2015 Ended Right

That's how you end a year! Your Halifax Mooseheads were coming into tonight's matchup on a 5 game losing streak but were able to put a stop to it against the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles on home ice. The New Year's Eve match was the second of a home and home series between the two Nova Scotia rivals. As such, both teams wore special blue and white NS themed jerseys for their annual Battle of Nova Scotia after Christmas games (missed last season). Each team won their home game this week. Veteran Danny Moynihan, returning from being sick with the flu earlier in the week, powered the offence with 4 assists and rookie Otto Somppi had his first multi goal game, scoring twice, including the overtime winner on the powerplay. Danny's younger brother Connor, a forward, suited up on the back end because Morgan Nauss and Walter Flower were out with injuries leaving the Mooseheads with 5 actual dmen. Halifax got off to a quick start scoring twice on 4 shots but Cape Breton battled back in the second and took a 4-2 lead 6 minutes into the third period. Jocktain Chainey, who the Herd traded for before Christmas, picked up his first goal as a Moosehead to tie the game at 4 in the last two minutes of regulation with a nice slap shot.

FINAL: Screaming Eagles 4 at Mooseheads 5 OT
Stars: 3. D Moynihan HAL | 2. C Moynihan HAL | 1. Sorrentino CAP
Attendance: 7,426
MC's Top Herd: Connor Moynihan

GAME LOG
First period
2:13 HAL Taylor Ford (5) | A: D Moynihan
4:46 HAL Otto Somppi (5) | A: C Moynihan & Shewfelt
11:48 CAP Phelix Martineau (10) | A: Fournier

Second period
9:23 CAP Anthony Sorrentino (11) | A: Fournier & Hoyt
13:29 CAP Anthony Sorrentino (12) | A: Smith & Hoyt

Third period
6:00 CAP Clark Bishop (11) | A: Leveille & Dubois
7:58 HAL Jean-Sebastien Taillefer (3) | A: D Moynihan
18:48 HAL Jocktain Chainey (2), PP | A: Fortier & D Moynihan

Overtime period
1:18 HAL Otto Somppi (6), PP | A: D Moynihan & Fortier

Powerplay: CAP - 0-for-0, HAL - 2-for-6
Shots: 36-29 in favour of Cape Breton

Scores
Acadie-Bathurst 5 at Moncton 4 SO
Drummondville 1 at Rouyn-Noranda 2 OT
Quebec 1 at Rimouski 2 OT
Sherbrooke 4 at Shawinigan 7
Gatineau 6 at Victoriaville 5 OT
Blainville-Boisbriand 0 at Val-d'Or 4
Chicoutimi 4 at Baie-Comeau 3 SO
Charlottetown 2 at Saint John 3

UP NEXT: Your Mooseheads will travel to Charlottetown to take on the Islanders on Sunday afternoon. Puck drops at 3pm.

Mooseheads Rebuild Showing

Your Halifax Mooseheads finished the first half of the regular season on Friday night on the road with a 3-1 loss against the Saint John Sea Dogs. The boys might be thankful for this break but there's also nervousness I am sure for the veterans on the team. Coming into the season, Halifax was one of two of the youngest teams in the QMJHL and after a couple of trades this past weekend they have gotten even younger.

Cavan Fitzgerald
Photo - Metro News

The Mooseheads traded 19 year old Cavan Fitzgerald, who leads the team's defenceman in scoring, for rookie Jocktan Chainey and a draft pick. Overager Cody Donaghey also got traded for Halifax native Michael O'Leary and two picks. Will we see more trades? Most likely and it might include two of the Herd's leading scorers in Timo Meier and Danny Moynihan. Halifax has a 12-18-4-1 record going into Christmas break which has them tied for 15th overall in the QMJHL with 29 points. It's been an okay season so far for the Moose, there's been outstanding performances, a few first goals for rookies at the beginning and some high scoring games. Halifax played it's 1500th regular season game on Thursday night. There's also been some disappointments, like a devastating loss to 18th place Baie-Comeau, un-balanced scoring and inconsistency. But keep in mind that the Mooseheads are in a rebuild year so this is quite normal. As you might've noticed in my first half statistics on Sunday, the Herd are being led by veteran Danny Moynihan in scoring. Moynihan's 42 points in the first half is good enough for 18th overall in league scoring. Helsink, Finland native Otto Somppi, who Halifax drafted in the 2015 CHL import draft, is the top rookie scorer for the Mooseheads and is in the top 10 in the league.

