GAMEDAY #1: at Saint John

GAME PREVIEW
SAINT JOHN SEA DOGS VS HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS
Puck drops at 7:00pm
TV: Rogers | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @HFXMooseheads
Harbour Station (6,308) ~ Saint John, NB

Zadina vs. Veleno. Banner raising. New coaches. The first game of the QMJHL regular season promises to be a good one with lots of story lines as your Halifax Mooseheads visit the Saint John Sea Dogs tonight. Depending on who you ask, rookie Filip Zadina of your Mooseheads and the Sea Dogs' Joseph Veleno are likely to be the top Q league players to be selected in the 2018 NHL draft next June. While Halifax is on the rise, Saint John is coming over a championship year in 2016-17 and have lost the services of many key veteran players so they are projected to be at the bottom of the standings. The Mooseheads meanwhile are hoping to fight for the top of the division this season with Bathurst. Since it is the opening match, the Sea Dogs will be raising their President's Cup banner to the rafters of Harbour Station in a pre-game ceremony. Another story going into this evening is that both teams are starting the season with new head coaches. After the departure of Andre Tourigney, who went to coach the Ottawa 67's, the Herd promoted Jim Midgley to the top coaching position. Saint John found themselves needing to find a new bench boss after Danny Flynn stepped down and are now under the eye of Josh Dixon, who served as an assistant coach of the Regina Pats for 3 years. The Moose will also have the services of Maxime Fortier and Jocktan Chainey back after their pro teams decided to reassign both players to junior for the year. The return of the two vets will sure make the red and green even more of a threat out of the gate.

This is the first matchup between the two teams this season. Last year, Halifax was 2-6-0-0 against the Sea Dogs while Saint John had a 6-2-0-0 record versus the Mooseheads. The last matchup in the regular season between Halifax and Saint John was March 18 where Max Fortier had the lone goal for the Herd in a 2-1 loss on home ice. 

OVERALL RECORDS
Mooseheads: 0-0-0-0 = 0 points (T-1st in Maritimes division, T-1st overall)
Sea Dogs: 0-0-0-0 = 0 points (T-1st in Maritimes division, T-1st overall)

LEADING SCORERS
SNB: n/a
HAL: n/a

PREVIOUS GAMES
The two teams met on Friday evening in both teams last pre-season match. Halifax came out on top on home ice beating the Sea Dogs 4-3 where rookies Filip Zadina and Xavier Parent led the Mooseheads with a goal and assist each. Saint John's Joel Goguen made 19 saves to take the loss while Alexis Gravel had 39 saves in the win.

NOT DRESSED- Walter Flower (injury), Otto Somppi (NHL camp), Arnaud Durandeau (NHL camp) and Jordan Lepage (injury)

ALUM ON SEA DOGS
None

HEAD-TO-HEAD
September 21  Halifax at Saint John - 7pm
November 17  Saint John at Halifax - 7pm
November 25  Halifax at Saint John - 7pm
January 6  Halifax at Saint John - 7pm
January 27  Saint John at Halifax - 7pm
January 28  Saint John at Halifax - 3pm
February 9  Halifax at Saint John - 7pm
March 14  Saint John at Halifax - 7pm