Herd Word

UNIVERSITY CUP
On Sunday, the University Cup was handed out in Saskatoon, which may or may not be a coincidence with the city hosting the Memorial Cup. The Maritimes were well represented in the finals as both AUS teams made it with the Saint Mary's Huskies and the UNB Varsity Reds battling it out. UNB was the only team to go undefeated in the tournament. The V-Reds won by a score of 2-0 at the Credit Union Centre. Former Mooseheads players Bryce Swan, Cam Critchlow and Colby Pridham all won with the New Brunswick team.

PREVIEW
The Mooseheads play-by-play man John Moore recorded a little preview of the upcoming Saint John/Halifax series.

ROUND ONE
Playoffs are finally here as they start tonight at 7:00pm. Here are the Quebec league round one battles:

Saint John Sea Dogs vs. Halifax Mooseheads

Sherbrooke Phoenix vs. Baie-Comeau Drakkar

Acadie-Bathurst Titan vs. Blainville-Boisbraind Armada

Gatineau Olympiques vs. Rimouski Oceanic

Chicoutimi Sagueneens vs. Quebec Remparts

Victoriaville Tigres vs. Moncton Wildcats

Val-d'Or Foreurs vs. PEI Rocket

Drummondville Voltigeurs vs. Rouyn-Noranda Huskies

The Mooseheads and Sea Dogs don't start their series until Friday night with back-to-back weekend games. Puck drops at 7pm for both games. Good luck to all teams especially the Moose as the playoffs get ready to roll. GO MOOSE GO!

TV
Game one of the Halifax/Saint John playoff series will be televised in the Maritimes on Eastlink TV Friday night. Coverage starts at 6:30pm/ET.

RANKINGS
Your Mooseheads go into the 2013 playoffs ranked #1 in the Canadian Hockey League. They were ranked the top guns in the final BMO CHL MasterCard Top 10 Rankings of the season that were released yesterday afternoon.

DEMOTED
After the NHL returned to action on January 19th after the lockout, six junior players were able to crack the rosters of their pro teams. Two of them however were returned to their junior clubs just before the end of CHL regular season on Sunday. Mikhail Grigorenko was returned to the Quebec Remparts and recorded 4 points in his first game back, while Stefan Matteau was returned to Blainville-Boisbraind and has yet to play a game. Mikhail and Stefan were returned by the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils respectively to help their junior teams in the playoffs.

MACAULAY
Forward Stephen MacAulay will play against his former team; the Saint John Sea Dogs, in the first round of the playoffs. He was unable to play in the last regular season game between the two teams on Friday as he was grieving his mother's death. Many of the Sea Dogs, including former SJ player Jonathan Huberdeau, went to the funeral Friday morning before the game that night to support their former teammate. He returned to the lineup on Sunday afternoon.

He will look to play in his fourth straight league final and third straight Memorial Cup. He will also be looking to win his third straight President's Cup after winning the last 2 with the Dogs. Stephen finished 8th in team scoring while recording 13 goals and 13 assists for 26 points in 25 games with the Herd.

DROUIN
A twenty-nine game scoring streak was finished on the last day of the season. Because Jonathan Drouin was unable to record any points against the Screaming Eagles on Sunday he ended the season 2nd overall in league scoring. Despite only playing 49 games, he finished with 2.14 points per game, 0.52 more then league leading Ben Duffy.

WEEGAR
Rookie defenceman MacKenzie Weegar ended the season atop the QMJHL plus/minus board with a +55. He became the first team defenceman to have a +/- rating 50 or higher. How he is not nominated for a defenceman award is beyond me. Halifax holds 10 other spots in the first 15 players with boys at #2, #3, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #11, #13 and #15.

ASHLEY
I would like to again congratulate Darcy Ashley on being named Dickies Hardest Working Player of the Year for the QMJHL. He was named with the honour on March 6th and was given a special jersey on Friday night. He also receives a $1,000 scholarship and $200 in Dickies merchandise.

FUCALE
Zachary finished the season with 45 wins on the season and a 2.35 goals against average which is a new franchise record. He will look to continue his success in the playoffs all the way to Saskatoon.