A few former Halifax Mooseheads players will be participating in the University Cup this weekend in Wolfville, NS.
Eight schools play in the tournament for the chance to become champions. The last completed tournament was in 2019 where UNB defeated Alberta for the trophy. The 2020 University Cup was cancelled after the opening day because of the original COVID-19 sports shutdown.
The Alberta Golden Bears once again find themselves ranked first and will take on the host Acadia Axemen this evening at 7pm. The quarter-finals, semis, bronze and gold medal games will all be played at the Andrew H. McCain Arena. Other schools that qualified include the UBC Thunderbirds (CW finalists, #6), UQTR Patriotes (OUA champions, #3), Brock Badgers (OUA finalists, #4), Ryerson Rams (OUA third-place, #7), UNB Reds (AUS champions, #2) and StFX X-Men (AUS finalists, #5).
In total, seven Mooseheads alumni are on rosters for teams that qualified for the University Cup. Olivier DesRoches (Brock), Alexis Gravel (UQTR), Kevin Gursoy (Ryerson), Patrick Kyte (StFX), Jordan Lepage (UQTR), Blade Mann-Dixon (StFX) and Morgan Nauss (Acadia). DesRoches did not play in any games with Brock this season but is still listed on their roster.
Below you will find the full schedule March 31 1 p.m. Quarter-final #1 - No. 5 StFX vs. No. 4 Brock 7 p.m. Quarter-final #2 - No. 1 Alberta at No. 8 Acadia
April 1 1 p.m. Quarter-final #3 - No. 7 Ryerson vs. No. 2 UNB 7 p.m. Quarter-final #4 - No. 6 UBC vs. No. 3 UQTR
April 2 1 p.m. Semifinal #1 - Winner QF 1 vs. Winner QF 2 7 p.m. Semifinal #2 - Winner QF 3 vs. Winner QF 4
April 3 1 p.m. Bronze Medal game 7:30 p.m. Gold Medal game
Good luck to all teams and especially the former Mooseheads participating.
PREVIEW - In normal seasons, we would be in the midst of playoffs right now but our Halifax Mooseheads still have about a quarter of the regular season remaining. The Mooseheads will welcome the Saint John Sea Dogs for some midweek hockey tonight in the second half of a home-and-home series. Saint John and Halifax met on Sunday in New Brunswick with the road team picking up a surprising 5-4 victory. It was a back and forth game with lots of scoring in the third period, 5 goals in the first half of the final period. Halifax has had a really hard month going 4-10 in March being outscored 81-47 in those games and it has caused some space in the Maritimes division after a log jam for most of the season. The Sea Dogs meanwhile have been great since the Christmas break which has included a 10 game win streak during March. Will we see the team we saw on Sunday or will the Herd be dominated once again?
Game coverage TV: Webcast | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @MC_MooseCountry | Post-game: Moose Country
Overall records Sea Dogs: 32-17-1-3 = 68 points (3rd in Maritimes division, 6th overall) Mooseheads: 27-25-1-1 = 56 points (4th in Maritimes division, 10th overall)
Leading scorers HAL: Jordan Dumais 71pts (24G & 47A), Elliot Desnoyers 61pts (28G & 33A), Zachary L'Heureux 50pts (20G & 30A) SNB: William Dufour 93pts (45G & 48A), Josh Lawrence 76pts (21G & 55A), Brady Burns 54pts (20G & 34A)
Head-to-head Halifax is 2-4-1-0 against the Sea Dogs this season while Saint John has a 5-2-0-0 versus the Mooseheads. The last game between the two clubs was on Sunday with the Mooseheads picking up a 5-4 road win. Halifax got goals from five different players and Brady James made 35 saves en route to a first star performance.
Last games See above
Not playing - no word yet on who will be the scratches
Out of town Titan vs. Islanders - 7:00 p.m. Eagles vs. Wildcats - 7:00 p.m. Huskies vs. Armada - 8:00 p.m. Olympiques vs. Cataractes - 8:00 p.m. Phoenix vs. Voltigeurs - 8:00 p.m. Remparts vs. Drakkar - 8:00 p.m.
