WJC: Fuc'd

Venue: Malmo Isstadion

RECAP - Zach Fucale stopped 13 shots in the first period to give Team Canada a chance to get their legs underneath them as the red and white only had 6 shots on net in the first 20 minutes en route to a 3-2 win over biggest rivals Team USA on New Year's Eve. The always interesting NYE game between the two North American rivals was just as big as any other year it has been as the winner would get top spot in Group A. The Canadians needed a win in regulation to win the group while the US needed any kind of point to win their group. After letting in the first goal for the 4th straight game (and 7th overall if you include pre-competition games) the Canadians rode the performance by their goaltender to a 3-1 lead with less than 5 to go in the game. Fucale let in a light goal that should have been stopped by his glove, to make the fans in the arena and at home nervous but a breakaway stop with about 45 seconds left got everyone hopping.

GAME LOG
First period
None

Second period
3:29 USA Riley Barber (1), SH | A: Jacob Slavin & Kerdiles
12:19 CAN Nic Petan (3) | A: Mantha

Third period
3:54 CAN Connor McDavid (1) | A: Horvat & Morrissey
6:13 CAN Curtis Lazar (2), PP | A: Drouin & Pouliot
17:15 USA Stefan Matteau (1) | A: Fasching & Butcher

Shots: 1st - 12-6 United States, 2nd - 11-7 Canada, 3rd - 7-7 tie
Powerplay: Canada 1-for-5, United States 0-for-3
Goaltenders: Zach Fucale (CAN) vs. Jon Gillies (USA)
Sellout: No

Players of the Game
Riley Barber USA
Zach Fucale CAN

GAMEDAY 40: at Cape Breton

IT'S GAMEDAY

CAPE BRETON SCREAMING EAGLES vs. HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS

Puck drops at 7:00pm

Centre 200 (5,000) ~ Sydney, NS

PREVIEW - After an insane game last night in Halifax, what will we see in Sydney in the second half of the home and home Battle of Nova Scotia series? We will have to wait and see. The Mooseheads will be looking to end 2013 with two straight wins after losing four straight.


This is the fifth game of this Nova Scotian battle. The home team has won all 4 games so far this season.  

THE NUMBERS

Leading scorers
CAP: Cameron Darcy 51pts (22G & 29A), William Carrier 39pts (11G & 28A), Charles-Eric Legare 32pts (15G & 17A)
HAL: Jonathan Drouin 50pts (17G & 33A), Nikolaj Ehlers 49pts (22G & 27A), Darcy Ashley 41pts (14G & 27A)

LAST GAMES
The two teams met yesterday evening at the Metro Centre with the home team winning 5-3. Nikolaj Ehlers scored two goals and Kevin Darveau made 42 saves during the game while Chase Marchand made 14 saves and Justin Hache had 2 assists.

HEAD-TO-HEAD
This season    2-2-0-0    17GF    15GA
September 22  Mooseheads 2 at Eagles 5
October 15  Eagles 3 at Mooseheads 7
November 29  Mooseheads 3 at Eagles 4
December 28  Eagles 3 at Mooseheads 5
December 29 @ 7pm  Mooseheads at Eagles
January 25 @ 7pm  Eagles at Mooseheads
February 12 @ 7pm  Eagles at Mooseheads
March 4 @ 7pm  Mooseheads at Eagles
March 15 @ 7pm  Eagles at Mooseheads
Last season     8-0-0-0    25GF    16GA

NOT PLAYING - Darcy Ashley, Andrew Ryan, Luca Ciampini and Brendan Duke will be out of the lineup because of injuries

OUT OF TOWN
Huskies at Titan - 3:00pm
Sea Dogs at Wildcats - 4:00pm
Olympiques at Armada - 5:00pm
Drakkar at Sagueneens - 5:00pm
Phoenix at Voltigeurs - 5:00pm
Foreurs at Huskies - 5:00pm
Cataractes at Tigres - 5:00pm
Remparts at Oceanic - 8:00pm

GAME COVERAGE
Live: @HFXMooseheads
TV: None
Radio: News 95.7
Webcast: TELUS
Post-game: The Chronicle Herald, Cape Breton Post

AFTER THE GAME
The Mooseheads will come back home to battle the Charlottetown Islanders on Friday night. Puck drops at 7pm.

POSTGAME: Eagles 3, Mooseheads 5

MC POST-GAME
Eagles can't keep two goal lead in third period

HALIFAX - Rookie Nikolaj Ehlers made his return to Moose Country well worth it. 

The Canadian Press' recap: The Mooseheads scored four unanswered goals in the third period to hand Cape Breton its fourth loss in a row.

Halifax Metro's recap: Understandably, Cavan Fitzgerald was a bundle of nerves before making his QMJHL debut with the Halifax Mooseheads on Saturday evening (at home, no less).

The Q News' recap: In his return to Halifax, Danish forward Nikolaj Ehlers scored twice leading the Mooseheads to a 5-3 victory over the Cape Breton Screaming on Saturday night in the first segment of the annual Battle of Nova Scotia in front of 9,624 fans at the Halifax Metro Centre.

halifaxmooseheads.ca's recap: What a turn of events.

capebretoneagles.com's recap: Cavan Fitzgerald's goal at 15:06 of the third period proved to be the game winner as the Halifax Mooseheads got by the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 5-3 in front of 9,624 fans on hand at the Halifax Metro Centre on Saturday.

MISSING IN ACTION: Andrew Ryan (hurt), Darcy Ashley (hurt), Ryan Falkenham (hip), Jonathan Drouin (World Juniors), Luca Ciampini (hurt), Brendan Duke (whiplash) and Zach Fucale (World Juniors) were scratched for the Mooseheads while Matthew Donnelly, Jason Bell, Bradley Lalonde and Michael Lyle were not in the lineup for Cape Breton

COMEBACK
The Mooseheads came back from a 3-1 deficit in the third period. Four goals in the last twenty minutes by the home team was the difference in this game.

BATTLE OF NS
It was the annual Battle of NS event which is held by the two Nova Scotian teams the weekend after Christmas break. The team's home special blue game worn jerseys are raffled off to fans in support of NS Special Olympics.

SHOTS
Halifax was overly outshot by Cape Breton last night through two periods as shots after 40 minutes were 37 to 12 in favour of the Eagles.

FITZGERALD 
Rookie Cavan Fitzgerald who was called up late last week scored his first QMJHL career goal in his first career game. With so many injuries and two of the top players on the team in Europe, Fitzgerald and Mike Molloy were called up for this weekends games. Cavan also received 2nd star honors.

EHLERS
Nikolaj Ehlers returned to Metro Centre ice last night after helping his home country Denmark to a perfect 5 and 0 record at the Division 1 Group A and was part of the third period comeback. Ehlers scored the tying goal and an empty net goal that sealed the deal. It was his 7th two goal game.

DARVEAU 
Kevin Darveau was certainly the busier of the 2 goaltenders in round one of the 2013 Battle of NS. Darveau stopped 42 pucks during the game. He was named the first star of the game.

OTHER SCORES
Chicoutimi 2 - 1 Baie-Comeau
Victoriaville 5 - 3 Shawinigan
Drummondville 5 - 2 Sherbrooke
Bathurst 0 - 4 Charlottetown
Moncton 5 - 4 Saint John
Blainville 2 - 4 Gatineau
Rimouski 4 - 5 Quebec OT
Rouyn-Noranda 4 - 5 Val-d'Or OT

UP NEXT 
The two teams meet again tonight in Cape Breton for the second round of the Battle of Nova Scotia. Puck drops at 7pm.

Ehlers Power Blue Moose.

Rookie Nikolaj Ehlers made his return to Moose Country well worth it. Ehlers helped his Quebec Major League team to a 5-3 win over the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in the annual Battle of Nova Scotia home and home series where special blue jerseys get raffled to help Special Olympics. Nikolaj scored the tying goal midway through the third period. The Mooseheads were down 3 to 1 going into the last 20 minutes of the game before MacKenzie Weegar started the come back just a few minutes into the last period. Ehlers added a shorthanded empty net goal to seal the deal for the home team. Rookie call up Cavan Fitzgerald scored his first career goal to give the team the lead.

