McLaren's 32 Saves Leads to Victory

Photo - Mooseheads Twitter

Moose win! It's been a while since anybody has been able to say that. Our Halifax Mooseheads put an end to their 9 game losing streak by defeating the 4th overall Rimouski Oceanic on Thursday night. Cole McLaren stopped all 32 shots for his first shutout of the season to lead the home team to a 1-0 victory. Projected first overall pick in the upcoming NHL entry draft Alexis Lafreniere and the Oceanic came into the game as heavy favourites with a 8-0-1-0 record before this evening but strong defensive performances by the team in the first 40 minutes and fantastic goaltending from McLaren were able to hold off the offensive power that is Rimouski. Kevin Gursoy got the Mooseheads on the board with five seconds remaining in the first period and that turned out to be the game winner. The was some questionable officiating during the game, especially when Ozzie King was high sticked on the nose and no call was made. In the second period, the away team thought they had scored to tie the game but McLaren was down, injured and the referee was in the process of whistling when Rimouski put it in the net so it was immediately waved off. Despite not getting on the scoresheet, whoever does the three stars gave the third star to former Herd Walter Flower as it was his last game in Halifax. 

FINAL: Oceanic 0 at Mooseheads 1

Stars: Walter Flower RIM | 2. Kevin Gursoy HAL | 1. Cole McLaren HAL

Attendance: 7,536

MC's Top Herd: Cole McLaren

Powerplay: RIM - 0-for-2; HAL - 0-for-3

Shots: 32-21 Rimouski

MISSING IN ACTION - Justin Barron (injured), Said Abi-Faycal (healthy), Alexis Gravel (injured), Denis Toner (sick) and Samuel Dube (injured)

SCORES

Sherbrooke 4 at Victoriaville 3

Quebec 4 at Baie-Comeau 2

UP NEXT - Halifax will continue their three game home stand with a match against the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies on Saturday. Puck drops at 7pm. 

Herd/Dogs Game Rescheduled

Photo - The Chronicle Herald

Our Halifax Mooseheads will have to play four games next week after the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announced on Monday that they have rescheduled the postponed February 7 match against the Saint John Sea Dogs to next Wednesday.

The start time for the game was originally pushed back an hour to 8pm before the match was postponed entirely because Halifax could not make it past Moncton due to the weather. Saint John president Trevor Georgie had told media that he would be filing a complaint with the league as the club felt that the Mooseheads purposely missed the game on Feb 7.

Georgie stated he contacted league officials and Cam Russell to make arrangements for Halifax to travel on Thursday but the Herd decided not do that. The game would have been an almost sold out crowd and was to feature a performance by Nova Scotia musician Classified during the first intermission. Georgie was asking for the league to hand his team an automatic two points and have Russell give the Sea Dogs money for expenses that incurred. Halifax was supposed to have played 3 games in 3 days that weekend and the Saint John brass felt that they wanted to get out of that scenario which Mooseheads' general manager Cam Russell denied.

The rescheduled game is on February 26 at TD Station in Saint John with puck drop being 7:00pm.

Tickets that fans had purchased for the Feb. 7 game can be exchanged for any of the Sea Dogs remaining home games.

AUS Playoffs Begin Tomorrow

The Atlantic University Sport playoffs are set to begin on Wednesday night and it will include several former Halifax Mooseheads players. Locally, the Saint Mary's Huskies are the only team to make it. Other Nova Scotia universities that will be in the playoffs are the St. Francis X-Men and the Acadia Axemen. They will be joined by the Moncton Aigles Bleus, the UNB Varsity Reds and UPEI Panthers.

Here are the final standings
#   Team                                                   W      L    OTL   Pts
1. University of New Brunswick             26      4       0      52
2. Acadia University                                19      9       2      40
3. Saint Mary's University                       17     12      1      35
4. Moncton University                             13     11      6      32
5. St. Francis Xavier University.             12     13      5      29
6. University of Prince Edward Island    10     15      5      25
7. Dalhousie University                            8      19      3     19 


The Varsity Reds and the Axemen receive a quarter-final bye. The Aigles Bleus will take on the X-Men while the Huskies will take on the Panthers with both series starting tomorrow night.

