Stats Sunday: December

Games played: 9
Record: 5-3-1-0, 11pts
Goals for/against: 37/35
Powerplay*: 21.4%
Penalty kill*: 71.2%
Shutouts: None

Top 5 leading scorers
Points: Jordan Dumais 16, Zachary L'Heureux 15, Markus Vidicek 12, Robert Orr 8, Mathieu Cataford 6
Goals: Zachary L'Heureux 8, Jordan Dumais 7, Markus Vidicek 3, Robert Orr 3, Attilio Biasca 3
Assists: Jordan Dumais 9, Markus Vidicek 9, Zachary L'Heureux 7, Jake Furlong 6, Robert Orr 5
Penalty minutes: Zachary L'Heureux 15, Zachary Beauregard 8, Mathieu Cataford 6, Zack Jones 4, James Swan 4
Plus/minus: David Lafrance +6, Markus Vidicek +6, Alexandre Tessier +4, Zachary L'Heureux +3, Zack Jones +3
Rookie scoring: Mathieu Cataford 6pts, Attilio Biasca 5pts, Brady Schultz 2pts, Vincent Gauthier 2pts, Logan Crosby 1pt

Goaltender stats*
Mathis Rousseau    6-5-0-0    3.08 GAA    0.907 SAV%
Brady James    11-6-1-1    3.36 GAA    0.895 SAV%

*overall
includes Nov 30 game

3 Herd Players at World Juniors

There will be a few current Halifax Mooseheads players in Alberta next week for the 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. The tournament begins on December 26 and the gold medal game will be played on January 5, 2022. It will feature 10 teams which have been separated into two groups. 

Halifax has already been without the services of forwards Senna Peeters, Attilio Biasca and Elliot Desnoyers for part of December and it will continue until next month as all three have made their respective countries rosters for the tournament. Desnoyers will look to help Canada get a 19th gold medal while Biasca and Peeters hope that they can provide offence for Switzerland and Austria to get them out of the relegation round.  

Below is the round robin schedule for the 3 teams (times are MT)

Dec 26  5:00pm  Czech Republic v. Canada
Dec 27  12:00pm  Austria v. Finland
Dec 27  2:30pm  Russia v. Switzerland

Dec 28  2:30pm  Switzerland v. United States

Dec 28  5:00pm  Austria v. Canada

Dec 29  5:00pm  Canada v. Germany

Dec 30  2:30pm  Czech Republic v. Austria 

Dec 30  5:00pm  Slovakia v. Switzerland

Dec 31  12:00pm  Germany v. Austria

Dec 31  2:30pm  Switzerland v. Sweden 

Dec 31  5:00pm  Canada v. Finland

I will try and keep you up to date during the tournament. Follow my Twitter account as I may do some live tweeting. 

Good luck to all three young men the next two weeks and everyone else as well but really Go Canada Go :P 

Christmas Break Extended In QMJHL

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announced today that they have decided to extend the league's holiday break amid the rising cases of COVID-19 in Eastern Canada. The pause includes all activities until January 7, 2022. Players will report back to their clubs on January 3, 2022 according to the press release. 

Postponed games will be rescheduled at a later date. The QMJHL is currently working on updated protocols which will include preventative testing prior to the arrival of players and staff within the team environment. The regular season schedule will hopefully resume on January 7, 2022. 

No word from our Halifax Mooseheads yet on what this will mean for the Hurley Cup games that were supposed to be before the new year. 

This move by the league really is no surprise. The National Hockey League has changed the dates of its holiday break and it will now begin tomorrow. 

Photo - QMJHL website

Islanders Lead League, Dumais Tops Moose at Christmas

We are now well into the month of December and teams around the QMJHL have been busy this weekend. The league began its holiday break today after a 9 game schedule on Saturday. It also marks the start of the winter trade period which will go until January 6. Most years this would be the half-way point of the regular season but this year, the majority of teams have played around 30 games. I thought since there is a substantial break in the schedule now, I would give you a stats update. 