FINAL: Eagles 3 at Mooseheads 5
50/50 Winning Draw: $10,879 
Three stars: 3. Hache CAP | 2. Fitzgerald HAL | 1. Darveau HAL
Attendance: 9,624
MC Top Herd: Kevin Darveau

GAME LOG
First period
7:54 CAP Julien Pelletier (12), PP | A: Leveille & Hache
15:08 CAP Charles-Eric Legare (15), PP | A: Darcy & Beaudry

Penalties: Hardie HAL (6:23, Elbowing), Moynihan HAL (14:25, Holding)
Shots: Cape Breton out shoots Halifax 14 to 5

Second period
12:18 HAL Vincent Watt (2) | A: Molloy
16:42 CAP Williams Carrier (11) | A: Leveille & Hache

Penalties: None
Shots: Mooseheads outshot big time in middle frame 23-7

Third period
3:33 HAL MacKenzie Weegar (8) | A: None
12:50 HAL Nikolaj Ehlers (21), PP | A: Weegar & Andrews
15:06 HAL Cavan Fitzgerald (1) | A: Shewfelt & D. Moynihan
19:45 HAL Nikolaj Ehlers (22), EN/SH | A: Hardie

Penalties: Leveille CAP (12:17, Delay of game), Lindsay HAL (16:34, High-sticking), Lindsay HAL (16:34, High-sticking)
Shots: Gap was closer 8-7 Eagles in third, 45 to 19 for Cape Breton overall

GOALIES
Winning goaltender: Kevin Darveau HAL 42 saves
Losing goaltender: Chase Marchand CAP 14 saves

POWERPLAY
Halifax: 1-for-1
Cape Breton: 2-for-4

WJC: Comebacks Fall Short.

Venue: Malmo Isstadion

RECAP - Jonathan Drouin scores to tie it up a second time but his Team Canada couldn't with stand the Czechs who kept pushing and getting one pass Jake Paterson every time the Canadians were able to even it. For the 5th straight game, which includes pre-competition games, Canada gave up the first goal of the game. Drouin also had an assist on the 4th goal to send it to overtime. The third period was quite interesting. Drouin's goal was scored 24 seconds into the third period to make the score 2-2 and after the Czechs made it 3-2, the teams traded goals in less than 2 minutes in the last ten minutes of the game. Overtime solved nothing so for the first time in the tournament this year, we went to a shootout as well. Jonathan scored the first goal in the penalty shot portion while Paterson was unable to save all 3 shots from Czech Republic.

GAME LOG
First period
7:10 CZE David Kampf (1) | A: Kase
15:50 CAN Sam Reinhart (2), PP | A: Horvat & McDavid

Second period
17:16 CZE Michal Plutnar (1), PP | A: None

Third period
0:24 CAN Jonathan Drouin (1), PP | A: Reinhart & Mantha
4:07 CZE Vojteck Tomecek (1) | A: None
11:09 CAN Aaron Ekblad (1), SH | A: Laughton & LAzar
12:19 CZE Jakub Vrana (1), PP | A: None
13:01 CAN Charles Hudon (1) | A: Mantha & Drouin

Overtime
None

Shootout
Round 1: CAN Drouin | CZE Kase
Round 2: CAN Petan | CZE Pastrnak
Round 3: CAN McDavid | CZE Simon

Shots: 1st - 13-5 Canada, 2nd - 11-5 Czech Republic, 3rd - 12-11 Czech Republic
Powerplay: Czech Republic 2-for-5, Canada 2-for-5
Goaltenders: Marek Langhanner (CZE) vs. Jake Paterson (CAN)
Sellout: No

Players of the Game
Jonathan Drouin CAN
Petr Sidlik CZE

CONFIRMED Boudreau traded again.

Former Mooseheads player Matt Boudreau has been traded once again. A month and a half ago it announced that Boudreau had been traded from Shawinigan to Victoriaville.

Now for the third time in 2013, Matt is back in Atlantic Canada after Victoriaville traded him to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan before Christmas. The trade was made official today. 

Us fans will only see Boudreau once more unless he gets traded for a fourth time. The Titan come to Moose Country on January 11th. The two teams will meet three more times afterwards this season all of which will be played at the K.C. centre. Once again good luck Matt in a new city.

WJC: Mantha Scores Hat Trick.

Venue: Malmo Isstadion 

RECAP - Anthony Mantha scores a hat trick. Brent Sutter stays perfect as coach. Jonathan Drouin has 3 assists. Connor McDavid gets chances. How can you ask for a better start to the 2014 World Juniors? Germany not scoring the first goal and tying it up at two with 4 minutes left in the first period. But the Canadians rebounded on the back of Mantha and Drouin who combined for 6 points and led the team to a 7-2 win over the Germans. Despite the big gap in the score, the Germans weren't manhandled like normal as they were only outshot 30 to 24.

GAME LOG
First period
1:35 GER Dorian Saeftel (1) | A: Palausch & Klopper
6:21 CAN Josh Anderson (1) | A: Gauthier & Dumba
10:41 CAN Anthony Mantha (1), PP | A: Lazar & Drouin
15:59 GER Janik Moser (1), PP | A: Kahun
17:36 CAN Anthony Mantha (2) | A: Pouliot & Drouin
18:29 CAN Bo Horvat (1) | A: Reinhart

Second period
6:45 CAN Sam Reinhart (1) | A: Morrissey & McDavid
11:28 CAN Anthony Mantha (3), PP | A: Drouin & Pouliot

Third period
10:13 CAN Nic Petan (1) | A: McDavid

Shots: 1st - 12-8 Canada, 2nd - 11-9 Canada, 3rd - 7-7 tie
Powerplay: Canada 2-for-5, Germany 1-for-3
Goaltenders: Jake Paterson (CAN) vs. Marvin Cupper (GER)
Sellout: No

Players of the game
Janik Moser GER
Anthony Mantha CAN

WJC: Team Canada roster

Though they announced their final cut on Tuesday, we now have the official list of Canadian junior players that will represent their country starting tomorrow in Malmo, Sweden. Along with the other 9 teams, Team Canada gave the committee who runs this tournament their final roster today.

There are 3 draft eligible players while the rest of the 22 man roster have been drafted already. Canada is headlined by forward Connor McDavid, who was granted special status at 15 years old to enter the Ontario Hockey League. He becomes the sixth 16 year old to make the World Junior team for the red and white. There's also a pair of brothers in the Reinharts, defenceman Griffin and his younger draft eligible brother Sam who is a forward.

Scott Laughton, Jonathan Drouin and Matt Dumba will provide the leadership during the 11 day tournament as captain and alternate captains. Jake Paterson, Griffin Reinhart and Drouin are the only returnees from last years team that came back in 4th place. This team may not be as star studded or as big as in years previuos but Brent Sutter has led two Team Canada junior teams to gold with perfect records in back to back years after the country failed to win a gold medal in 7 straight years and he will look to do it again as anything less than gold will be a disappointment to the fans.

ROSTER.

Below is a list of the players, their number and position:
1      Jake Paterson        G
2      Adam Pelech         D
3      Chris Bigras           D
5      Aaron Ekblad        D
7      Josh Morrissey      D
8      Griffin Reinhart      D
10    Charles Hudon      F
11    Bo Horvat             F
14    Taylor Leier          F
15    Derrick Pouliot      D
16    Kerby Rychel        F
17    Connor McDavid   F
19    Nic Petan               F
21    Scott Laughton       F
22    Frederick Gauthier  F
23    Sam Reinhart          F
24    Matt Dumba           D
25    Josh Anderson       F
26    Curtis Lazar            F
27    Jonathan Drouin      F
28    Anthony Mantha     F
31    Zach Fucale            G

For all the rosters click here.

Merry Christmas Moose Country

From your favourite Moose fan (kidding) to your family I would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas. 

Enjoy this time with your family and friends and of course watching a couple of our boys play the best sport in the world (in my opinion); hockey. Boxing Day begins the 2014 World Juniors in Sweden. Go Canada Go! 

As I have been blogging for 13 months now I would also like to say thank you very much for reading my blog and following my tweets and Facebook posts this past year. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

WJC: Denmark Gets Promoted, Hosts Get Demoted.

Team Denmark will be coming to Canada for 2015. The Danes defeated Slovenia 4-2 in the first game on the final day of competition to stay undefeated and get promoted to the Top Division for the 2015 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Canada next December.

Nikolaj Ehlers from your Mooseheads collected another point; the first assist on what was the team's second goal of the game that made it 2-0 Denmark with 1:16 left in the second period. Nikolaj finished the tournament with 2 goals and 4 assists for 6 points which was good enough for 9th in overall scoring.

Host Poland gets relegated to Division 1 Group B play for next year's championships. Poland received only one point in a shootout loss to Slovenia on December 18.

Here are the full standings from Group A
Denmark   5-0-0-0    15 points
Latvia   4-0-0-1    12 points
Belarus   3-0-0-2    9 points
Austria   2-0-0-3    6 points
Slovenia   0-1-0-4    2 points
Poland   0-0-1-4    1 point

WJC: Cuts made at Juniors

Press Release.

Story.

Team Canada has made two cuts to their World Junior team that is in Sweden for the 2014 World Juniors which will begin for real on Thursday. Hunter Shinkaruk and Damon Severson were told after today's pre-tournament game versus Finland that they would be going back home. Shinkaruk plays for Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League while Severson plays in Kelowna with the Rockets in the same league.

