High Scoring Affair For 40th Win

Forty wins in 56 games, how does that sound Moose Country? Your Halifax Mooseheads picked up their 40th victory of the season on Friday night in dominating fashion against the Gatineau Olympiques. The Herd haven’t gotten win number 40 this fast since the year they won the President’s Cup, where they had 47 victories in 56 matches. Gatineau is a young team, they only have 5 players born in 1998 or 1999, and it showed this evening in their first game against the Mooseheads in 2018-19. Captain Antoine Morand scored 30 seconds into the contest while Halifax outshot the Olympiques 21-4 in the first period. Raphael Lavoie made a few dekes in front of second year goaltender Creed Jones before sliding the puck through the five hole to give the home team a 2-0 lead. That’s all the scoring that would happen in the opening 20 minutes. The middle frame was a little tighter with Gatineau pushing back and the club was able to get one past Alex Gravel on the power play just minutes after Samuel Asselin made it 3-0. Halifax held a commanding 4-1 lead after 40 minutes. The third period started off pretty frantic with defenceman Jared McIsaac scoring his 13th of the year 19 seconds into the frame while overager Giordano Finoro picked up his second of the game just thirteen seconds later. I thought the amount of shots the Herd had on Tuesday were high (49) but the team surpassed that tonight, outshooting Gatineau 54-20 cruising to a 7-2 win.

FINAL: Olympique 2 at Mooseheads 7
Stars: 3. Giordano Finoro GAT | 2. Antoine Morand HAL | 1. Raphael Lavoie HAL
Attendance: 7,809
MC’s Top Herd: Raphael Lavoie

GAME LOG
First period
0:30 HAL Antoine Morand (21) | A: Asselin & Lavoie
9:47 HAL Raphael Lavoie (26) | A: None

Second period
1:57 HAL Samuel Asselin (44) | A: Morand & Kyte
4:25 GAT Giordano Finoro (18), PP | A: Bilodeau & Roelens
6:10 HAL Raphael Lavoie (27), PP | A: Barron & Ryczek

Third period
0:19 HAL Jared McIsaac (13) | A: Flower & Morand
0:32 GAT Giordano Finoro (19) | A: None
4:06 HAL Samuel Dube (2) | A: Groulx & Ryczek
12:54 HAL Jake Ryczek (8), PP | A: Barron & Lavoie

Shots: 54-20 in favour of Halifax
Powerplay: GAT – 1-for-4; HAL – 2-for-6

NOT DRESSED – Ostap Safin (injured), Marcel Barinka (injured), Alexis Sansfacon (healthy), Cole Stewart (injured) and Jocktan Chainey (injured)

SCORES
Wildcats 8 at Sea Dogs 1
Cataractes 1 at Phoenix 4
Oceanic 7 at Foreurs 4
Voltigeurs 4 at Tigres 1
Titan 4 at Drakkar 11
Screaming Eagles 4 at Armada 0
Remparts 2 at Sagueneens 3 OT

UP NEXT – Halifax will welcome the Charlottetown Islanders to the Scotiabank Centre on national television tomorrow afternoon. Puck drops at 4:30pm.