Nov 25: Mooseheads vs. Voltigeurs preview

HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS VS DRUMMONDVILLE VOLTIGEURS
Puck drops at 3:00pm
TV: Webcast | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @MC_MooseCountry
Scotiabank Centre (10,595) ~ Halifax, NS

Your Halifax Mooseheads are back in action and will be hosting another tough opponent this afternoon as the Drummondville Voltigeurs come to town. Drummondville and Halifax have almost the exact same record with the Volts having an extra loss. The Mooseheads had a much better game last night after getting 7 shots in the final 40 minutes of Tuesday's match but the club came away with no points in a super heated match against Baie-Comeau yesterday. Drummondville has the third best goaltender in the league so far this season in Olivier Rodrigue who has a 2.26 goals against average and 13 victories while Halifax is still looking to reach the century goal mark. Exceptional player Joe Veleno has played quite well for the Voltigeurs and looks to be on pace to surpass his career high in points, he has 35 points in 22 games in 2018-19. The Herd will need to shut him down this afternoon if they have any chance of winning. In goal, I would be surprised if we don't see Rodrigue versus Alex Gravel.

This is the second and final game between these two teams. Halifax has a 1-0-0-0 record against the Voltigeurs while Drummondville is 0-0-1-0 versus the Mooseheads. The last game was on October 21 where the Mooseheads were led by Alex Gravel's 44 save performance to a 4-3 overtime victory in Drummondville. 

Overall Records
Voltigeurs: 17-6-1-0 = 35pts (4th overall, 1st in Central division)
Mooseheads: 17-5-1-0 = 35pts (5th overall, 2nd in Maritimes division)

Leading Scorers
HAL: Samuel Asselin 27pts (15G & 12A), Benoit-Olivier Groulx 27pts (13G & 14A), Arnaud Durandeau 27pts (12G & 15A)
DRU: Joe Veleno 35pts (16G & 19A), Greggor MacLeod 28pts (12G & 16A), Nicloas Guay 25pts (10G & 15A)

Previous Games
Drummondville is coming off of a 7-1 victory in Moncton last night. Joe Veleno led the charge for the Voltigeurs with a hat-trick and 6 points while Olivier Rodrigue made 35 saves to pick up the win against the Wildcats.

Halifax is coming off a 2-1 defeat on Saturday evening against the Drakkar on home ice. Arnaud Durandeau had the lone marker for the Mooseheads while Alex Gravel took the loss, stopping 23 of Baie-Comeau's 25 shots.

Head-to-Head
October 21  Mooseheads 4 at Voltigeurs 3 OT
November 25  3pm  Voltigeurs at Mooseheads

Out of Town
Charlottetown vs. Baie-Comeau - 3:00pm
Acadie-Bathurst vs. Sherbrooke - 3:00pm
Quebec vs. Blainville-Boisbriand - 4:00pm
Shawinigan vs. Chicoutimi - 5:00pm
Gatineau vs. Victoriaville - 5:00pm

After the Buzzer
Halifax will travel to Blainville on Thursday night for a matchup against the Armada to begin their 3 game Quebec road trip. Puck drops at 8pm.

Nov 24: Mooseheads vs. Drakkar preview

HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS VS BAIE-COMEAU DRAKKAR

Puck drops at 7:00pm

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

Scotiabank Centre (10,595) ~ Halifax, NS

Who's ready for some Saturday night hockey? Your Halifax Mooseheads will have another tough game when they welcome the Baie-Comeau Drakkar to Scotiabank Centre this evening. The Drakkar are one point ahead of Halifax coming into tonight's match however the Herd have 3 games in hand. Halifax has been playing quite well until their game on Tuesday, going 5-0-1 in their last six while Baie-Comeau is 0-1-1 in their past two matches. Speaking of that game on Tuesday, the boys will need to play way better than they did that night where they built a 3-0 lead in the first than mustered only 7 shots in the final 40 minutes and allowing Charlottetown to tie the game. These two clubs seem to follow similar paths in being contenders and lower in the standings at the same time. They met in the President's Cup final in 2013 and are projected to go deep in the playoffs this season. Moose Country, we should be in for a good one.

This is the second and final game between these two teams. Halifax has a 0-1-0-0 record against the Drakkar while Baie-Comeau is 1-0-0-0 versus the Mooseheads. The last game was on October 6 where the Mooseheads picked up their second loss of the season by a score of 3-2 in Baie-Comeau with Alex Gravel getting the 1st star in a 37 save performance.