The Canadians defeated the Finns 4 to 2 after being behind 2-0 in the first 13 minutes. Zach Fucale made 28 saves for the win. Canada will play two more pre-tournament games. One more cut will be made before the tournament gets underway.

WJC: Ehlers Helps Denmark Win.

Day five of the 2014 World Juniors Division 1 Group A tournament got underway early this morning with a game between the only two undefeated teams left, Denmark and Latvia. Going into yesterday's action Belarus, Denmark and Latvia sat tied a top the group with 2 wins each while the other three teams had none. After the Danes beat Belarus 5 to 4 yesterday and Latvia shutout Austria 3-0 there was only two teams with no losses.

Rookie forward Nikolaj Ehlers of your Halifax Mooseheads scored what turned out to be the game winner at 17:03 of the second period to give the Danes a 2-0 lead heading into the third. Latvia would score less than 5 minutes into the last period but could not get anything more past goaltender Georg Sorensen as Denmark went on to win 4 to 1. With the win, Ehlers team has a perfect 4-0 record and sits in perfect position to be promoted to the Top Division for next year. Denmark will play Slovenia tomorrow. Slovenia who currently has a 0-1-0-2 record and is playing Austria right now.

PS: Nikolaj has 3 goals and 1 assist for 4 points and sits 12th among scoring leaders.

WJC: BREAKING Team Canada names captains

Hockey Canada has named the captains for the 2014 World Junior team which will begin pre-tournament play tomorrow morning. Scott Laughton of the Oshawa Generals was named the Team Captain for the tournament. Matt Dumba of the Minnesota Wild (NHL) and Jonathan Drouin of your Halifax Mooseheads were named the Alternates.

Laughton, who is in his 4th year with the Generals, was named captain of Team OHL in the Subway Super Series back in November. He has 24 goals and 26 assists for 50 points in 29 games played which is good enough for 8th in OHL scoring. Matt Dumba has played for the Wild of the National Hockey League all season and has collected 2 points in 13 games as a professional defenceman. Jonathan Drouin has played in only 23 of the Mooseheads 36 games this season but leads the team in scoring with 50 points (17G & 33A). Drouin was cleared to play on Monday and was at practice that day. Big Jo was also the captain of Team QMJHL at the Super Series.

Congratulations to all three players and especially Jonathan. Go Canada Go.

FUCALE TO START FRIDAY, DROUIN SCRATCHED
It was also announced today that goaltender Zach Fucale will get the start tomorrow against Finland in the first pre-tournament game for both teams. Camp is still going for players trying to crack the roster that will play thorugh out the tournament starting Boxing Day but the goaltending positions have been sown up as only two goalies were invited. However they will have to fight for the starting position. Mark Masters breaks that battle down here.

After suffering a concussion almost 2 weeks ago in a game against the Quebec Remparts, in which the hitter was not suspended, Jonathan Drouin is slowly making his way back to playing. He practiced with the team this week however they are easing him into game action. As such, Brent Sutter announced that Drouin will not play tomorrow versus the Finns.

MC World Junior Coverage

Moose Country, your home for Halifax Mooseheads team news and game day posts, will be covering the 2014 IIHF World Juniors. Main posts will be about our very own Herd players on their quest to help Team Canada get back to winning gold. Here`s the info:

News: I will provide you with news from the World Juniors including final roster announcements, suspensions, injuries, etc.

Pre-tournament coverage: As this tournement is quite early in the day, for the pre-tournament schedule I will post news and scores from each day. I will possibly do post game articles after supper.

Team Canada pre-tournament games:
Friday, Dec. 20, 2013 – Canada Vs. Finland – 10 a.m. (EST)
Sunday, Dec. 22, 2013 – Canada Vs. Sweden – 11 a.m. (EST)
Monday, Dec. 23, 2013 – Canada Vs. Switzerland – 12 p.m. (EST)

Game Articles: I will try my hardest to provide you with pregame and postgame stories for the Team Canada games. More articles may come in the New Year depending on how far Canada goes but I will do a preview and post game article of both the Bronze and Gold Medal games.

Tweets: I will live tweet three of the four Team Canada games, mostly score updates but will have game plays too. Look below for the full tweeting schedule.
Thursday December 26th at 8:30am AT
Saturday December 28th at 12:30pm AT
Tuesday December 31st at 12:30pm AT

Score Updates: At the end of the day, which will be around suppertime this year, I will post the final scores of the day from both groups.

*Note: All info will be on the blog twitter at @MC_MooseCountry as the Moose have two players on the team as long as Jo Drouin returns from his concussion.

Full Team Canada schedule in Group A
Thursday Dec 26th - Germany vs. Canada - 8:30am/AT
Saturday Dec 28th - Canada vs. Czech Republic - 12:30pm/AT
Monday Dec 30th - Canada vs. Slovakia - 12:30pm/AT
Tuesday Dec 31st - United States vs. Canada - 12:30/AT



Ehlers in Poland playing for Danes
Rookie forward Nikolaj Ehlers was named to Team Denmark for their Division 1 Group A tournament that began on Sunday and will continue until Saturday. This is a 6 team tournament where each team plays the other 5 teams in the group, there are no medal games just regular games with the top team in the standings being promoted to the Top Division for next year.

Nikolaj and his Danish teammates have already played two games on Sunday and Monday with today being an off day in the tournament. Ehlers was held pointless in a 3-1 win on the weekend over Austria. He than scored on Monday and was given a helper on the first goal for two points in Denmark`s 4-2 win over host Poland. Latvia; who dominated Slovenia yesterday winning 10-0; Belarus and Denmark have 2 wins each and 0 losses while Austria, Poland and Slovenia have 0 wins and 2 losses each.

WJC: Denmark opens with win.

The Danish under 20 team won their first game in the 2014 world junior division 1 tournament today 3-1 against the Austrian team. Our very own Halifax Moosehead Nikolaj Ehlers was announced last week that he had been named to team Denmark. He and team Denmark played their 1st game of the tournament that is being held in Poland between December 15th and the 21st. Ehlers had 3 shots and was 33% on the face off playing on what looked like the second line.

Congrats to the Danes on the win. Keep it going Nik and score a goal tomorrow. Denmark will play 4 more games in the tournament with the winner of the group being promoted to the top division. There are 6 teams in the group and each team will play the other five teams. 

As of 3:15pm AT:

Slovenia 3-7 Belarus 

Austria 1-3 Denmark

Poland vs Latvia

Herd Word

WORLD JUNIORS
The World Juniors kick off two weeks tomorrow and 3 of our Mooseheads will be there in Sweden. Or at least we hope so. Zach Fucale and equipment manager Chris MacDonald are locks to be going to the Team Canada camp in Toronto while Jonathan Drouin is not as gaurenteed now after a big hit on the weekend (see below). Group B of Division 1 has already started play while Group A of that division will begin on the 15th. I'll have coverage of Team Canada's journey while they are in Malmo. GO CANADA GO.

DROUIN HIT
On Friday night in a home game against the Quebec Remparts, Jonathan Drouin was hit from behind by fellow Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Adam Erne. The team announced the next day that Drouin had suffered a concussion because of the hit. His status for Team Canada's junior team is now up in the air.

The weird thing is that Erne did not recieve a suspension from the incident. Laurent Dauphin hit Russia's Igor Baldaev during a Subway Super Series game a couple weeks ago and bloodied the Russian forwards face. Dauphin received a 6 game suspension for that hit which seemed less dangerous, in my opinion, except for the blood. The brass of the Halifax Mooseheads had some things to say to the League after the decision came down earlier this week.

EHLERS
Nikolaj Ehlers left on Monday to join his Danish team at the Group A Division 1 world junior tournament which begins on the 15th. Ehlers has been one of the better players on the Mooseheads this year which is evident by his 47 points in 34 games so far in his rookie season. He is second on team scoring, behind of course Jonathan Drouin, and sits first in rookie scoring and 6th in league scoring. I'll have updates on Nikolaj and the Danes starting Sunday if he actually makes the team.

Ehlers was also ranked 10th on Craig's List. He's moving up.

THE SHIFT
TSN had their annual World Juniors preview show last week and had a nice little feature on an awesome shift that Drouin had in February. I'll post clip after supper.

MACDONALD
Chris MacDonald is heading to Toronto today for Team Canada's world junior camp. He will represent his country as well as the Halifax Mooseheads and Moose Country as the equipment manager when the team is in Sweden. He tweeted this earlier today:

There was also an article in the Chronicle Herald the other day on him.

FIRST GOALS
Congratulations to former Herd players Stefan Fournier and Konrad Albeltshauser who scored their first pro AHL goal on the same night. Fournier's first of the year gave his Hamilton Bulldogs a 4-1 lead in the third period against the Lake Erie Monsters. Abeltashauser scored the tying goal in the 3rd period that allowed his Worcester Sharks to force a shootout and win 2-1 against the host Manchester Monarchs who also had a former Moose playing on their team; Andrew Bodnarchuk.