Halifax will look to turn their 4 game losing streak around when they host Donaghey and the Moncton Wildcats on Monday night but they'll be in tough. The Cats have won all but one game against our boys and with the additions they made, I don't see them getting any easier to beat. The Mooseheads will then travel up north to start a home and home against provincial rivals Cape Breton Screaming Eagles before the end of 2015.

Good luck to the Mooseheads the rest of the season, I look forward to it.

STATS SUNDAY: First half

Games played: 35
Record: 12-18-4-1, 29pts
Goals for/against: 100/127
Powerplay*: 16.6% (16th)
Penalty kill*: 80.1% (5th)

Top 5 leading scorers
Points: Danny Moynihan 42, Maxime Fortier 40, Timo Meier 36, Cavan Fitzgerald 26, Otto Somppi 23
Goals: Danny Moynihan 23, Maxime Fortier 19, Timo Meier 11, Cavan Fitzgerald 10, Andrew Shewfelt 6
Assists: Timo Meier 25, Maxime Fortier 21, Otto Somppi 20, Danny Moynihan 19, Cavan Fitzgerald 16
Penalty minutes: Connor Moynihan 66, Kelly Bent 66, Jean-Sebastian Taillefer 50, Taylor Ford 45, Danny Moynihan 38
Plus/minus: Timo Meier +7, Walter Flower +5, Danny Moynihan +1, Domenico Argento 0, Joel Bishop 0
Rookie scoring: Otto Somppi 23, Arnaud Durandeau 9, Ilya Putintsev 9, Joel Bishop 6, Cooper Jones 4

Goaltending stats
Eric Brassard: 10-10-2-1    3.17 GAA    0.901 SAV%
Kevin Resop: 2-8-2-0    4.08 GAA    0.865 SAV%

TRADE: Fitzgerald sent to Cataractes

According to the Shawinigan Cataractes Twitter they have traded for 19 year old Caven Fitzgerald of your Halifax Mooseheads. The league hasn't made the trade official yet and the Herd haven't reported anything about it either as of now.

In return, Halifax is said to get rookie Jocktan Chainey and a 3rd round pick in the 2016 QMJHL draft.

World Junior Camp Rosters Announced

There will be some current Halifax Mooseheads in Finland this month for the 2016 World Junior Hockey Championships.

While no player on the Herd will be suiting up for Team Canada this year, there will be a couple of Mooseheads personnel behind the bench. Head Coach Dominique Ducharme has been asked to assist in coaching duties and equipment manager Chris MacDonald will serve in the same capacity during the 10 day tournament. The two were not behind the bench on Friday night when Halifax hosted the Saint John Sea Dogs as Canada's selection camp began today.

Halifax's captain Timo Meier was invited to Team Switzerland's camp but will no doubtedly be named to the final roster on Christmas Day. Some believe the 19 year old will be given a letter as well when the tournament starts. The Harisau, Switzerland native left for the team's camp in Lenzerheide this morning.

Former Moose forward Nikolaj Ehlers was invited to Team Denmark's camp as well. The 19 year old is one of two returning players on the Danish team that received their first ever win at the world junior level during last year's tournament. With his experience in the National Hockey League, Ehlers should provide some good leadership though it's yet to be seen if the Winnipeg Jets will let him go.

Canada, Denmark and Switzerland are in the same group this year. The 2016 tournament will run from December 26, 2015 to January 5, 2016 in Helsinki, Finland.

