Sept 30: Wildcats vs. Mooseheads preview

MONCTON WILDCATS VS HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS
September 30, 2018 at 4:00pm
TV: Webcast | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @MC_MooseCountry
Avenir Centre (8,800) ~ Moncton, NB

It's the first trip for our Halifax Mooseheads to the new 8,000+ seat arena in Moncton, the Avenir Centre. The arena hosted the Wildcats' home opener on Friday evening and it was quite a spectacle according to the different social media accounts. Halifax heads to Moncton with a lot of offence added to front end after a couple of more trades last weekend but the club is still dealing with some minor injuries. The Mooseheads have never begun a season with three straight wins in team history before this year, they have gone undefeated twice before in their first 3 games but those were all ties. Halifax has the offense to extend their win streak this afternoon when they visit the Moncton Wildcats but questions about goaltending and defence have been swarming around the club since the opening of training camp. However, as the season goes on and the Herd continue to pick up victories, the questions will go away. The Wildcats have a number of new players on their team as well this year including to new goaltenders. Moncton is back stopped by an overager and a 16 year old rookie in net which is different. With the offense of the Moose and the younger talent of the Cats, the thousands of fans in attendance (including almost 100 Moose fans) should be in for a good game.

This is the first meeting between these two teams. Halifax was 6-2-1-0 against the Wildcats last year while Moncton had a 3-4-2-0 record versus the Mooseheads. The last matchup saw the Mooseheads pick up a 7-4 victory in the final weekend of the season on March 16 where Raphael Lavoie scored twice and assisted on another while Blade Mann-Dixon made 26 saves for the home win. 

Overall Records
Mooseheads: 3-0-0-0 = 6pts (3rd overall, 1st in Maritimes division)
Wildcats: 2-1-0-0 = 4pts (7th overall, 3rd in Maritimes division)

Leading Scorers
MON: Jeremy McKenna 6pts (1G & 5A), Jordan Spence 4pts (1G & 3A), Adam Capannelli 4pts (4A)
HAL: Arnaud Durandeau 5pts (3G & 2A), Raphael Lavoie 4pts (3G & 1A), Patrick Kyte 4pts (2G & 2A)

Previous Games
Halifax is coming off a 4-2 victory in Cape Breton on Friday evening against the Screaming Eagles. Raphael Lavoie had a couple of goals to get the Mooseheads started while Alexis Gravel made 28 saves to get the win.

Moncton christened their new digs with a 5-2 win over the visiting Sea Dogs. European Alexander Khovanov scored twice to help lead the Wildcats while veteran Francis Leclerc stopped 22 of 24 Saint John shots on Friday.

Head-to-Head
September 30  4pm  Mooseheads at Wildcats
October 17  7pm  Mooseheads at Wildcats
November 4  2pm  Wildcats at Mooseheads
December 14  7pm  Wildcats at Mooseheads
January 19  7pm  Wildcats at Mooseheads
January 26  7pm  Mooseheads at Wildcats
February 2  7pm  Mooseheads at Wildcats
March 9  7pm  Mooseheads at Wildcats
March 13  7pm  Wildcats at Mooseheads

Out of Town
Victoriaville vs. Shawinigan - 5:00pm

After the Buzzer
Halifax will head back to New Brunswick to take on the Moncton Wildcats for the first time at their new arena; the Avenir Centre on Sunday. Puck drops at 4pm.