CALL UPS
With Zach Fucale leaving tomorrow for Toronto and Matt Murphy out for two weeks with a shouldar injury, the Halifax Mooseheads called up goaltender Jacob Dempsey and defenseman Brandon Worthen. The two players will travel with the team on their last road trip before Christmas.

THIS WEEKEND
Halifax will play the middle part of a four game road trip this weekend. The team will visit Baie-Comeau and Chicoutimi to take on the Drakkar, always entertaining games, and the Sagueneens on Friday and Saturday respectively.

They played the first game of the trip in Charlottetown and defeated the Islanders 4-1 on Sunday.

TRADE DEADLINE
The QMJHL trade dealine is January 7th at noon. The winter trading period is from December 22nd to January 7th. Let's hope that Dom does not trade anybody on the roster that we have now.

POSTGAME: Tigres 1, Mooseheads 4

MC POST-GAME
Whitney's 40 saves aren't enough for victory from Tigres

FINAL: Tigres 1 at Mooseheads 4
Attendance: 6,628
Three stars: 3. Brandon Whitney VIC | 2. Nikolaj Ehlers HAL | 1. Jonathan Drouin HAL
MC Top Herd: Jonathan Drouin

The Canadian Press' recap: Jonathan Drouin scored goals 65 seconds apart in the third period and got the Halifax Mooseheads back on the winning path with a 4-1 victory over the Victoriaville Tigres in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action on Thursday.

Metro Halifax's recap: Just when it looked like a game guaranteed to be grinded out to the end, Jonathan Drouin imposed his will.

Cory Coolen's recap: Jonathan Drouin’s three-point night led the Halifax Mooseheads to a 4-1 victory over the East Division’s Victoriaville Tigres on Thursday night in front of 6,628 fans at the Halifax Metro Centre.

The Chronicle Herald's recap: The Halifax Mooseheads weren’t about to make it three losses in a row.

halifaxmooseheads.com's recap: The Mooseheads snapped a brief 2 game losing skid with a 4-1 win over the stubborn Victoriaville Tigres thursday night.

qmjhl.ca's recap: Game summary

MISSING IN ACTION: Liam Alcalde, Jacob Jacques and Max Lindsay did not play

TWEET OF THE NIGHT

HATRED
I did not know that these two teams had such a rivalry. I don't know what it was but there were a lot of fights, lots of yapping and lots of hitting. Maybe it was just because the Mooseheads were mad from losing two in a row and were having a hard time getting pucks behind Brandon Whitney or something else. It was entertaining to say the least though.

SHUTOUT
Despite the shot total both teams cam eout of the first period being shutout by the goaltenders.

WHITNEY
Brandon WHitney, from Kentville Nova Scotia, was stellar last night and gave his team every opportunity to win the game. He had to make some pretty nice saves during the game but he couldn't stop Jonthan Drouin. Whitney faced 46 shots while Zach Fucale only faced 17. Brandon saved the same amount in the first period as Fucale did all game actually.

DROUIN
Jonathan Drouin was playing on all cylinders once again. He scored 2 really nice goals in 65 seconds to give Halifax the lead they needed. He ended the night with 2 goals and an assist on Nik Ehlers late first period powerplay goal.

DUCHARME
Head coach Dom Ducharme was not happy at all last night. There were a few missed calls like always and Dom flew off the handle. That too was entertaining to watch sitting behind the bench.

OTHER SCORES

UP NEXT
Halifax plays host to the Quebec Remparts in an always interesting match up at the Metro Centre. Puck drops at 7pm.

QMJHL Names Scholastic POM

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, Danny Moynihan was named the Scholastic Player of the Month for November 2013. Moynihan scored 3 goals and assisted on 5 others to end the month with 8 points in 10 games played.

Here is the full list:

BAC	Charles Poulin	Cégep de Baie-Comeau
BAT	Jacob Brennan	Acadia University, UNB & Bathurst High School
BLB	Marc-Olivier Roy	Cégep à distance
CAP	Bradley Lalonde	Riverview Rural High
CHA	Kameron Kielly	Charlottetown Rural High School
CHI	Nicolas Roy	Odyssée Dominique-Racine
DRU	Louis-Philippe Guindon	Cégep de Drummondville
GAT	Derek Sheppard	Athabaska University
HAL	Danny Moynihan	Prince Andrew High School
MON	Joshua Pugsley	Harrison Trimble High School
QUE	Olivier Archambault	Cégep à distance
RIM	Simon Bourque	Académie les Estacades
ROU	Alexandre Leclerc	Cégep de l'Abitibi-Témiscamingue
SHA	James Phelan	École secondaire Val-Mauricie
SHE	Dominic Talbot-Tassi	Cégep de Sherbrooke
SNB	Samuel Dove-McFalls	Samuel De Champlain
VDO	Olivier Galipeau	Polyvalente Le Carrefour
VIC	Félix Boucher	Cégep de Victoriaville

WJC: Fucale, Drouin Locks for Team Canada

PRESS RELEASE                  tsn release.

Hockey Canada announced their 25 invitees to the world junior development camp that will be held in Toronto from December 12th to 15th before the team heads to Sweden.

Team Canada has invited way less junior aged players this year. Not exactly sure what the strategy is. Thus, only three players (1 defenssemand and 2 forwards) will be cut from the team at the end of the camp. Only one NHLer was invited to the camp while the Porttland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League have the most invitees with three. No surprise that two Halifax Mooseheads players were invited to the camp with one being a lock on the team, Zach Fucale.

With only 25 players named, Canada only invited 2 goaltenders from the country so both will be playing for their country starting on Boxing Day.

Here is the full list:

Name	S/C	Ht.	Wt.	Born	Hometown	Club Team	Pro Status
Nom	T/C	G.	P.	Né	Ville d'origine	Équipe de club	Statut prof.
Goaltenders/Gardiens de but
Zachary Fucale	L/G	6'1"	176	5/28/1995	Rosemère, Que./Qc	Halifax (QMJHL)	MTL '13 (2, 36)
Jake Paterson	L/G	6'0"	185	5/3/1994	Mississauga, Ont.	Saginaw (OHL)	DET '12 (3, 80)
Defence/Défense
Chris Bigras	L/G	6'0.5"	189	2/22/1995	Woodland Beach, Ont.	Owen Sound (OHL)	COL '13 (2, 32)
Mathew Dumba	R/D	6'0"	183	7/25/1994	Calgary, Alta./Alb.	Minnesota (NHL)	MIN '12 (1, 7)
Aaron Ekblad	R/D	6'3.5"	216	2/7/1996	Belle River, Ont.	Barrie (OHL)	2014 Dft/Rep.
Josh Morrissey	L/G	6'0"	184	3/28/1995	Calgary, Alta./Alb.	Prince Albert (WHL)	WPG '13 (1, 13)
Adam Pelech	L/G	6'2"	215	8/16/1994	Toronto, Ont.	Erie (OHL)	NYI '12 (3, 65)
Derrick Pouliot	L/G	6'0"	203	1/16/1994	Weyburn, Sask.	Portland (WHL)	PIT '12 (1, 8)
Griffin Reinhart	L/G	6'3.5"	212	1/24/1994	West Vancouver, B.C./C.-B.	Edmonton (WHL)	NYI '12 (1, 4)
Damon Severson	R/D	6'2"	198	8/7/1994	Melville, Sask.	Kelowna (WHL)	NJ '12 (2, 60)
Forwards/Avants
Josh Anderson	R/D	6'2"	199	5/7/1994	Burlington, Ont.	London (OHL)	CBJ '12 (4, 95)
Jonathan Drouin	L/G	5'11"	185	3/28/1995	Huberdeau, Que./Qc	Halifax (QMJHL)	TB '13 (1, 3)
Frédérik Gauthier	L/G	6'4"	215	4/26/1995	Mascouche, Que./Qc	Rimouski (QMJHL)	TOR '13 (1, 21)
Félix Girard	R/D	5'11"	190	5/9/1994	Lévis, Que./Qc	Baie-Comeau (QMJHL)	NSH '13 (4, 95)
Bo Horvat	L/G	6'0"	203	4/5/1995	Rodney, Ont.	London (OHL)	VAN '13 (1, 9)
Charles Hudon	L/G	5'10,5"	175	6/23/1994	Boisbriand, Que./Qc	Chicoutimi (QMJHL)	MTL '12 (5, 122)
Scott Laughton	L/G	6'1"	190	5/30/1994	Oakville, Ont.	Oshawa (OHL)	PHI '12 (1, 20)
Curtis Lazar	R/D	6'0"	198	2/2/1995	Vernon, B.C./C.-B.	Edmonton (WHL)	OTT '13 (1, 17)
Taylor Leier	L/G	5'11"	177	2/15/1994	Saskatoon, Sask.	Portland (WHL)	PHI '12 (4, 117)
Anthony Mantha	L/G	6'5"	204	9/16/1994	Longueuil, Que./Qc	Val-d'Or (QMJHL)	DET '13 (1, 20)
Connor McDavid	L/G	6'0"	182	1/13/1997	Newmarket, Ont.	Erie (OHL)	2015 Dft/Rep
Nic Petan	L/G	5'9"	166	3/22/1995	Delta, B.C./C.-B.	Portland (WHL)	WPG '13 (2, 43)
Sam Reinhart	R/D	6'1"	183	11/6/1995	West Vancouver, B.C./C.-B.	Kootenay (WHL)	2014 Dft/Rep.
Kerby Rychel	L/G	6'1"	205	10/7/1994	Tecumseh, Ont.	Windsor (OHL)	CBJ '13 (1, 19)
Hunter Shinkaruk	L/G	5'10.5"	181	10/13/1994	Calgary, Alta./Alb.	Medicine Hat (WHL)	VAN '13 (1, 24)