The Charlottetown Islanders, to maybe no one's surprise, lead the league standings at the break with a 22-7-2-0 record and 46 points. After being beat up by the Islanders, our Halifax Mooseheads pulled off two wins against division rivals to go into the holidays on a high note and find themselves in second place in the Maritime division. Leaders for the remaining divisions are the Quebec Remparts (East) with 42 points, the Sherbrooke Phoenix (Central) with 41 points and the Gatineau Olympiques (West) with 39 points. 

Below is the full standings

Meanwhile, sophomore Jordan Dumais has gone on a run for the Mooseheads to lead the team in points at the break. The 17-year-old is on a five game point streak and picked up a goal and 3 assists in a 6-2 Halifax win last night on the road. His 47 points so far this season is tied for 2nd in the league behind Felix Lafrance who had 50 with the Chicoutimi Sagueneens and was traded to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan today. Halifax two other players in the top 20 point leaders with Zachary L'Heureux at 14th with his 38 points and captain Elliot Desnoyers 17th in the league with 36 points. 

Will be interesting to see what moves Cam Russell makes to give the team a better chance in the playoffs. Games are scheduled to be back on December 28 but we could see the league postpone the return of action as COVID-19 cases rise throughout the country. 

Peeters, Moose Sweep Series Against Tigres

Senna Peeters played a pretty good game in his last one before heading out west to join Team Austria for the World Juniors picking up three assists and first star honours. His play helped the Halifax Mooseheads pick up a 7-3 victory on Saturday night against the visiting Victoriaville Tigres which allowed the club to sweep the season series. It was also the last Mooseheads game of 2021 for forward Attilio Biasca who will suit up for Team Switzerland during the holiday tournament and he scored the seventh goal to seal the deal. The home team got off to a rough start finding themselves down 2-0 just 6 minutes into the game as two of Victoriaville's overagers scored just 58 seconds apart and on the team's first 3 shots. A power play goal by Markus Vidicek would give the Herd life with under 8 minutes remaining in the first and after 20 minutes the score was 2-1 Tigres. The Mooseheads would go on to get three more goals in the first 15 minutes of the middle frame to take a 4-2 lead with James Swan putting in his first of the season which ended up being the game winner. Nikita Prishchepov would score at the 19:51 mark on the power play to make it an interesting game. It was a battle of rookie goaltenders but Mathis Rousseau had the lesser amount of work and after letting in the early goals, he was quite solid stopping 19 shots for the win. 

FINAL: Tigres 3 at Mooseheads 7
Stars: 3. Zachary Beauregard HAL | 2. Markus Vidicek HAL | 1. Senna Peeters HAL 
Attendance: 5,880
MC's Top Herd: Markus Vidicek

Game Log
First period
5:01 VIC Vincent Sevigny (6) | A: Cantin-Bolduc & Roy
5:59 VIC Conor Frenette (13), PP | A: Sevigny & Cormier
12:15 HAL Markus Vidicek (9), PP | A: Whynot & L'Heureux

Second period 
1:44 HAL Zachary L'Heureux (13), PP | A: Orr & Vidicek
2:02 HAL Mathieu Cataford (6) | A: Lafrance & Peeters
14:58 HAL James Swan (1) | A: Beauregard & Peeters
19:51 VIC Nikita Prishchepov (3), PP | A: Daigle & Roy

Third period 
11:55 HAL Vincent Gauthier (3) | A: Crosby & Whynot
17:11 HAL Zack Jones (4), EN | A: Dumais
19:36 HAL Attilio Biasca (6) | A: Peeters & Swan

Shots: 37-22 in favour of Halifax
Powerplay: VIC - 2-for-2; HAL - 2-for-5

SCORES
Val-d'Or 1 at Acadie-Bathurst 5
Gatineau 6 at Blainville-Boisbriand 2
Shawinigan 4 at Chicoutimi 6
Rouyn-Noranda 1 at Rimouski 7
Drummondville 4 at Cape Breton 3 SO
Charlottetown 5 at Saint John 3

Missing in action: Elliot Desnoyers (WJC camp), Stephen Davis (injury), Landon Miron (healthy)

Up next: Halifax will play a mid-week game on Wednesday night against the Charlottetown Islanders at home. Puck drop 7 p.m. 

