With just over a week to go in the regular season, the Halifax Mooseheads' first round playoff opponent is now official after Saturday's games. The Mooseheads will take on the Acadie-Bathurst Titan in the 2024 post-season.
These two teams met in the opening round two years ago when Bathurst won the five game series 3-2 coming back from losing the first two games at home. This time, Halifax will have home ice advantage after winning the Maritimes division and finishing the regular season as the #2 in the Eastern conference. The Titan ended the year as the 7th place team.
Halifax won the season series against Acadie-Bathurst 5-3-1-0. The Titan picked up wins in the last three matchups between the two clubs however including a 3-1 game on March 8. Game 1 will be played on Good Friday, March 29, in Moose Country with puck drop at 7 p.m Atlantic time. a
Individual tickets for Games 1 and 2 will go on sale on March 22 at 11am and you should be able to buy them on ticketmaster.com, at the Scotiabank Centre box office or by phone.
Stay tuned to Moose Country for more playoff details and game previews.
Every month, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announces a Scholastic Player of the Month which recognizes a player on each team with his performance on ice and in the classroom. The player is selected based on their school results, their implication, the school-hockey conciliation, their team spirit and their on-ice performances.
For your Halifax Mooseheads, Jack Milner was named the Scholastic Player of the Month for February. Milner had a 1-1-0-0 record with an additional game a no decision and a 2.85 goals against average.
PREVIEW - It's the final home game of the regular season tonight as our Halifax Mooseheads welcome divisional rival Charlottetown Islanders at the Scotiabank Centre for a Thursday evening matchup. If I have calculated correctly, a victory by the home team will allow the Mooseheads to clinch the Maritimes division title for the second year in a row. So far this season, Halifax has played well against the Islanders and they will be looking to end this six game home-stand on a high note. The Herd have gone 3-2-0-0 during the stretch in Moose Country with both losses coming against the team that they are probably going to go against in the playoffs; the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. Charlottetown has not had a good season and will go into the post-season as the Eastern Conference's 8th place team. The Islanders are 3-5-2-0 in their last 10 games but winless in the past six. Though the Mooseheads had their 'fan appreciation' game on Sunday (it didn't feel like it really), the team will have a special pre-game ceremony tonight to say thank you to the 20-year-olds who are Lou-Felix Denis, Peter Reynolds and David Moravec.
Overall records Islanders: 24-31-5-2 = 55 points (5th in Maritimes division, 15th overall) Mooseheads: 40-16-7-1 = 88 points (1st in Maritimes division, 4th overall)
Top 3 scorers HAL: Mathieu Cataford 84pts (39G & 45A), Markus Vidicek 81pts (41G & 40A), Peter Reynolds 62pts (27G & 35A) CHA: Michael Horth 48pts (31G & 17A), Marcus Kearsey 46pts (7G & 39A), Cole Huckins 41pts (17G & 24A)
Head-to-head This is the final matchup between these two teams. Halifax has a 5-2-0-1 record versus the Islanders so far this season while Charlottetown is 3-3-1-1 against the Mooseheads. Their last game was on February 10 with the Mooseheads getting a 7-0 blowout victory as Halifax got goals from seven different players.
Last games Charlottetown is coming off a 5-2 loss to the Titan on Sunday. Kyle Powers scored both goals for the Islanders on the road while Carter Bickle stopped 29 of the Bathurst's 33 shots in the defeat.
Halifax is coming off a 3-1 home win over Moncton. Brady Schultz led the Mooseheads with 3 assists as they also got goals from three different players against the Wildcats on Sunday.
Not playing - Jordan Dumais and Braeden MacPhee out with injuries
Out of town Wildcats vs. Eagles - 7:00 p.m. Sea Dogs vs. Titan - 7:00 p.m. Cataractes vs. Huskies - 8:00 p.m. Phoenix vs. Tigres - 8:00 p.m.
Something that I don't remember experiencing before is fan appreciation night on a Sunday afternoon but that's how the schedule worked out this season and the sell out crowd that was in attendance was treated to a really good game. Our Halifax Mooseheads put their last game behind them and skated to a 3-1 victory today over the Moncton Wildcats. The away team got on the board first with under 6 minutes to go in the first period as Etienne Morin scored on the power play. Before the end of the frame, Mathieu Cataford got his 39th goal of the season on the man advantage at the 17:35 mark. A strong second period plus a four minute power play put Halifax up for good as Lou-Felix Denis and Jan Sprynar scored in the middle frame to make it 3-1 for the home team. Moncton wasn't going to go away lightly, outshooting the Herd 12-7 in the third period and got close to scoring a few times.
FINAL: Wildcats 1 at Mooseheads 3 Stars: 3. Mathis Rousseau HAL | 2. Brady Schultz HAL | 1. Lou-Felix Denis HAL Attendance: 10,595 MC's Top Herd: Lou-Felix Denis
GAME LOG First period 14:38 MON Etienne Morin (11), PP | A: Loshing & Desnoyers 17:35 HAL Mathieu Cataford (39), PP | A: Vidicek & Schultz
Second period 12:16 HAL Lou-Felix Denis (28), PP | A: Schultz 17:06 HAL Jan Sprynar (13) | A: Schultz & Dylan MacKinnon
Third period No scoring
Powerplay: MON - 1-for-2; HAL - 2-for-3 Shots: 29-28 in favour of Moncton
Next game The Halifax Mooseheads will play their final home game of the regular season on Thursday night against the Charlottetown Islanders. Puck drops at 7pm.