Mooseheads equipment manager Chris MacDonald was also named as part of Team Canada's roster. He will be one of two team equipment managers.


Congratulations to all the players invited to the camp in Toronto. Canada will play their first game of the tournament on December 26 against Germany. You can watch it on TSN and RDS in Canada.


Nikolaj Ehlers was named to his country's junior team as well according to Willy Palov's twitter. Ehlers will join Denmark in Poland for the Division 1 Pool A tournament between December 15th and 21st. He will join the team December 9th and won't get back to Halifax until the 28th according to Palov.

Team USA will name their roster on Wednesday. Will we see the Moynihan brothers on it? Timo Meier could possibly be named to the Switzerland roster at a later date.

POSTGAME: Wildcats 2, Mooseheads 0

MC POST-GAME
Moose start a streak they didn't want

FINAL: Wildcats 2 at Mooseheads 0
Three stars: 3. Lalonde MON | 2. Fucale HAL | 1. Dubeau MON
Attendance: 7,851

Metro Halifax's recap: The Halifax Mooseheads’ nine-game winning streak was all but a distant memory to Timo Meier, on Sunday evening.

The Chronicle Herald's recap: Goals were in short supply at the Metro Centre on Sunday afternoon.

Cory Coolen (Q News)'s recap: Alex Dubeau turned aside all 31 shots, backstopping the Moncton Wildcats to a 2-0 win over the Halifax Mooseheads on Sunday afternoon in front of 7,851 fans at the Halifax Metro Centre.

qmjhl.ca's recap: Game summary

halifaxmooseheads.ca's recap: The Wildcats are pretty good at ruining the party in Halifax this season.

MISSING IN ACTION: Darcy Ashley, Vincent Watt and Jesse Lussier were all out with the flu

SHUTOUT
In four games played between these two rivals, three of them have ended with one team not being able to score during that game. This is the second shutout for the Moncton Wildcaats against Halifax this season.

PENALTIES
When these teams meet there normally isn't any love between them. So there are normally more penalties than the Moose would normally have in their games. As result last night the Cats went 2-for-7 on the powerplay while the Herd couldn't get a powerplay goal on 4 opportunities. There was a few unsportsmanlike conducts as well as roughing and interference calls.

DROUIN
Jonathan Drouin had his personal point streak snapped yesterday afternoon. He had a point in each game in November and had 39 points in 14 straight games.

DUBEAU
Alex Dubeau, the Moncton Wildcats goaltender, received first star honors with the 31 save shutout. It was a battle between goalies on Sunday as the game winner happened at the 2:58 minute mark of the third period.

OTHER SCORES
Val-d'Or 6 - 1 Bathurst
Cape Breton 6 - 3 Charlottetown
Rimouski 2 - 3 Quebec OT
Gatineau 5 - 4 Blainville SO
Drummondville 3 - 0 Shawinigan
Baie-Comeau 2 - 1 Sherbrooke
Chicoutimi 1 - 3 Victoriaville

UP NEXT
Halifax will look to get back to winning on Thursday when the Victoriaville Tigres come to town. Puck drops at 7pm.

GAMEDAY 30: at Cape Breton

IT'S GAMEDAY

CAPE BRETON SCREAMING EAGLES vs. HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS

Puck drops at 7:00pm

Centre 200 (5,000) ~ Sydney, NS

PREVIEW - Can they make it a perfect month? Well we'll have to wait and see if the Halifax Mooseheads can make it a perfect November. Of course they'll be doing it on he road but Moose fans can still watch the game, as long as you have Eastlink. It's a big game. Provincial rivals. 10 straight wins. What's going to happen.


The Moose and Eagles played on October 15th last in the second of 9 games. Halifax won big with Andrew Ryan scoring 2 goals and an assist in a 7-3 win. Zach Fucale made 40 saves.

THE NUMBERS

LAST GAMES
Cape Breton hasn't played since Sunday when they invited the Acadie-Bathurst Titan to "The Nest" and lost 4 to 1. Loic Leduc scored the only goal for the Eagles while Chase Marchand made 26 saves.

Halifax played last the day before against Saint John in Moose Country and shutout the Sea Dogs 5-0 to extend their win streak to nine on Saturday. Nikolaj Ehlers scored 2 goals to power the offence which shot 42 pucks at Sebastien Auger. Zach Fucale stopped all 22 shots he faced.

HEAD-TO-HEAD
This season    1-1-0-0    9GF    3GA
September 22  Mooseheads 2 at Eagles 5
October 15  Eagles 3 at Mooseheads 7
November 29 @ 7pm  Mooseheads at Eagles
December 28 @ 7pm  Eagles at Mooseheads
December 29 @ 7pm  Mooseheads at Eagles
January 25 @ 7pm  Eagles at Mooseheads
February 12 @ 7pm  Eagles at Mooseheads
March 4 @ 7pm  Mooseheads at Eagles
March 15 @ 7pm  Eagles at Mooseheads
Last season     8-0-0-0    25GF    16GA

NOT PLAYING - a few may be out due to the flu and of course Ryan Falkenham is out all season recovering from hip surgery

OUT OF TOWN
Huskies at Islanders - 7:00pm
Foreurs at Sea Dogs - 7:30pm
Tigres at Phoenix - 8:00pm
Armada at Voltigeurs - 8:30pm
Drakkar at Olympiques - 8:30pm
Sagueneens at Oceanic - 8:30pm

GAME COVERAGE
TV: Eastlink
Live: @FraserTQN
Radio: News 95.7
Webcast: TELUS
Post-game: The Chronicle Herald

AFTER THE GAME
The Mooseheads will come back home for a Sunday afternoon tilt against Moncton. Puck drops at 4:00pm.

The Good and the Bad

The Good:

• Jonathan Drouin is on a tear. He has 30 points in just the month of November going into Friday's game. He was named the first star of the QMJHL Telus 3 stars of the week in the last two weeks as well as the CHL Player of the Week this month.
• In the same month, your Mooseheads have not lost a game. Halifax has won all 9 games this month so far. Hopefully they can make it a perfect month on Friday when they take on provincial rivals Cape Breton.
• On Wednesday, the Herd were ranked #5 in the BMO CHL Top 10 Rankings for week 11. They moved up from #8 last week.
• During Pink in the Rink, Moose Coutnry raised $19,803 for Cancer Research. Story

The Bad:

• The team had to cancel their practice at the BMO Centre last night because 9 players are out wtih the flu. They were going to practice wtih the Bedford Blues. Story
• This weekends games will probably be the last games for a while for Drouin, Zach Fucale and hopefully Mac Weegar as the training camp for Team Canada's World Junior team starts sometime in early December.

The Interesting:

• The Moose have 7 games this season that have ended in a 5-2 score. That is the score that has happened the most this season.
• For the first time in the 11 year history of the Subway Super Series the Russians have swept the Ontario Hockey League in their 2 game mini series that they play.

Look for my previews of this weekends games on the day of, tomorrow's will be out mid morning. Also I will have a new post on Monday about how the team is doing so far this season.

My Team Canada roster for WJC

Well we are a month away from the World Juniors which are being held in Malmo, Sweden this year. I don't know about you but I always look forward to Christmas and Boxing Day when the World Juniors begin. With it being in Sweden this year, fans in Canada will once again have to get up early to see the best of their country play. Luckily it won't be as early as last year though if your on the East Coast. Sweden is 5 hours ahead of us here in Nova Scotia while Ufa, Russia is actually 10 hours ahead.

