Martin Gernat-Griffin Reinhart pairings, will likely have to be at peak form.

"I would compare them more with Portland," Oil Kings coach Derek Laxdal said. "They're a high-octane team with a lot of skill, We're going to do the same thing we've done all year, focus on our group. We know Saint John has some tendencies but we're a pretty good hockey club and we're going to go and play our game."

Calgary Flames pick and Team Canada netminding aspirant Laurent Brossoit was solid in Edmonton's opener. The Oil Kings also have an offence by committee which is always good for churning out at least 3-4 goals per night.

The focal point, though, is Saint John's showing. It's fool's good to divine a team's mood from their short exchanges with the media, but they are affecting a disarming demeanour when someone sounds the alarm about starting 0-2.

"There's no panic button in our game," Beaulieu said. "It was tough losing to London, but we didn't deserve to win."

The Windsor Spitfires won the Memorial Cup in 2009 after losing their first two games at Rimouski. That was an unprecedented feat. So it's easy to use that like the sword of Damocles. But Gallant wasn't having it.

"I don't look at those stats," he said. "We win the game tonight, there's four teams tied at 1-1. We lose and it's going to be a lot tougher. But you win and you know you've got at least two more games with the tiebreaker. It's not going to be easy if we have to do it that way but at least we'd have that."

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.