Overall Records
Drakkar: 17-6-1-1 = 36pts (3rd overall, 1st in East division)
Mooseheads: 17-4-1-0 = 35pts (4th overall, 2nd in Maritimes division)

Leading Scorers
HAL: Samuel Asselin 27pts (15G & 12A), Benoit-Olivier Groulx 27pts (13G & 14A), Arnaud Durandeau 26pts (11G & 15A)
BAC: Ivan Chekhovich 42pts (20G & 22A), Nathan Legare 36pts (17G & 19A), Gabriel Fortier 34pts (12G & 22A)

Previous Games
Baie-Comeau is coming off a 5-4 overtime loss against the Screaming Eagles on Thursday. Gabriel Fortier led the Drakkar with a goal and 2 assists while Justin Blanchette made 28 saves in Cape Breton.

Halifax is coming off a 4-3 victory on Tuesday night in overtime against Charlottetown. Benoit-Olivier Groulx scores the winner while Alex Gravel gave the Mooseheads a chance to win with the Islanders outshooting the home team 36-22.

Head-to-Head
October 6  Mooseheads 2 at Drakkar 3
September 24  7pm  Drakkar at Mooseheads

Out of Town
Saint John vs. Sherbrooke - 7:00pm
Moncton vs. Drummondville - 7:30pm
Gatineau vs. Rouyn-Noranda - 8:00pm
Blainville-Boisbriand vs. Chicoutimi - 8:00pm
Victoriaville vs. Rimouski - 8:00pm

After the Buzzer
Halifax will be back on home ice tomorrow after when they host the Drummondville Voltigeurs. Puck drops at 3pm.

Moose on November's Players to Watch

The National Hockey League's Central Scouting Services announced their players to watch for the month of November. This list includes draft eligible players from North America clubs as well as international clubs. Three current Halifax Mooseheads players were ranked once again this month. Each player listed is given a ranking. Players with an 'A' ranking are projected first round picks. 'B' players are projected 2nd and 3rd round picks, while 'C' players are projected to go in the 4th to 7th round.

Forward Raphael Lavoie has consistently stayed an 'A' ranking so far this season. Forward Xavier Parent dropped from a 'B' ranking last month to a 'C' this month. Czech forward Marcel Barinka joins him amongst the players ranked with a 'C'.

 

Lavoie is currently fifth in Herd scoring with 12 goals and 11 assists in 21 games. The 18 year old began the season strong but went through a bit of a slump and is now starting to heat up again which has helped him remain being a projected first round pick in the 2019 NHL draft. Parent has 11 points (4G & 7A) in 21 games played. Barinka has 13 points (6G & 7A) in 22 games played this season.

Drummondville has the most players ranked this month with 4 while there are a total of 33 QMJHL players ranked.

Tonight's Game Postponed

The game between your Halifax Mooseheads and the Saint John Sea Dogs tonight has been postponed because of the weather. The team announced the cancellation of the match this morning and the reason being is because of travel issues with the 6 players who participated in the Canada-Russia Series last night in Drummondville. It was not mentioned if the Sea Dogs were already in the city or not.

The game has been moved to February 12 at 7pm. People who had bought tickets for tonight's game can use them for the makeup match or go to the Mooseheads shop before February 1st and get a refund.

Mooseheads Victorious in DND Appreciation Game

For the first time in 5 years, your Halifax Mooseheads were the winning team during the club's DND Appreciation Night game. The team hadn't won on these special evening since the 2013 version where they shutout the Moncton Wildcats. Tonight, the Herd hosted the men and women of our armed forces plus on the ice the team was playing the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. It was a better result for the Mooseheads this evening after another long pre-game ceremony than the home opener almost two weeks ago. This year the club honoured Shearwater 12th Wing base with special white jerseys that had a thick blue line in the middle and the 100th anniversary logo for Shearwater. Halifax got on the board early when Raphael Lavoie scored his first shorthanded goal of his career just over 6 minutes into the contest. Samuel Asselin got his team leading 13th goal of the season to put the good guys up 2-0 after the first period. Cape Breton controlled the middle frame outshooting Halifax 15-7 in the second but were only able to get one goal past Alexis Gravel who continued to make amazing saves including reaching back a few times to save pucks that were on the goal line. The Screaming Eagles were still down two goals after 40 minutes with the score being 3-1 for the Moose. Wilson Forest made it a one goal game with 4:05 gone in the third but that's as close as the road team would get.