Here is who I think will get the invite from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Jonathan Drouin F
Anthony Mantha F
Frederik Gauthier F
Charles Hudon F
Zach Fucale G
Etteine Marcoux G
MacKenzie Weegar D
Christopher Clapperton F
Ryan Graves D

Good luck to everyone. I'll have a full list of attendees when it comes available.

POSTGAME: Titan 2, Mooseheads 9

MC POST-GAME
Jonathan Drouin has 5th straight 3 or more point night to help Moose win big

HALIFAX - The Halifax Mooseheads gave their fans something to cheer about on BMO CHL Ultimate Fan Contest night.

The Canadian Press recap: Jonathan Drouin scored once and set up four others as the Mooseheads crushed Acadie-Bathurst for their eighth win in a row.

Halifax Metro's recap: Everyone who you’d expect stepped up for the Halifax Mooseheads on Friday night.

Titan Nation's recap: If you were one of the 8,108 in attendance at the Halifax Metro Centre tonight looking for a beat down, you probably left satisfied unless you were an Acadie-Bathurst Titan fan.

The Q News' recap: Jonathan Drouin helped lead the Halifax Mooseheads to their eighth consecutive win by scoring once and adding four assists in a 9-2 clobbering of the visiting Acadie-Bathurst Titan in front of 8,108 fans at the Halifax Metro Centre on Friday night.

halifaxmooseheads.ca's recap: The Mooseheads won their 8th in a row Friday night 9-2 over Acadie-Bathurst before a boisterous crowd of 8,108 at the Metro Centre.

MISSING IN ACTION: Jacob Jacques, Max Lindsay and Liam Alcalde were the scratches for your Herd last night

EIGHT
If you didn't know already, last night's win was the eighth win in a row for your Halifax Mooseheads. They currently have the best streak record in the QMJHL but despite winning so much this month, they have yet to pass the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada for first place in the league.

SHUTOUT
Zach Fucale almost had his second shutout of the season. It looked like he was going to get it too but Aaron Kerr broke the bid half way through the third to give the Titan some slim hope of clawing their way back into the game.

GOALIES
Three goaltenders played in last night's game, the most that we have had since the 15 to 5 beating of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies back on November 1st. Fucale played the whole game while Jacob Brennan was pulled after allowing 5 goals on 24 shots. Brennan made some pretty unbelievable saves but the coach thought that that wouldn't help their case.

DROUIN
As mentioned above, Jonathan Drouin recorded his 5th straight game with 3 or more points. Last night was his first 5 point game this season. Drouin scored a goal and made some really nice plays to set up 4 other goals. He also played his 100th junior career game last night. Good way to celebrate.

WEEGAR
MacKenzie Weegar scored 2 goals last night. His first career multi goal game and they were both on the powerplay. He now has 5 goals this season.

ANDREWS
Brent Andrews scored two goals in yesterday's game as well. With it he passed his goal total from last season.

OTHER SCORES
Cape Breton 2 - 1 Saint John SO
Charlottetown 3 - 6 Chicoutimi
Victoriaville 1 - 4 Quebec
Moncton 0 - 3 Baie-Comeau
Shawinigan 3 - 4 Drummondville
Gatineau 3 - 6 Rimouski
Sherbrooke 4 - 5 Rouyn-Noranda
Blainville 4 - 2 Val-d'Or

UP NEXT
Halifax will continue playing at home when they host the Saint John Sea Dogs tonight. Puck drops at 7pm.

Moose Keep Rolling.

The Halifax Mooseheads gave their fans something to cheer about on BMO CHL Ultimate Fan Contest night. They extended their winning streak to 8 games with their 5th win over the Acadie-Bathurst Titan this season. Jacob Brennan made some unbelievable saves but could not save them all as his defense let him down at times especially on the penalty kill where the Titan were ranked second going into the game. Brian Lovell returned in this game but it looks like he may be out again with the same injury after taking a knee on knee hit in the middle frame. The extra man played a big role in tonight's game as seven of the 11 goals were scored with a man advantage.

FINAL: Titan 2 at Mooseheads 9
50/50 Winning Draw: $8,758
Three stars: 3. Ashley HAL | 2. Weegar HAL | 1. Drouin HAL
Attendance: 8,108
MC's Top Herd: Mac Weegar

GAME LOG
First period
3:38 HAL Andrew Ryan (13) | A: Drouin & Ashley
15:42 HAL Nikolaj Ehlers (15) | A: Andrews & Meier
18:02 HAL Brent Andrews (15), PP | A: Drouin

Penalties: Leblanc HAL (9:00, Charging), Godin BAT (17:37, Hooking)
Shots: Halifax led the shots 11 to 8

Second period
14:52 HAL MacKenzie Weegar (4), PP | A: Drouin & Ashley
16:55 HAL Vincent Watt (1) | A: Shewfelt & Leblanc

Penalties: C. Moynihan HAL (11:52, Checking), Brisebois BAT (14:36, Interference), Lussier HAL (17:57, Slashing)
Shots: The Moose had a few more shots in the middle frame leading 14-8

Third period
1:13 HAL Jonathan Drouin (14), PP | A: Weegar & Ashley
6:29 HAL MacKenzie Weegar (5), PP | A: Ashley & Drouin
10:43 BAT Aaron Kerr (2), PP | A: Boivin & Brisebois
14:51 HAL Luca Ciampini (4) | A: C. Moynihan & Lussier
18:20 HAL Brent Andrews (16), SH | A: None
19:04 BAT Adam Stevens (9), PP | A: Boivin & Brisebois

Penalties: Godin BAT (0:29, Interference), Leclerc BAT (1:03, High-sticking), Grundy BAT (6:00, High-sticking), Hardie HAL (7:05, Roughing & Unsportsmanlike conduct), Cote BAT (15:37, Unsportsmanlike conduct - misconduct), Chapman BAT (15:37, Unsportsmanlike conduct - misconduct), Grundy BAT (15:37, Unsportsmanlike conduct - misconduct), Hardie HAL (15:37, Unsportsmanlike conduct - misconduct), Lussier HAL (17:46, Cross-checking)
Shots: Bathurst led the third period shots 11-9 but lost total shots 27 to 34

GOALIES
Winning goaltender: Zach Fucale HAL 25 saves
Losing goaltender: Jacob Brennan BAT 19 saves

POWERPLAY
Halifax: 4-for-5
Bathurst: 2-for-6

Note: Vincent Watt`s goal was his first of the season and first of his Quebec Major Junior Hockey League career.

GAMEDAY 28: vs Acadie-Bathurst

IT'S GAMEDAY

HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS vs. ACADIE-BATHURST TITAN

Puck drops at 7:00pm

Metro Centre (10,595) ~ Halifax, NS

PREVIEW - It's finally Friday and another Mooseheads hockey game night. The team has been off since Saturday but we haven't seen them on Metro Centre ice since the 14th of November. It's been too long. Big Jo, Mac and Zach have played this week though helping Team QMJHL sweep the two game series between them and the Russia Selects on Monday and Wednesday. I'm surprised Fucale hasn't burned out yet; considering he's played a lot of hockey since arriving in Halifax two years ago between our championship run last year, Montreal Canadians camps in the summer, Ivan Hlinka tournament in 2012 and now 21 games played this year, but if we are going to return to the playoffs we need him to continue the way he is and for Kevin Darveau to be great when he needs to step in. Darveau will need to step up come December because Zach will most likely get invited to World Junior camp.

But for now, they'll just have to concentrate on this weekend. Acadie will come out hard I'm sure to get revenge for the last meeting where Nik Ehlers and Brent Andrews scored 2 goals each to help the Moose beat the Titan. Fans can get into this one tonight more than usual as BMO will be in attendance looking for big Moose fans in the crowd to win a signed Halifax Mooseheads jersey and a chance to go see the 2014 Memorial Cup. It's our turn to do the BMO CHL Ultimate Fan Contest. So dress up in your best fan attire and get to know your favourite team even more.


This is the fifth meeting between these two teams. The Mooseheads have won all four so far this season and if they win tonight, the Herd will win the season series even though there are still four more games after this one.

THE NUMBERS

Leading scorers
BAT: Scott Oke 18pts (9G & 9A), Raphael Lafontaine 18pts (7G & 11A), Alexandros Soumakis 16pts (9G & 7A), Adam Stevens 16pts (8G & 8A)
HAL: Jonathan Drouin 39pts (13G & 26A), Nikolaj Ehlers 35pts (14G & 21A), Brent Andrews 31pts (14G & 17A)

LAST GAMES
Halifax had 2 goals by Nikolaj Ehlers and Brent Andrews and 4 points (1G&3A) by Jonathan Drouin to beat the Titan 6 days ago on enemy territory. Kevin Darveau made 29 saves as his team doubled up the home team 6-3.

Acadie-Bathurst is coming off a loss against this Halifax team last Saturday in Bathurst. Adam Stevens and Francois Godin had a goal and an assist a piece while Jacob Brennan made 28 saves in the 6-3 loss.