Dec 11: Mooseheads vs. Sea Dogs preview

GAMEDAY

HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS VS SAINT JOHN SEA DOGS

Puck drops at 7:00pm

TV: Webcast | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @MC_MooseCountry

Scotiabank Centre (10,595) ~ Halifax, NS

Tonight, the Mooseheads will welcome back Matt Murphy but he'll be in enemy colours after getting traded from the Quebec Remparts to the Saint John Sea Dogs yesterday. This will add another level of excitement when these two teams play for the rest of the season and should give the Dogs a veteran presence while they make their run for the President's Cup later in the year. Saint John is the better team in this game but Halifax showed on the weekend that they can play against the top teams in the league for most of the game. Timo Meier will be playing his last game before Christmas break tonight as he will leave for Finland tomorrow for the 2016 World Junior Championships. It'll be interesting to see who will suit up with Max Fortier and Danny Moynihan while Meier is gone but for now this top line will have to keep scoring like they have been all season if the Mooseheads want to defeat the Dogs.

Overall Records
Sea Dogs: 18-11-2-0 = 38 points (2nd in Maritimes division, 8th overall)
Mooseheads: 11-16-3-1 = 26 points (5th in Maritimes division, 16th overall)

Leading Scorers
HAL: Maxime Fortier 36pts (16G & 20A), Danny Moynihan 35pts (20G & 15A), Timo Meier 30pts (9G & 21A)
SNB: Mathieu Joseph 27pts (14G & 13A), Matthew Highmore 27pts (9G & 18A), Sam Povorozniouk 23pts (14G & 9A)

Last Games
Saint John is coming off 6-2 victory in Moncton on Wednesday night. Luke Green and Mathieu Joseph each scored 2 goals to lead the Sea Dogs while Marc-Antoine Turcotte stopped 29 of the Wildcats' 31 shots.

Halifax is coming off a disappointing 6-1 loss on Saturday night to the Foreurs. Cody Donaghey scored the lone goal for the Mooseheads while Kevin Resop made 29 saves to pick up the loss against Val-d'Or.

Season Series
Head to Head: 1-1-1-0 = 3 points
September 12  Halifax 2 at Saint John 5
September 19  Saint John 1 at Halifax 5
November 14  Saint John 3 at Halifax 2 OT
December 11  Saint John at Halifax - 7pm
December 18  Halifax at Saint John - 7pm
February 25  Halifax at Saint John - 7pm

Out of Town
Titan vs Voltigeurs 7:00pm
Screaming Eagles vs Oceanic 7:00pm
Islanders vs Wildcats 7:00pm
Remparts vs Sagueneens 8:00pm
Phoenix vs Drakkar 8:00pm
Huskies vs Cataractes 8:30pm
Foreurs vs Olympiques 8:30pm

After the Buzzer
The Drummondville Voltigeurs will be visiting Moose Country on Sunday afternoon. Puck drops at 3pm.

UPDATED: Murphy traded to Maritimes division team

Photo - Getty Images

Former Halifax Mooseheads player Matt Murphy has been traded to the Saint John Sea Dogs by the Quebec Remparts, the teams announced today. Saint John is sending overager Adam Bateman, prospect Pierre-Luc Lurette and a second round pick in both 2016 and 2018. The 20 year old defenceman is in his last season of his junior career and was named captain of the Remparts this year.

Murphy was drafted by the Val-d'Or Foreurs in 2011 and played a season and a half with them before being traded to the Mooseheads during the 2013 winter trade period. Halifax than traded him and goaltender Zach Fucale to the Remparts a year ago, a move that Quebec was hoping would give them a better chance of winning the President's Cup this past season.

The Fredericton, New Brunswick native has scored 26 goals and 137 points in 284 games so far in his career.

Good luck Matt in Saint John. Fans can see him on Friday night on home ice when the Sea Dogs invade Scotiabank Centre at 7pm.