After a struggle bus of a game against the second last place team in Saint John on Thursday, our Halifax Mooseheads offence was firing on all cylinders Saturday evening. Mathis Rousseau picked up a 13 save shutout as Halifax defeated the Charlottetown Islanders 7-0, allowing the home team to clinch a playoff spot. Dylan MacKinnon got the ball going with his second goal of the season at the 5:24 mark of the opening period. Before you knew it, the Herd had created a 3-0 lead less than 12 minutes into the game and the Islanders decided to change goaltenders after Aksels Ozols gave up three goals on 7 shots. The power play was having a good time as well, with Mathieu Cataford, Jake Furlong and Jan Sprynar scoring on the man advantage. Charlottetown was frustrated for most of the game so the almost 10,000 fans that were in attendance were close to seeing a fight about three times.
FINAL: Islanders 0 at Mooseheads 7 Stars: 3. Mathis Rousseau HAL | 2. Brady Shultz HAL | 1. Lou-Felix Denis HAL Attendance: 9,855 MC's Top Herd: n/a
GAME LOG First period 5:24 HAL Dylan MacKinnon (2) | A: none 7:35 HAL Peter Reynolds (23) | A: Denis & Crosby 11:57 HAL Lou Levesque (12) | A: none
Second period 5:25 HAL Mathieu Cataford (33), PP | A: Denis
Third period 2:56 HAL Liam Welsh (1) | A: Moser 12:36 HAL Jake Furlong (3), PP | A: Philips 19:37 HAL Jan Sprynar (9), PP | A: Furlong & Philips
Powerplay: CHA - 0-for-4; HAL - 3-for-7 Shots: 37-13 in favour of Halifax
Next game The Mooseheads will travel to Cape Breton as they kick off the long weekend with a visit to the Eagles on Friday. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
Happy New Year everyone! I've been taking a break lately so this is my first blog post of 2024. There's been some news regarding current and former Halifax Mooseheads the last couple of weeks so thought I would do a Herd Word to wrap it all up.
CATAFORD SIGNS
Photo - Golden Knights website
On December 31, the Vegas Golden Knights announced that they had signed forward Mathieu Cataford to a three-year, entry-level contract. The 18-year-old was leading the QMJHL in scoring at the time of the announcement with 53 points in 35 games. He has posted a current total of 181 points in 169 games played over three seasons with Halifax. The Chateauguay, QC native was drafted by Vegas in the third round (77th overall) of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.
Photo - Herd Twitter
WORLD JUNIORS The 2024 World Junior Hockey Championships didn't turn out how Hockey Canada or the Mooseheads representatives probably wanted it to go but that doesn't mean there wasn't highlights of the tournament. Mathis Rousseau took the starting role over for the preliminary round and had a strong tournament meanwhile Jordan Dumais and Jake Furlong both scored a goal but they couldn't help Canada make it past the quarter-finals. Furlong's marker tied up the QF match at 2-2 late in the second against Czechia so it was said that his first point was gigantic.
Our three guys have lots to be proud of representing their country.
GREAT SAVE Like I said above, Rousseau had a good tournament, recording a 2.00 goals against average and was fourth in save percentage at 0.912%. In a game against Finland in the prelims, the 18-year-old made a really nice glove save which ended up being on Sportscentre's 1v1 challenge for a few days. You can watch it below (it's the second clip in the video).
He also made another stop in the game versus Sweden that impressed former NHL goalie Henrik Lundqvist. The toe save was on a Canadian penalty kill late in the first period to keep the score 0-0.
FIRST STAR OF MONTH Halifax Mooseheads alumni Nathan MacKinnon had a stellar month of December and was rewarded for it as the NHL named him the first star of the month. The 28-year-old had eleven goals and 29 points during the month to lead the league as the Colorado Avalanche went 8-5-2-0 in December. According to the NHL, 'his 29 points set a franchise record for a single calendar month, besting Peter Stastny's 28 in February 1981.' Congratulations to Nate. He hasn't slowed down so far in January.
Photo - NHL PR Twitter
HERD MAKE ANOTHER TRADE The Mooseheads made another move, this one just before the 1pm AST trade deadline on January 6 which saw the team adding forwards Lou-Felix Denis and Jan Sprynar from the Shawinigan Cataractes. 20-year-old Denis was leading the Cats in scoring with 38 points when the deal was made. Sprynar is an 18-year-old import and is on his third team over two seasons.
Shawinigan received in return overage forward Ethan Larmand, sophomore Reece Peitzsche and rookie import Yannik Ponzetto along with two draft picks.
Welcome to the team Lou-Felix and Jan! The two new players made their debut for Halifax on Sunday when the team took on the Charlottetown Islanders where Denis scored the overtime winner in a 3-2 victory.
Photo - Avalanche Twitter
DROUIN RECORDS 300TH POINT I missed this originally but alumni Jonathan Drouin had a good night last Thursday to help the Colorado Avalanche win 5-4 in overtime against Dallas. The 28-year-old scored twice during the game with his first goal being the 300th point of his NHL career. Drouin has record 86 goals and 216 points in total over 524 regular season games.
Drouin was drafted 3rd overall back in 2013 by the Tampa Bay Lightning where he played until 2017. The Ste-Agathe, QC native than suited up for the Montreal Canadiens from the 2017-18 season until 2023. He becomes the 9th former Moosehead player to reach 300 points.
MOOSE CLAIM MCPHEE 'The Mooseheads filled out the roster with a waiver claim addition late Sunday when GM Cam Russell picked up forward Luke McPhee from the Cape Breton Eagles. The 18-year-old native of Cole Harbour, NS will join the Mooseheads for the remainder of the season and will suit up in his first home game on Saturday' according to the press release. He has played in 59 games between the Moncton Wildcats and Eagles, collecting 3 goals and five points.