HEAD-TO-HEAD
This season    4-0-0-0   20GF   11GA
September 25   Titan 3 at Mooseheads 5
October 25   Mooseheads 5 at Titan 2
October 26   Titan 3 at Mooseheads 4
November 16   Mooseheads 6 at Titan 3
November 22 @ 7pm   Titan at Mooseheads
January 11 @ 7pm   Titan at Mooseheads
January 19 @ 3pm   Mooseheads at Titan
February 16 @ 3pm   Mooseheads at Titan
February 28 @ 7pm   Mooseheads at Titan
Last season    6-0-2-0   50GF      35GA

NOT PLAYING - Brian Lovell (knee) and Jesse Lussier (concussion) most likely

OUT OF TOWN
Cape Breton at Saint John - 7:30pm
Charlottetown at Chicoutimi - 8:00pm
Victoriaville at Quebec - 8:00pm
Moncton at Baie-Comeau - 8:30pm
Shawinigan at Drummondville - 8:30pm
Gatineau at Rimouski - 8:30pm
Sherbrooke at Rouyn-Noranda - 8:30pm
Blainville at Val-d'Or - 8:30pm

GAME COVERAGE
TV: Eastlink
Live: @MC_MooseCountry, @ABTitanLive
Webcast: TELUS
Radio: News 95.7, CKLE 92.9
Post-game: MooseCountry blog

AFTER THE GAME
Halifax will host the Saint John Sea Dogs on Saturday Night Hockey at the Metro Centre. Puck drops at 7pm.

Drouin named first stars

Jonathan Drouin's awesome week keeps getting better. He was named the captain for Team QMJHL for the Subway Super Series last week and led them to a 3-2 win on Monday night with three assists.

He was announced as the first star for the week ending on November 17 in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Monday. Drouin is the second Moosehead player to be named as one of the TELUS three stars of the week. Congrats Jonathan.

Earlier today, Big Jo was named the CHL Player of the Week by the Canadian Hockey League. He helped lead Halifax to three wins last week, which extend the Herd's win streak to 6, with 10 points in the 3 games. This extended his own point streak to 11 games.

Q takes Game 1

In the first game of the 2013 Subway Super Series, which is between Hockey Canada's three junior leagues and select junior age Russian players, Canada came out on top with the biggest help from Halifax Moosehead Jonathan Drouin.

The first three goals were scored by Quebec Major Junior Hockey League players but the score was only 2-1 for Team QMJHL halfway though the game. Both Q goals in the first 24 minutes were scored by Charles Hudon. Russia's only goal in 2 periods was scored by Moncton Wildcats player Ivan Barbashev. Vladimir Tkachev tied it up at two a piece just over the 6 minute mark in the third.

It looked like the first game would be going to a shootout, no overtime games in this series, but with just over four minutes left Anthony Mantha (surprise surprise) gave the Gatineau fans a feeling of happiness to go home. Of course there was no gaurentee that Quebec would skate away victors unless Zach Fucale continued to stay strong and he did. Drouin assisted on three Team QMJHL goals in the game.

Goals
11:56 QMJ Charles Hudon (1) | A: Drouin
24:02 QMJ Charles Hudon (2) | A: Drouin & Mantha
30:01 RUS Ivan Barbashev (1) | A: Gorbunov & Zykov
46:06 RUS Vladimir Tkachev (1) | A: Tikhonov & Garvrikov
55:53 QMJ Anthony Mantha (1) | A: Drouin & Hudon

Powerplay:  Russia 0-for-5    QMJHL 0-for-6
Goalies:  Ivan Nalimov v. Zach Fucale
Player of the Game:  Charles Hudon
Attendance:  3,252
Arena: Robert Guertin Centre (3,196)


STORIES
The Q News recap (english): Jonathan Drouin had three assists and Charles Hudon had a pair of goals as Team QMJHL beat the Russians 3-2 in the first game of the CHL Subway Series in Gatineau, Que.

qmjhl.ca's recap: Tonight the Under-20 Russian delegation of All-Stars was facing the best of what the QMJHL had to offer in front of a capacity crowd at the Robert-Guertin Centre.

The Chronicle Herald's recap: Anthony Mantha scored the deciding goal, Charles Hudon scored twice and Jonathan Drouin picked up three assists to lead the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League to a 3-2 victory over Russia in the opening game of the Subway Super Series on Monday.

The Q News recap (french): Jonathan Drouin a eu trois passes et Charles Hudon eu une paire de buts et l’équipe de la LHJMQ a battu les Russes 3-2 dans le premier match de la Super Série Subway à Gatineau, au Québec .

The Series will continue in Sherbrooke for Game #2 on Wednesday night. Same time same television channel.

Subway Series starts tomorrow

The Subway Series starts tomorrow if you didn't know. It'll start in Gatineau on Monday when Team QMJHL take on the Russian Selects at 8:00pm Eastern time. Than on Wednesday the series shifts to Sherbrooke same time. Sportsnet will host all 6 games during he series. Team OHL will than take on the Selects in two games on Thursday and Monday November 25 in Oshawa and Sudbury respectively. Russia will travel out west to wrap up the series against Team WHL. Red Deer hosts the two teams on November 27th and Lethbridge will host the last game on November 28th.

Three Mooseheads players will be in attendance; Zach Fucale, Mackenzie Weegar and Jonathan Drouin. Head coach Dominique Ducharme will be helping Benoit Groulx coach Team QMJHL along with Eric Veilleux. Groulx is the head coach of the Gatineau Olympiques while Veileux coaches the Baie-Comeau Drakkar.

Drouin will be assisted by Charles Hudon, of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens, and Dillion Fournier of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.

The players were busy today in Gatineau. Fucale signed some Team QMJHL jerseys while Drouin had interview this evening.

I will have recaps of the two Quebec games and live tweets during the games. Follow The Q News for more coverage. I may have more coverage as the series moves west.

GAMEDAY 26: at Charlottetown

IT'S GAMEDAY

CHARLOTTETOWN ISLANDERS vs. HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS

Puck drops at 7:00pm

Eastlink Centre (3,717) ~ Charlottetown, PEI

PREVIEW - Since the last meeting Halifax has taken over the Islanders for the Maritime division lead and Charlottetown is going the total opposite direction than they were in late October. The Mooseheads will look to gain even more room from the Isles tonight when they visit the Eastlink Centre.


This is the third meeting this season between these two divisional teams. They met about 3 weeks ago in Halifax with the Herd coming out on top 4 to 2. Darcy Ashley scored 2 goals and an assist while Zach Fucale made 22 saves.

THE NUMBERS

Leading scorers
HAL: Jonathan Drouin 32pts (9G & 23A), Nikolaj Ehlers 31pts (12G & 19A), Brent Andrews 28pts (12G & 16A)
CHA: Daniel Sprong 26pts (12G & 14A), Jack Nevins 25pts (9G & 16A), Matel Beran 18pts (8G & 10A)

LAST GAMES
Both teams are coming off wins over the Drummondville Voltigeurs. Charlottetown defeated the Volts on Wednesday night at the Eastlink Centre by a score of 4 to 1. Daniel Sprong added to his team lead by scoring a goal and helping on two others while Antoine Bibeau stopped 29 of 30 shots he faced.

Drummondville than travelled to Halifax and were defeated 5-2 with the Moose scoring five unanswered goals. The comeback by the Herd was powered by plenty of chances on the powerplay, 2 goals by Darcy Ashley (who added an assist) and a rebounded Zach Fucale in the last 40 minutes.

HEAD-TO-HEAD
This season     1-1-0-0   6GF    7GA
September 13   Mooseheads 2 at Islanders 5
October 23  Islanders 2 at Mooseheads 4
November 15 @ 7pm Mooseheads at Islanders
December 8 @ 3pm Mooseheads at Islanders
January 3 @ 7pm Islanders at Mooseheads
January 8 @ 7pm Mooseheads at Islanders
February 19 @ 7pm Islanders at Mooseheads
March 6 @ 7pm Islanders at Mooseheads
March 11 @ 7pm Mooseheads at Islanders
Last season    7-1-0-0    43GF    20GA

NOT PLAYING - Mackenzie Weegar is looking to play tonight; Brian Lovell, Vince Watt and Liam Alcalde will probably be the scratches

OUT OF TOWN
Moncton at Bathurst - 7:00pm
Rimouski at Cape Breton - 7:00pm
Shawinigan at Quebec - 8:00pm
Saint John at Sherbrooke - 8:00pm
Blainville at Victoriaville - 8:00pm
Val-d'Or at Baie-Comeau - 8:30pm
Rouyn-Noranda at Gatineau - 8:30pm

GAME COVERAGE
TV: Eastlink
Live: @islandersgmday, @CoolenTQN
Radio: News 95.7
Webcast: TELUS
Postgame: MooseCountry blog

AFTER THE GAME
Just like last time, Halifax will travel to New Brunswick to take on the Acadie-Bathurst Titan in the first game of a home and home series. Puck drops at 7pm.