Here is the quarter-finals schedule
Wed. February 12  St. FX at Moncton
                                 UPEI at Saint Mary's
Fri. February 14  Saint Mary's at UPEI
                              Moncton at St. FX
Sun. February 16  St. FX at Moncton   *if necessary 
                                UPEI at Saint Mary's   *if necessary

Former Halifax Mooseheads players on playoff team rosters include; Keith Getson (Saint Mary's), Morgan Nauss (Acadia), Joel Bishop (Saint Mary's), Blade Mann-Dixon (St. FX), Austyn Hardie (Saint Mary's), Matt Murphy (UNB), Eric Brassard (Saint Mary's) and Jordan Maher (UPEI)

Good luck to all the teams and to our former players during the playoffs on the road to the University Cup that will be held in Halifax.

QMJHL Names Scholastic POM

Every month, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announces a Scholastic Player of the Month which recognises 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, Brendan Tomilson was named the Scholastic Player of the Month for January 2020. Tomilson recorded a goal and 3 assists in 10 games and was a minus-7 during the month.

Here's the list

Team	Player	Educational Institution	Program
BAT	Maxime Rioux	Bathurst High School / CCNB	Grade 12
BAC	Brandon St-Louis	CFP de l’Estuaire	Industrial Mechanics
BLB	Simon Lavigne	Cégep de Terrebonne	Human Sciences
CAP	Jérémie Langlois	Académie les Estacades	Secondary 5
CHA	Jake Goobie	UPEI	Business
CHI	Hugo Savinsky	Cégep de Chicoutimi	Economy and Management
DRU	Isiah Campbell	Athabasca University	Independent studies
GAT	Métis Roelens	Athabasca University	Independent studies
HAL	Brendan Tomilson	St. Mary’s University	Commerce
MON	Olivier Rodrigue	Cégep à distance	Human Sciences
QUE	Charle Truchon	Séminaire Saint-François	Secondary 5
RIM	Mikael Martel	Cégep de Rimouski	Police Training
ROU	Thomas Belzile	Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue	Natural Sciences
SNB	Joona Lehmus	Saint John High School	High School
SHA	Jordan Lepage	Acadia University	Business Administration
SHE	Benjamin Tardif	Cégep de Sherbrooke	Human Sciences
VDO	Justin Robidas	Polyvalente Le Carrefour	Secondary 5
VIC	Conor Frenette	Cégep de Victoriaville	Natural Sciences

STATS SUNDAY: January

Games played: 10
Record: 3-7-0-0, 6pts
Goals for/against: 24/52
Powerplay*: 18.9%
Penalty kill*: 83.0%
Shutouts: none

Top 5 leading scorers
Points: Kevin Gursoy 11, D'Artagnan Joly 8, Senna Peeters 6, Olivier DesRoches 4, Brendan Tomaison 4
Goals: Kevin Gursoy 5, Denis Toner 3, Marcel Barinka 3, D'Artagnan Joly 2, Jeffrey Burridge 2
Assists: Kevin Gursoy 6, D'Artagnan Joly 6, Senna Peeters 4, Olivier DesRoches 4, Brendan Tomilson 3
Penalty minutes: Lucas Robinson 13, Cameron Whynot 12, Kyle Petten 10, Jason Horvath 10, D'Artagnan Joly 9
Plus/minus: Keegan Hunt E, Landon Miron E, Kevin Gursoy -1, Gavin Hart -1, Samuel Dube -3
Rookie scoring: Senna Peeters 6pts, Brendan Tomilson 4pts, Jeffrey Burridge 4pts, Cameron Whynot 3pts, Zack Jones 3pts

Goaltender stats*
Alexis Gravel: 11-15-1-1     3.78 GAA     0.893 SAV%
Cole McLaren: 7-11-1-0     3.93 GAA     0.890 SAV%



*overall