After the buzzer Halifax will take on the league leading Charlottetown Islanders on the island Friday night. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
I'm sorry I haven't been posting much lately, I've been busy the last couple of months with school and finding a job but I thought I would bring those who don't have social media up to date on things that have been happening. All the changes made because of the pandemic have also messed me up a little so below you will find news that has happened over the last couple of weeks. I hope to make a number more posts as we wrap up the regular season in the next 5 weeks.
NHL TRADE DEADLINE While no former Halifax Mooseheads player who is on an NHL team was traded earlier this month, a couple of alum in the minor leagues were moved on deadline day.
The move I didn't want to be made happened but the Montreal Canadiens traded forward Artturi Lehkonen to the Colorado Avalanche on March 21. In return they received 2020-21 Herd captain Justin Barron and a 2nd round pick in 2024. Barron had 5 goals and 20 points in 43 games played for the Colorado Eagles this season. On Sunday night, Justin made his debut for the Canadiens wearing #52, making 3 shots in almost 18 minutes of ice time. Not sure if the defenceman will stay up in the big league or if Montreal will reassign him to Laval.
Another former captain, Antoine Morand also saw his rights traded from the Tampa Bay Lightning to the San Jose Sharks the same day. Morand was immediately assigned to the Sharks' AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda and has already scored a goal for his new team. The 23-year-old previously played for the Syracuse Crunch and San Diego Gulls of the AHL posted 44 points in 138 games.
Good luck to both players with their new clubs.
MEIER HAT TRICK More San Jose news, forward Timo Meier had a big game last night scoring his third NHL hat trick helping the Sharks defeat their state rivals the Anaheim Ducks 4-1. Check out the video below to see all three goals. With it, Meier is now just one point away from his career high in points, he had 66 in the 2018-19 season.
Last night wasn't the first time this season that the Switzerland native and former Moose captain scored a hat trick. He actually had 5 goals in two periods during a game in January against the Los Angeles Kings. See those goals below.
CALL UP Halifax announced last week that forward Braeden MacPhee has been recalled to the team's roster for the remainder of the season. He will wear number 12 for the Mooseheads. The move comes after MacPhee's season in the MHL finished where he played for the Miramichi Timberwolves producing 25 points in 30 games.
"Braeden brings speed and grit with a nice infusion of skill. It's a good opportunity for him to practice and play with us," GM Cam Russell said.
MHL AWARDS
A couple of Herd prospects had good seasons in the Maritime Hockey League and were rewarded with some league honours. Fall River, NS native Bryson Boudreau was named the 2021-22 Rookie of the Year after leading all rookies with 23 goals and 41 points. The 18-year-old was a free agent invite of the Mooseheads and played well in intra-squad games during training camp back in August.
MacPhee and Boudreau both were named to the MHL's Rookie All-Star Team despite both of their clubs not making the playoffs.
UNIVERSITY COMMITMENT Well, one alum has made a commitment to the university he will play for next season. Brendan Tomilson, who played for our Halifax Mooseheads from 2019-21, will suit up for the York Lions. The 20-year-old is currently playing for the Pickering Panthers and has recorded 53 points in 51 games as captain of the team.
Q PLAYOFFS We're a little over a month away from the QMJHL playoffs starting and there have finally been a few teams who have clinched a spot. The Charlottetown Islanders, Sherbrooke Phoenix and Quebec Remparts put X's beside their names in the standings this past weekend.
The Herd are quite a few games away from clinching a spot in the post-season but I can't see why Halifax wouldn't make it. Halifax is currently 10th in the overall standings with a 27-25-1-1 record.
PARENT Forward Xavier Parent, who played for Halifax for two seasons, was named to the QMJHL Team of the Week on Monday afternoon. The recently turned 21-year-old scored 6 goals and had 8 points this past week in 3 games and was a plus-5. Congrats to Xavier on being given the honour.
Parent is having quite the final junior season as he currently has 39 goals and 42 assists with Sherbrooke who lead the Western Conference. His 81 points have come in 49 games played during 2021-22, which is more than double his previous career high (34 points/67 games in 2018-19 with Halifax). Xavier is third in league scoring with a quarter of the season remaining.
A few Halifax Mooseheads alumni are OUA champions!
Goaltender Alexis Gravel and defenceman Jordan Lepage were on the winning UQTR Patriotes team which picked up a 3-1 victory on March 26 in the championship game against the Brock Badgers. Because of the coronavirus, the university playoffs had to be shortened and the OUA decided to play a knockout post-season. Gravel, in his first university season, stopped 32 of 33 shots to pick up the win.