POSTGAME: Voltigeurs 2, Mooseheads 5

MC POST-GAME
Don't know what Coach Ducharme said but it clearly worked

FINAL: Voltigeurs 2 at Mooseheads 5
50/50 Winning Draw: $7,057
Three stars: 3. Drouin HAL | 2. Murphy HAL | 1. Ashley HAL
Attendance: 6,920
MC Top Herd: Jonathan Drouin

The Canadian Press' recap: Darcy Ashley had two goals and an assist to lead the Halifax Mooseheads to their fifth win in a row, 5-2 over the Drummondville Voltigeurs in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action on Thursday.

Metro Halifax's recap: Zach Fucale never wavered after the Drummondville Voligeurs fired a pair of power play goals passed the Halifax Mooseheads netminder on their first three shots.

The Chronicle Herald's recap: It took a a comeback effort to do it but the Halifax Mooseheads extended their winning streak to five games Thursday night at the Metro Centre.

halifaxmooseheads.ca's recap: The Mooseheads stormed back from a 2-0 1st period deficit to beat a pesky Drummondville Voltigeurs squad Thursday night in Moose Country before 6,920 at the Metro Centre.

The Q News' recap: Matt Murphy scored once and added two assists in the Halifax Mooseheads 5-2 victory over the visiting Drummondville Voltigeurs on Thursday night at the Halifax Metro Centre.

qmjhl.ca's recap: Game summary.

MISSING IN ACTION: Mac Weegar, Brian Lovell, Vince Watt and Liam Alcalde were all out because of injuries

FIRST PERIOD
The Moose played their worst period of the season last night in the first 20 minutes. They were outshot 9 to 4 and were down 2-0 going into the first intermission. Whatever coach Dom said to the boys certainly worked as they stormed back. Zach Fucale let in the goals on Drummondville's first 3 shots.

POWERPLAY
In the first period the powerplay was in favour of Drummondville as the Volts scored both of their goals with the man advantage. In the second, the powerplay helped the Herd get back in it. Even though Halifax didn't score on the pp in the middle frame, most of their 17 shots came with the men advantage.

THREE POINTS
Matt Murphy, Jonathan Drouin and Darcy Ashley had three point nights. Murphy had a goal and 2 assists. Drouin had three assists while Ashley scored his 11th and 12th goals of the season and added a helper. Last night was Matt's third 3 point night this month.

BAILEY
Brennan Bailey was called up to take the place of Mackenzie Weegar who is injured.

EHLERS
Nik Ehlers was hit hard in the second and laid on the ice for a few minutes. The refs whistled down the play and the Moose's therapist went out to check if he was okay. Ehlers was able to skate to the bench by himself and not miss a shift.

MEIER
Swedish rookie Timo Meier scored his 8th goal of the season EIGHT seconds into the third period. It is tied for the 3rd fastest goal in franchise history. Surprising it's not the fastest goal.

OTHER SCORES
Foreurs 4 - 2 Sagueneens
Sea Dogs 2 - 4 Tigres

UP NEXT
Halifax travels to Prince Edward Island today to take on the Charlottetown Islanders at the Eastlink Centre. Puck drops at 7pm.

Herd Word

LEWIS
Trey Lewis was the odd man out when the Halifax Moosehads made their decision about their overagers on Tuesday. With Lewis injured and the only way for him to be 100% is to get surgery, which takes about 9 months to recover, the Moose decided to keep Brendan Duke as their third 20 year old. Trey returned home after the news and will now play for the Miramichi Timberwolves. He will be playing through the pain in the Maritime Junior A League as he is set to make his debut tonight against the Weeks Crushers in Pictou County.

Dan Robertson of Eastlink wrote a nice story about Trey's time in Halifax.

CAPTAINS
Jonathan Drouin has been named the Team QMJHL captain for the Subway Super Series. Charles Hudon, Dillion Fournier and Felix Girard were named the alternates this afternoon. The team will start the 6 game series on Monday and play again on Wednesday.

BMO RANKINGS
Your Moosehads returned to the top 10 this week in the BMO CHL rankings after being left out in week 8. With 4 straight wins the Moose were ranked #10 nationally.

SUBWAY SERIES
Talking about the Subway Series, I will have recaps and possibly even previews of the two QMJHL versus Russia games when it gets underway next week in Gatineau. All games will be broadcasted on Sportnet television starting at 8pm Atlantic time for the two Quebec ones.

GAMEDAY 25: vs Drummondville

IT'S GAMEDAY

HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS vs. DRUMMONDVILLE VOLTIGEURS

Puck drops at 7pm

Metro Centre (10,595) ~ Halifax, NS

PREVIEW - Well they finally did it and now they'll try to extend it. The Halifax Mooseheads finally got over there three straight wins curse and won their fourth in a row on Saturday when they took on the Saint John Sea Dogs. Tonight they will try to make it 5 in a row against a tough Drummondville team. With points in his last 8 games, Jonathan Drouin has caught up to rookie Nikolaj Ehlers for the team lead in scoring. This will also be the first game of a 3 in 3 night swing that will travel to the other two Atlantic provinces.  


Your Mooseheads lead the season series 1-0 as this is the second and last game between these two teams. Timo Meier scored twice and Zach Fucale made 22 saves in a 3-2 win in Drummondville for Halifax.

THE NUMBERS

Leading scorers
DRU: Christophe Lalancette 26pts (8G & 18A), Georgs Golovkovs 24pts (9G & 15A), Jerome Verrier 23pts (16G & 7A)
HAL: Nikolaj Ehlers 30pts (12G & 18A), Jonathan Drouin 29pts (9G & 20A), Brent Andrews 27pts (12G & 15A)

LAST GAMES
Halifax welcome the Sea Dogs on Saturday and almost didn't win their fourth straight but an empty net goal by Jonathan Drouin sealed the 7-5 win. Nikolaj Ehlers, Matt Murphy and Brent Andrews all scored 2 goals and Drouin added 3 assists to help with goal total while Zach Fucale had to stop 17 shots.

Drummondville travelled to the newly named Eastlink Centre on the Island last night and came away with a 4-1 loss against the Charlottetown Islanders. Joey Ratelle scored the only goal for the Volts while goalie Joe Fleschler made 24 saves.

HEAD-TO-HEAD
October 6  Mooseheads 3 at Voltigeurs 2
November 14 @ 7pm  Voltigeurs at Mooseheads

NOT PLAYING - I don't even know anymore :P Mac Weegar is out with an ankle sprain

OUT OF TOWN
Val-d'Or at Chicoutimi - 8:00pm
Saint John at Victoriaville - 8:00pm

GAME COVERAGE
TV: None
Live: @MC_MooseCountry (a bit), @HFXMooseheads
Radio: News 95.7
Webcast: TELUS
Post-game: The Chronicle Herald

AFTER THE GAME
Halifax will travel to PEI to take on the Charlottetown Islanders. Puck drops at 7pm.

3 Moose Named in Players to Watch

The Halifax Mooseheads continue to be good with draft eligible players. There are three Moose players ranked in the National Hockey League Central Scouting Services Players to Watch for November that was released today. Nikolaj Ehlers, Matt Murphy and Danny Moynihan are on the list.

Ehlers is rated as an 'A' player which means the CSS thinks he will go in the first round. If he continues the way he is, leading the team and league in rookie scoring, he should go mid first round in the 2014 NHL Draft. Here's a story about Nik on the NHL website about being upgraded to an A player

Both Murphy and Moynihan are rated as 'C' players which means they are projected to go in the 4th round or lower (5th, 6th, etc.). This is the second year of draft eligibility for Matt Murphy who was projected to go late in last year's draft but never got picked. He didn't go unnoticed however as he was invited to the St. Louis Blues development camp in the summer.

This is pretty good for all three players. Check back later in the season as we see how this story goes.

Full list

Breaking: Boudreau to Tigres

A week after former Moosehead Dominic Beachemin was traded to Rimouski after spending the first two months of the season with Acadie-Bathurst, another former Herd player has been traded.

The Shawinigan Cataractes announced today that they have traded Matt Boudreau to the Victriaville Tigres. Boudreau was the only player in this deal as Shawinigan receives Victoriaville's 4th and 9th round picks in the 2014 QMJHL Draft.

Boudreau was originally traded a day before the 2013 QMJHL draft in June to the Cataractes by the Halifax Mooseheads. Halifax recieved their first round pick 2014.

Good luck to Matt in Victoriaville. Moose fans will get to see him in a new sweater for the first time on December 5.