More Moose Win Championships

Photo - Daniel Sparre's Twitter

Former Halifax Mooseheads Kornad Abeltshauser and Daniel Sparre, as well as former goaltending coach Patrick Dallaire captured the DEL championship on Friday night. Konrad did not play in the championship game because of a broken leg. Their EHC Munchen RedBulls defeated Wolfsburg in the championship game. Sparre had a goal and an assist in the tournament.




Otto Somppi will come back to the Herd in August as a champion. Somppi was participating in the Under 18 World Championships this past week and helped his Team Finland skate to victory. The 18 year old forward had a goal in the gold medal game as the Finns defeated Team Sweden 6-1 last night in Grand Forks, ND. Earlier in the tournament the Helsinki native had an assist in the first match while also being named player of the game against Canada.

Photo - Otto Somppi's Twitter

Halifax's assistant coach Jim Midgley and Team Canada fell Team USA 10-3 in the bronze medal game. Midgley was the Canadians video coach during the tournament.

Congratulations to all players!!

Final Four in Playoffs Determined

The final four teams in the 2016 President's Cup playoffs have now been determined after the Saint John/Cape Breton series finished last night with game 7.

It will be Cavan Fitzgerald, Danny Moynihan and the Shawinigan Cataractes against Matt Murphy, Jordan King and the Sea Dogs in one semi final while Timo Meier and the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies are pitted against Cody Donaghey and the Moncton Wildcats in the other series. Game 1 for both series will start on Friday night.

Or as Jamie Tozer of the Sea Dogs fan blog Station Nation put it:




I got to say that this has been one of the most entertaining playoff years in recent memory. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the final four. I predict that Rouyn-Noranda and Shawinigan will be the finalists, both in six games.

Halifax Win Rights to 1st Overall Pick

Photo - Mikael Lalancette on Twitter

For only the second time in team history, you're Halifax Mooseheads will pick first overall at the QMJHL draft. The Herd won the coin flip today to secure the top pick in the upcoming draft that will be held in Charlottetown, PEI on June 4th. Halifax was one of two teams that were apart of the flip after finishing the 2015-16 season in 17th place with 21 wins and 50 points. The other team was the Baie-Comeau Drakkar who finished last with 14 victories and 33 points.

As you can see from the picture above, it wasn't exactly a coin flip that the league did. Both teams had 3 lapel pins put into plastic eggs which were then dropped into a bingo drum with one pin falling out to select the winner.


General manager Cam Russell had this to say after the event;

“It’s going to be an exciting day for our organization and our fans and we are looking forward to selecting a very good hockey player.” 

The Mooseheads also have the 7th and 15th overall picks from trades they made this past season as part of the rebuild the team is currently in.

Should be a fun summer. There is no definitive top choice as there was last year but Benoit Groulx and Halifax native Jared MacIsaac could either potentially be selected by the Moose.

Herd Word

QAURTERFINAL MATCHES SET
The quarter final match ups for the 2016 QMJHL playoffs are now set and all 5 Moose alumni are still in it. Former captain Timo Meier helped a dominant first place Rouyn-Noranda Huskies move on to the second round in 4 games, scoring a league best 13 points. Cavan Fitzgerald and Danny Moynihan scored 7 points each to get the Shawinigan Cataractes to the quarter finals for the first time since 2012. Veteran defensemen Cody Donaghey and Matt Murphy patrolled the blue line for the Moncton Wildcats and Saint John Sea Dogs respectively as 4 Maritimes division teams won their first round series'. The 13th Blainville-Boisbraind Armada had the biggest upset of the year, defeating the 4th place Val-d'Or Foreurs in 6 games.

Here are the quarterfinal match ups
#1 Rouyn-Noranda Huskies vs. #13 Blainville-Boisbriand Armada
#2 Shawinigan Cataractes vs. #9 Charlottetown Islanders
#3 Saint John Sea Dogs vs. #7 Cape Breton Screaming Eagles
#5 Gatineau Olympiques vs. #6 Moncton Wildcats

I'm predicting Rouyn-Noranda in 5 games, Shawinigan in 6 games, Saint John in 6 games, and Gatineau in 7 games

COACHES
Both Halifax Mooseheads' assistant coaches will be doing more coaching this spring as Jim Midgley was named to Canada's U18 coaching staff and Jon Greenwood will head coach Nova Scotia's U16 team. Midgley has left already for Grand Forks to be the video coach for the U18 National Championship that begins April 14. Greenwood will go to Quebec for the Gatorade Excellence Challenge that showcases draft eligible players for this year's QMJHL draft. Check out this link to get more information on the Challenge.

Photo - theqmjhl.ca

BRASSARD
Former Mooseheads goaltender Eric Brassard has signed a pro contract. The ECHL Brampton Beast announced on Tuesday that they have signed the 20 year old to a standard player contract. The Longueuil, QC native played in 44 games and posted a 0.892 save percentage while collecting 13 wins.

Congrats to Eric on getting a contract after a very good junior career. I am guessing that he will be invited to the Beast's training camp in September.

Photo - Herd Twitter

COIN FLIP
Tomorrow is a big day for Dom Ducharme and his staff as the Halifax Mooseheads look to get stronger for the next few seasons. The Herd and 18th place Baie-Comeau Drakkar will take part in a coin flip on Thursday afternoon at 1:00pm Atlantic time and you can watch it live on Facebook. The 'event' is to determine who will get the first overall pick in the upcoming Q draft.

For more info click here.