GAMEDAY #57: vs. Rimouski

GAMEDAY
HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS VS RIMOUSKI OCEANIC
Puck drops at 2pm
TV: Webcast | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @MC_MooseCountry
Scotiabank Centre (10,595) ~ Halifax, NS

School's out so why not bring the family to an afternoon hockey game as your Halifax Mooseheads take on the Rimouski Oceanic on Family Day. The Oceanic are one of the hottest teams coming in to today's match as winners of five straight and have also clinched a spot in the playoffs leading the East division. Halifax will look to give another performance like Friday evening where they scored a home record 12 goals in a big victory over Moncton but with both teams coming into this afternoon's competition separated by just one point, expect a tight low scoring game. This will be the lone time that Moose Country will see 16 year old phenom Alexis Lefreniere who is now tied with Mooseheads' forward Filip Zadina a top the rookie scoring leaders with 67 points. Lafreniere actually leads the Oceanic in scoring while for part of the season Zadina led the Herd but was passed by veteran Otto Somppi a few weeks ago. We should be in for a very exciting game and with 6 home matches after today there's no better time to come cheer on for the Herd as everyone looks to finish off the season strong before the playoffs.

This is the first game between these two teams. Halifax was 1-1-0-0 against the Oceanic last season while Rimouski had a 1-1-0-0 record versus the Mooseheads. The last matchup was on January 29, 2017 where Rimouski came away with a 5-4 home victory with Halifax getting goals from four different players.

OVERALL RECORDS
Oceanic: 36-14-5-1 = 78 points (1st in East division, 3rd overall)
Mooseheads: 36-13-6-1 = 79 points (1st in Maritimes division, 2nd overall)

LEADING SCORERS
HAL: Otto Somppi 71pts (23G & 48A), Filip Zadina 67pts (37G & 30A), Maxime Fortier 66pts (28G & 38A)
RIM: Alexis Lafreniere 67pts (35G & 32A), Mathieu Nadeau 60pts (20G & 40A), Samuel Dove-McFalls 59pts (19G & 40A)

PREVIOUS GAMES
Rimouski is coming off a 8-3 victory against the Wildcats in Moncton on Sunday afternoon. Alexis Lafreniere led the Oceanic with 2 goals and an assist while goalie Colten Ellis stopped 26 shots to get the win.

Halifax defeated the Wildcats on home ice Friday night, winning 12-5. Benoit-Olivier Groulx led the Mooseheads with a career game of 2 goals and five points while Alexis Gravel made 32 saves to get the victory against Moncton.

HEAD-TO-HEAD
February 19  Rimouski at Halifax - 2pm
March 6  Halifax at Rimouski - 8:30pm

ALUM ON OCEANIC - Jordan Lepage

AFTER THE BUZZER
Halifax will go on the road for a game and take on the Charlottetown Islanders in a mid-week match. Puck drops at 7pm.