Losing to the last-place Halifax Mooseheads on Thursday clearly did not sit well with the Saint John Sea Dogs.

The first-place Sea Dogs (31-6-1-0) dropped the Mooseheads 7-1 in front of 4,789 fans at the Metro Centre on Friday, just 24 hours after a 4-2 Halifax upset in Saint John.

"They’re supposed to be the second-best team in the country so after we beat them last night you kind of expected them to come with a little more fire than they did yesterday," said Halifax forward Matthew Stoddard.

"A lot of the time I felt the calls and the bounces didn’t go our way but sometimes that happens and there’s not much you can do about it."

The Sea Dogs quickly jumped on the Mooseheads (8-26-1-2), scoring two goals during a 37-second span in the opening minutes of the first period. Halifax’s Linden Bahm got one of those back a few minutes later to make it 2-1, but the Sea Dogs poured it on in the second period. They scored four unanswered goals to run away with the game.

Mike Hoffman finished with a pair of goals for Saint John and Mike Thomas, Stephen MacAulay, Nicholas Petersen, Tomas Jurco and Nathan Beaulieu had one each. Saint John’s Karel St-Laurent stopped 27 shots for the win and Mathieu Corbeil and Joel Grondin combined for 26 saves in the Halifax net. Grondin relieved Corbeil to start the third period.

Tempers flared in the third period when the Mooseheads felt the Sea Dogs were taking liberties with some of their younger players and taking unnecessary runs at them when the score was already out of reach. There were three fights late in the game, including Saint John tough guy Thomas’s second with a Halifax rookie.

"You saw Thomas fight two of our younger guys, one of them a 16-year-old (Trey Lewis)," said Mooseheads enforcer Spencer Metcalfe, who roughed up Hoffman late in the dying minutes. "It gets everyone kind of (ticked) off so I thought it was time to do something about it.

"Hoffman had a low hip check on one of our guys and I didn’t think that was necessary. I just wanted to let them know that they’re playing in our barn and … they’re a division team and we’re going to see them again."

The game wraps up the first half of the season for both teams but the Mooseheads go into their weeklong Christmas break in relatively high spirits. They feel good about how they rallied after a 1-18 start and are looking forward to even better fortunes in the new year.

"We had a big slump at the start, losing four games and then eight games – it became kind of routine to lose every game," Metcalfe said.

"But we didn’t get down on ourselves and we got out of the slump and we’re finding ways to win now.

"Even right now, we have two call-up guys on defence, (Jamie) Bishop and Lewis, and they played well. We had six D yesterday and today and we just rolled them. Everyone did their job and we still played well even with all the guys out of our lineup."

And despite the loss, the Mooseheads are actually only four points out of a playoff spot and have played close to .500 (7-8-1-1) since their 1-18 start.

"We’re only a few points back now and everyone on the team is really believing in each other," Stoddard said. "We beat Saint John, P.E.I. and Moncton. Those are three of the top teams in the league so that goes a long way for the team confidence."

The Mooseheads play their next game on Dec. 27 at home against the Moncton Wildcats.

Screaming Eagles 3, Wildcats 2: At Sydney, Brad Cuzner scored at 8:42 of the third period to snap a 2-2 tie and give Cape Breton the win.

Logan Shaw and Cory MacIntosh also scored for the Screaming Eagles and Olivier Roy stopped 34 shots for the win.

Daniel Pettersson and Devon Mac-Ausland were Moncton’s goal scorers and Shane Owen made 21 saves.

The result snaps Moncton’s seven-game winning streak and leaves the Eagles and Wildcats tied for fifth place at the break.

Remparts 8, Rocket 5: At Quebec City, the Remparts scored four goals in the third period to rally for the win.

Tigres 5, Cataractes 0: At Victoriaville, Que., Kevin Poulin turned aside 40 shots for the shutout.

Foreurs 7, Huskies 2: At Val-d’Or, Que., Jonathan Hazen had two goals and an assist to lead Val-d’Or to the upset.

Sagueneens 6, Drakkar 2: At Chicoutimi, Que., Jacob Lagace scored four goals and added an assist in Chicoutimi’s victory.

Olympiques 5, Voltigeurs 4: At Gatineau, Que., the Olympiques built a 5-2 lead and then hung on for the win.

Oceanic 6, Titan 5 (OT): At Rimouski, Que., Emmanuel Boudreau scored the winner 2:06 into overtime.

Notes: Tomas Knotek (world juniors), Konrad Abeltshauser (world juniors B pool), Steve Gillard (charley horse) and Garrett Clarke (groin) did not dress for the Mooseheads. Forward Jordan Costello dressed but did not see any shifts because of a broken thumb.

( wpalov@herald.ca)