FINAL: Screaming Eagles 2 at Mooseheads 5 
Stars: 3. Declan Smith CAP | 2. Samuel Asselin HAL | 1. Ben Higgins HAL
Attendance: 8,540
MC's Top Herd: Ben Higgins

GAME LOG
First period
6:04 HAL Raphael Lavoie (12), SH | A: none
19:31 HAL Samuel Asselin (13) | A: Safin & Barinka

Second period
6:12 CAP Adam McCormick (3) | A: Gawanke & Lafrance
18:05 HAL Ben Higgins (2) | A: Bishop & McLeod

Third period
4:05 CAP Wilson Forest (3) | A: Smith & Francis
15:45 HAL Walter Flower (3) | A: McIsaac & Groulx
19:26 HAL Arnaud Durandeau (10), EN | A: Maher

Shots: 34-33 in favour of Halifax

NOT DRESSED - Cole Stewart (injured), Kyle Petten (injured), Denis Toner (healthy scratch) and Samuel Dube (injured)

SCORES
Titan 2 at Wildcats 5
Sageneens 2 at Islanders 5
Sea Dogs 2 at Phoenix 6
Drakkar 4 at Foreurs 3
Armada 1 at Voltigeurs 8
Remparts 7 at Cataractes 2
Olympiques 4 at Oceanic 3

UP NEXT - Halifax is back on home ice Saturday night for a rematch against the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. Puck drops at 7pm.

Big Third Leads to Win

The Halifax Mooseheads got their first win on home ice. After an unfortunate loss in their home opener a week ago, Halifax started off slow but finished strong to send the Moose Country fans home happy. Val-d'Or scored the opening goal of the match and led 1-0 after 20 minutes though it was a pretty back and forth game in the first period. Alex Gravel made a couple of amazing saves in the dying seconds of the frame to keep it a one goal game and the boys in front of him seemed to wake up in the second as the Herd got two goals one minute apart just minutes into the middle frame by Walter Flower and Jordan Maher. A goal by the Foreurs' Ivan Kozlov towards the end of the period tied the game, however it really should not have counted as Flower got high sticked right before the goal was scored. In the third, the home team put a ton of pressure on Mathieu Marquis, getting 16 shots towards the Val-d'Or goaltender and they were able to convert on a few of those. A powerplay marker by Samuel Asselin about 5 minutes into the final frame ended up being the game winner while Flower scored his second of the night (and season) minutes later. Veteran Benoit-Olivier Groulx finished the scoring off with a couple of power play goals in the final minutes to put the game out of reach.

FINAL: Foreurs 2 at Mooseheads 6
Stars: 3. Ostap Safin HAL | 2. Samuel Asselin HAL | 1. Walter Flower HAL
Attendance: 8,256
MC's Top Herd: Walter Flower

GAME LOG
First period
18:22 VDO Julien Tessier (8), PP | A: Ouellet & Kozlov

Second period
5:16 HAL Walter Flower (1) | A: Durandeau & Lavoie
6:16 HAL Jordan Maher (3) | A: Parent & Kyte
18:55 VDO Ivan Kozlov (5) | A: Tessier & Farmer

Third period
4:59 HAL Samuel Asselin (10), PP | A: Safin & Barron
6:58 HAL Walter Flower (2) | A: Groulx & Safin
15:35 HAL Benoit-Olivier Groulx (7), PP | A: Morand & McIsaac
16:42 HAL Benoit-Olivier Groulx (8), PP | A: McIsaac & Lavoie

Shots: 41-23 in favour of Halifax
Powerplay: VDO - 1-for-4; HAL - 3-for-4

NOT DRESSED - Jocktan Chainey (injured), Samuel Dube (injured), Brock McLeod (healthy) and Kyle Petten (injured)

SCORES
Cataractes 2 at Oceanic 6
Armada 1 at Sagueneens 3
Sea Dogs 1 at Drakkar 8
Titan 3 at Screaming Eagles 2
Huskies 4 at Olympiques 3
Islanders 4 at Tigres 3 OT

UP NEXT - The top two teams in the Maritimes will go head to head Sunday afternoon as your Mooseheads host the Moncton Wildcats tomorrow. Puck drops at 2pm.

Nov 3: Mooseheads vs. Foreurs preview

HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS VS VAL-D'OR FOREURS
November 2, 2018 at 7:00pm
TV: Eastlink | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @MC_MooseCountry
Scotiabank Centre (10,595) ~ Halifax, NS

Hello November! It's hard to believe that we're into November already and the Halifax Mooseheads are about to play just their second home game of the season tonight when they welcome the Val-d'Or Foreurs to Scotiabank Centre. Halifax will play 8 of their next 9 matches at home though so this month will be busy for the and fans alike. The Mooseheads will look to get back in the win column and a game against the 15th place Foreurs might be what they need. Halifax has yet to lose two games in a row this season. Val-d'Or has been good lately, going 2-0-0-1 in their last three games with the shootout loss coming last night to the Moncton Wildcats. It sounds like Halifax will get some reinforcements this weekend as Ostap Safin is projected to be back in the lineup either tonight or tomorrow but I'm hoping it's this evening. Safin has been out injured since September 30 so fans have yet to decide if the trade that brought him here was a good decision or not. As for the other few trades Cam Russel and the brass made, they seem to be working out pretty well. It feels like almost every game Samuel Asselin is scoring, of course that isn't the case as he has 9 goals in 17 games while Antoine Morand is right behind him in team scoring and Jordan Maher has been creating chances and finds hi self with 7 points.