UQTR will now head to Nova Scotia for the University Cup this weekend, along with Brock and the Ryerson Rams who won the bronze medal game.
Former Herd Kevin Gursoy help lead the Rams to the bronze scoring a goal and picking up an assist as Ryerson defeated McGill 2-1.
Congrats to UQTR on winning the Queen's Cup and good luck to all three teams in the national championship. I'll share a U-Cup preview later in the week.
With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to change the makeup of the regular season, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announced that it has changed the format of the 2022 playoffs.
As anticipated with the shorter playoff time, the first three rounds of the President Cup playoffs will be played in a best-of-five series while the Championship series will be the normal best-of-seven format.
The changes are due to the fact that the league wants to play a full regular season which is scheduled to end on May 1 and the Memorial Cup needing to be completed before the end of June.
The round of 16 will oppose the eight teams from each conference, based on their position in the final regular season standings (1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5). This round will be played from May 5 to 12.
In the second round, the four winning teams of each conference will compete against each other to clinch a berth in the semifinals. Once again, their seeding will be determined by their position in the final standings. The second round will be held from May 15 to 22.
The semifinals will feature the four remaining winning teams. They will be reseeded according to their position in the overall standings, but this time they will not automatically play within their conference. The two best-of-five series will occur between May 25 and June 1.
Finally, the President Cup Final series will be played from June 4 to 15. It will feature both winners from the semifinals.
Our Halifax Mooseheads are currently 5th in the Eastern conference with 52 points. The second half has been rough for the Herd but they have been in most games.
If the season ended today, Halifax would play the Acadie-Bathurst Titan in the opening round.
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, David Lafrance was named the Scholastic Player of the Month for February 2022. Lafrance had zero points and was a minus-2 during the month.
What a game! Our Halifax Mooseheads snapped their three game losing streak with a comeback win over the league leading Charlottetown Islanders by a score of 4-3. The Islanders got on the board first as Patrick Guay scored at the 7:44 mark in the opening period and less than a minute later, Patrick LeBlanc extended their lead. Halifax had a better middle frame outshooting Charlottetown 18-13 in the period but the Mooseheads found themselves in a 0-3 hole halfway through the game. Just like 2 weeks ago, the boys dug deep and came back to tie the game. Rookie Brady Schultz got the comeback started with a power play goal. James Swan scored another one on the man advantage to close the gap and before I could even tweet about it, overager Zac Beauregard made it a tied game. There was no scoring in the third but Charlottetown was playing with a chip on their shoulder trying to get a 4th goal by Brady James though they were unsuccessful. So the two teams went to overtime with the match tied at 3-3. Halfway through the extra frame, Cam Whynot went in on a breakaway and flipped it over rookie goaltender Oliver Satny to get the victory for the home team.
FINAL: Islanders 3 at Mooseheads 4 OT Stars: 3. Jake Furlong HAL | 2. Noah Laaouan CHA | 1. Brady Schultz HAL Attendance: 3,777 MC's Top Herd: Brady James
Game Log First period 7:44 CHA Patrick Guay (34) | A: Budgell & Laaouan 8:26 CHA Patrick LeBlanc (10) | A: None
Second period 7:19 CHA Lukas Cormier (21) | A: Laaouan & Todd 12:09 HAL Brady Schultz (2), PP | A: Boucher & Furlong 15:27 HAL James Swan (4), PP | A: Desnoyers & Furlong 15:45 HAL Zachary Beauregard (7) | A: Vidicek & Jones
Third period No scoring
Overtime 2:29 HAL Cameron Whynot (4) | A: Vidicek
Shots: 36-34 in favour of Halifax Powerplay: CHA - 0-for-1; HAL - 2-for-6
SCORES Gatineau 8 at Rouyn-Noranda 1 Shawinigan 3 at Blainville-Boisbriand 2 Chicoutimi 3 at Rimouski 2 SO
Missing in action: Dylan MacKinnon (illness), Attilio Biasca (injury), Robert Orr (injury)
Up next: Our Halifax Mooseheads will continue their home stand with a visit from the Sherbrooke Phoenix on Thursday night. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