Game Day 26: vs. Drummondville

PREVIEW - Our Halifax Mooseheads kick off a four game home-stand tonight as they welcome the Drummondville Voltigeurs with puck dropping at 7 p.m. Both teams will be trying to break their winless streaks. Halifax didn't have a very good road trip last week, losing three of the four games and all were one goal matches. There'll be lots of noise this evening cheering on the Herd to a victory as it is student night at the Scotiabank Centre.  Drummondville has also had losses in their last three going 0-2-0-1 but they do have the #2 pick from the 2021 QMJHL draft on their team. Tyler Peddle is fifth in rookie scoring so far this season and hails from Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The Mooseheads will be without captain Elliot Desnoyers as he heads out for Team Canada World Junior team selection camp. 

Game coverage
TV: Webcast | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @MC_MooseCountry | Post-game: Halifax Mooseheads

Overall records
Voltigeurs: 12-9-4-1 = 29 points (3rd in Central division, 8th overall)
Mooseheads: 13-10-1-1 = 28 points (4th in Maritimes division, 10th overall)

Leading scorers
HAL: Jordan Dumais 36pts (13G & 24A), Elliot Desnoyers 36pts (16G & 20A), Zachary L'Heureux 28pts (11G & 17A)
DRU: Justin Cote 28pts (11G & 17A), Luke Woodworth 22pts (9G & 13A), Jacob Dion 20pts (8G & 12A)

Head-to-head
This is the first game between these two teams this season. The last game they played was November 8, 2019 in Halifax with the visiting Voltigeurs getting the 4-1 victory. Maxim Trepanier scored the lone goal for the Mooseheads while Drummondville's Anthony Morrone made 20 saves. 

Last games
Drummondville is coming off a 5-2 loss in Charlottetown last night to start their east coast road trip. Nova Scotian Luke Woodworth scored for the Voltigeurs while rookie Riley Mercer made 32 saves against the Islanders.

Halifax is coming off a 3-2 defeat on the road on Sunday evening in Quebec. Zach L'Heureux and Elliot Desnoyers scored for the Mooseheads while rookie Mathis Rousseau stopped 36 of the Remparts 39 shots. 

Not playing - Elliot Desnoyers (World Junior camp)

Out of town 
Tigres vs. Eagles - 7:00 p.m.
Drakkar vs. Sagueneens - 8:30 p.m.

After the buzzer
Halifax will welcome the Victoriaville Tigres on Saturday night. Puck drops at 7 p.m. 

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 you Halifax Mooseheads, James Swan was named the Scholastic Player of the Month for November 2021. Swan had two assists in 8 games, was a minus-1 and took a penalty during the month. 

Team	Player	Program	Institution
BAT	Zach Biggar	Independant Studies	Acadia University
BAC	Jacob Gaucher	Management	Université du Nouveau-Brunswick
BLB	Simon Lavigne	Social Sciences	Cégep de Terrebonne
CAP	François-James Buteau	Grade 12	Sydney Academy
CHA	Sam Oliver	Grade 12	Rothesay High School
CHI	Loris Rafanomezantsoa	Social Sciences	Cégep de Chicoutimi
DRU	Francesco Lapenna	Social Sciences	Cégep à distance
GAT	Antonin Verreault	Grade 12	Northern Pre University
HAL	James Swan	Grade 12	Prince Andrew High School
MON	Alexis Daniel	Business	University of New Brunswick
QUE	Louis Crevier	Social Sciences	Cégep Limoilou
RIM	Julien Béland	Natural Sciences	Cégep de Rimouski
ROU	Félix Allard	Social Sciences	Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue
SNB	Olivier Picard	Business and Construction Management	Stratford Career Institute
SHA	Lorenzo Canonica	Grade 12	Northern Pre University
SHE	David Spacek	Grade 12	Northern Pre University
VDO	Thomas Pelletier	Natural Sciences	Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue
VIC	Maxime Pellerin	Social Sciences	Cégep de Victoriaville