This is the first game between these two teams. Last season, Halifax had a 2-0-0-0 record against the Foreurs while Val-d'Or was 0-1-0-1 versus the Mooseheads. The last game was December 8 where the Herd picked up a 2-1 shootout victory in Val-d'Or with Otto Somppi getting the SO winner and Halifax outshooting the Foreurs 45-22.

Overall Records
Foreurs: 5-10-2-1 = 13pts (15th overall, 4th in West division)
Mooseheads: 12-4-0-0 = 24pts (5th overall, 2nd in Maritimes division)

Leading Scorers
HAL: Raphael Lavoie 18pts (11G & 7A), Arnaud Durandeau 18pts (7G & 11A), Samuel Asselin 17pts (9G & 8A)
VDO: Felix Boivin 17pts (4G & 13A), Julien Tessier 15pts (7G & 8A), Nicolas Ouellet 10pts (6G & 4A)

Previous games
Val-d'Or is coming off a 4-3 shootout loss to the Wildcats on Friday night. Julien Tessier had a hat trick to lead the Foreurs while Jonathan Lemieux stopped 41 of Moncton's 44 shots in regulation, receiving third star honours on the road.

Halifax is coming off a 5-2 loss to their provincial rivals Cape Breton a week ago in the team's home opener. Jake Ryczek led the Mooseheads with a goal and 2 points while Alex Gravel took the defeat with 23 saves versus the Screaming Eagles.

Head-to-Head
November 2  7pm  Foreurs at Mooseheads
March 3  5pm  Mooseheads at Foreurs

Out of Town
Rimouski vs. Shawinigan - 5:00pm
Chicoutimi vs. Blainville-Boisbriand - 5:00pm
Baie-Comeau vs. Saint John - 5:00pm
Cape Breton vs. Acadie-Bathurst - 7:00pm
Gatineau vs. Rouyn-Noranda - 8:00pm
Victoriaville vs. Charlottetown - 8:00pm

After the Buzzer
Halifax will welcome the CHL 9th ranked Moncton Wildcats to the Scotiabank Centre tomorrow afternoon. Puck drops at 2pm.

QMJHL Names Scholastic POM

Every month, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announces a Scholastic Player of the Month which recognizes a player on each team with his performance on ice and in the classroom. The player is selected based on their school results, their implication, the school-hockey conciliation, their team spirit and their on-ice performances.

For your Halifax Mooseheads, Justin Barron was named the Scholastic Player of the Month for October 2018. Barron had a goal and 5 assists in 12 games played in the month of October while also collecting 6 penalty minutes and was a plus-1.

Here's the list:

BAC	Louis Jr. Tardif	Cégep de Baie-Comeau	Sciences
BAT	William Champagne	Cégep à distance	Natural Sciences
BLB	Ryan Poorman	GrandyWine Virtual Academy	High School
CAP	Antoine Crête-Belzile	Cégep à distance	Natural Sciences
CHA	Matthew Welsh	PEI University	Business
CHI	Jérémy Diotte	Cégep de Chicoutimi	Economy & Management
DRU	Dawson Mercer	Ascension College	High School
GAT	Chris McQuaid	PEI University	Arts
HAL	Justin Barron	Halifax West High School	High School
MON	Jack Tucker	University of New Brunswick	Arts
QUE	Étienne Verette	Cégep Limoilou	Human Sciences
RIM	Anthony D’Amours	Cégep de Rimouski	Industrial Maintenance Technology
ROU	Jacob Neveu	Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue	Natural Sciences
SHA	Mathieu Boulianne	Centre scolaire Samuel-de-Champlain	High School
SHE	Yann-Félix Lapointe	Cégep de Shawinigan	Human Sciences
SNB	Jérémie Jacob	Cégep de Sherbrooke	Human Sciences
VDO	Jacob Gaucher	University of New Brunswick	Financial Accounting
VIC	Fabio Iacobo	Eastern Township Schoolboard	High School