Herd Word

Photo - Avalanche Twitter

4 NATIONS
Well it was a great tournament for Team Canada and guys who were born in Nova Scotia during the 4 Nations Face-Off last month. Canada had an interesting round-robin in the four team competition that was put on by the National Hockey League and only included players in the top professional level. The red and white defeated Sweden in overtime before losing to the United States. They clinched their spot in the gold medal game with a regulation victory over Finland to set up a rematch with USA for the championship. Former Herd Nathan MacKinnon scored the opening goal in what turned out to be a very tight game which Canada won 3-2 in overtime. Connor McDavid scored the game winner at 8:18 of the extra period. 

Brad Marchand, who played for the Mooseheads in 2008, had one goal during the tournament. MacKinnon finished with four goals in 4 games, good enough for 4th amongst the scoring leaders and earning him Most Valuable Player honours. Congratulations to Nathan on being named MVP! 

AUS ALL-STAR TEAMS
The Atlantic University Sport announced it's award winners and all-star teams for the 2024-25 men's hockey season on February 24 following the conclusion of the first round of the post-season. While no former Halifax Mooseheads player won a major award, Herd alum Peter Reynolds of the UNB Reds earned a spot on the All-Rookie Team and even got the nod for the Second Team. The 22-year-old ended his first season in the AUS tied for 3rd overall on the scoring leaderboard with 40 points (21G & 19A). 

MARCHAND
Speaking of Brad Marchand, after fifteen and a half seasons with the Boston Bruins, the 36-year-old was traded to the Florida Panthers during the NHL trade deadline this past Friday. The Bruins received a 2027 conditional 2nd round pick in return. Marchand is in the final season of an 8 year contract and has 47 points so far in 2024-25. He is currently week to week with an upper-body injury sustained in the Bruins March 1st game. 

Good luck in Florida Brad. 

REDS WIN AGAIN
The UNB Reds have won the AUS championship once again and this time without Gardiner MacDougall on the bench as head coach. Reynolds helped the Reds get the victory in game 2 of the final series to allow UNB to sweep the best-of-three round. It is UNB's seventh straight men's hockey title as they defeated the Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus 3-2 on Tuesday night. Peter finished the post-season with 3 goals and 5 points in five games. 

Photo - AUS website

Both teams will represent the Atlantic region at the 2025 University Cup which will be played March 20-23 at TD Place in Ottawa, hosted by the Ottawa GeesGees. Former Herd Kevin Gursoy and the TMU Bold have a chance to win the Queen's Cup on Saturday but they have already booked their ticket to the national championship either way. 

TEAM OF THE WEEK
One of Halifax's best goalies, Mathis Rousseau, who is now with the Moncton Wildcats was named to QMJHL's team of the week on Monday. 

Photo - QMJHL website

1000TH POINT
Nathan MacKinnon is having himself another excellent season and this past week he hit a couple of milestones. On Saturday, the Halifax, NS native scored twice in the Avalanche's victory over Toronto with his second marker being his 100th point of the 2024-25 season. The 29 year old followed it up with a two assist game against Chicago on Monday night in Colorado, which allowed him to surpass one thousand points in his career. MacKinnon becomes the first former Moosehead to record 1,000 NHL regular season points! He has scored 362 goals and 639 assists in 857 games. 

Congrats to Nathan on hitting the milestones. 

MacKinnon Scores 2, Canada Advances

Photo - Avalanche Twitter

The round robin of the 4 Nations Face-Off is over and former Halifax Mooseheads forward Nathan MacKinnon helped his team advance to the championship game. The NHL decided to hold this tournament, that sees the best players from Canada, Finland, Sweden and USA battle each other, instead of the annual all-star game. 

MacKinnon scored twice on Monday afternoon as the tournament moved to Boston for the final two game days. His markers helped Team Canada to a 5-3 victory over Finland which booked the red and white's ticket to the final match. The Herd alum made it 2-0 for Canada at the 4:59 minute mark of the first period and scored what turned out to be the game winning goal with under 15 minutes remaining in the middle frame. Nathan was also named the first star of the game. Fellow Nova Scotian Sidney Crosby, who is captaining the team, scored an empty net goal to seal the win and picked up an assist as well. 

Canada will play in a rematch against the USA on Thursday night in the final. 

Another forward who played for the Moose during his junior career, Brad Marchand is also suiting up for Canada. He had no points yesterday but the Halifax native did score on Wednesday in a 4-3 overtime victory. 

Photo - Bruins Twitter

Good luck to the guys wearing the maple leaf later this week.

Here are the final prelim round results (W-OTW-OTL-L)
USA             6pts  2-0-0-1
Canada         5pts  1-1-0-1
Sweden        5pts  1-0-2-0
Finland         2pts  0-1-0-2