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. 

Herd Word

Photo - Mooseheads website

FURLONG SIGNS

A few days after being named captain of our Halifax Mooseheads, defenceman Jake Furlong signed a 3-year entry level contract with the San Jose Sharks. Despite being sent back by the Sharks and I believe not playing a pre-season game in the NHL, Furlong clearly made enough of an impression for San Jose to sign him on October 5. The 19-year-old was selected in the fifth round, 140th overall in the 2022 NHL draft by the Californian team. 

"I'm super excited and humbled to be signing with the Sharks. It's a dream come true and I'm happy to be able to share this moment with my teammates, coaches and especially my family who helped me get here," Furlong said. 

CHL TOP 10 

The Canadian Hockey League has announced the top 10 rankings for week 2 on Tuesday. Your Mooseheads find themselves #2 after going 3-0-0-0 in the past 7 days. Halifax has the longest active winning streak in the CHL currently at 5 following opening the season with two straight losses. Full top 10 is below

1. Portland Winterhawks (4-1-0-0)   last week: 2
2. Halifax Mooseheads (5-2-0-0)   last week: 6
3. London Knights (3-1-0-1)   last week: 1
4. Saginaw Spirit (2-1-0-0)   last week: 5
5. Moose Jaw Warriors (4-3-0-0)   last week: 4
6. Saskatoon Blades (4-2-0-0)   last week: 9
7. Prince George Cougars (6-2-0-0)   last week: n/a
8. Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (3-2-1-2)   last week: 3
9. Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (5-1-0-0)   last week: n/a
10. North Bay Battalion (3-1-1-1)   last week: n/a

Photo - QMJHL website

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Veteran goaltender Mathis Rousseau was named the QMJHL's player of the week ending October 9. The 19-year-old started all three games that Halifax had this past week, recording a 1.33 goals against average and a 0.944% save percentage. On Wednesday, Rousseau had a shutout after stopping all 26 shots against the Cape Breton Eagles. 

The Boisbriand, QC native was also named to the team of the week because of the above honour. The Mooseheads had two players on the team of the week ending October 2 in rookie Lou Levesque and Rousseau. Levesque had two goals and 5 points in two games played between September 25 and October 1. Congrats to these guys on being recognized for their play. 

DUMAIS
Last year's leading scorer for the Herd, Jordan Dumais still has not been returned to the team by the Columbus Blue Jackets and some people weren't sure why but with NHL's opening night rosters being submitted on Monday, the reason why has become clearer. Dumais played only one pre-season game for Columbus which was confusing. However, the Jackets announced their 2023-24 roster and the Montreal, QC native was placed on the injured/non-roster list with an upper body injury. It is thought that once he is is cleared to play, Dumais will be assigned to the Mooseheads. 

Hopefully Jordan will heal up quickly and be back to Halifax soon. 

NHL OPENING WEEK

The National Hockey League 2023-24 regular season began on Tuesday with three games and Halifax have 10 alumni on opening night rosters. Below you will find the players who have cracked their respective teams. 

Photo - Flames Twitter

Justin Barron - Montreal Canadiens
Jonathan Drouin - Colorado Avalanche
Nikolaj Ehlers - Winnipeg Jets

Benoit-Olivier Groulx - Anaheim Ducks
Nico Hischier - New Jersey Devils
Nathan MacKinnon - Colorado Avalanche
Brad Marchand - Boston Bruins
Timo Meier - New Jersey Devils
MacKenzie Weegar - Calgary Flames
Filip Zadina - San Jose Sharks

As you will notice, a couple of guys have a new team this year compared to last season with Jonathan Drouin reuniting with Nathan MacKinnon in Colorado and Filip Zadina looking for a fresh start in San Jose. Jakub Voracek, who has been in the NHL since 2008, was traded to the Arizona Coyotes last year but has not played a game for them yet as he is injured with a concussion. Another note, BO Groulx has decided to change his number to #24 it was announced yesterday by Anaheim. Hopefully, he will stick with the big club this time and not get sent down to the AHL. 

I will have a full list of where alumni are playing later this month once all the leagues have begun playing. 

NAUSS

Congratulations are in order for Morgan Nauss who was given the Captaincy of the Acadia Axemen for this season. The Hammonds Plains native is a 4th year defenceman and had played 63 regular season games with Acadia, recording 8 points in his AUS career before the 2023-24 season began. He will be joined by Nick Deakin-Poot, Peyton Hoyt, Hudson Wilson, Perrick Rippon and Reilly Webb all of whom will serve as alternate captains. 

Photo - Axemen Twitter

"It is an honour to be named Captain of the Acadia Axemen. I plan to lead by example on and off the ice, along with many other leaders we have on our team," Nauss said. 

Murphy & UNB Champions Again

Photo - UNB Reds Twitter

The University of New Brunswick continued their dynasty on Friday night defeating Acadia University for their third straight Atlantic University Sport championship in men's hockey. UNB features a number of former QMJHL players including Halifax Mooseheads alumni Matt Murphy. The Reds won the title by a 5-1 score in front of a sold out home crowd in Fredericton, NB. Murphy picked up an assist on the last goal of the game as UNB was led by Alexandre Goulet's hat trick in the final match of the best of three series.

Congratulations to Matt and the Reds on another championship.



UNB will now head to the University Cup which is being held this weekend March 12-15 in Halifax, NS by the Acadia Axemen. Three AUS teams will participate in this year's tournament with UNB being joined by host Acadia and the Saint Mary's Huskies. The Huskies booked their ticket to the national championship by winning the consolation playoff round with a two game sweep last week.

The seedings for the tournament are as follows; #1 UNB Reds, #2 Saskatchewan Huskies, #3 Guelph Gryphons, #4 Ottawa Gee Gees, #5 Acadia Axemen, #6 Saint Mary's Huskies, #7 Western Mustangs, #8 UBC Thunderbirds

Quarter-final matches will be played on Thursday and Friday followed by the semi-final games on Saturday and finally the bronze and gold medal games Sunday. All matches are at the Scotiabank Centre.

Good luck to all the teams especially the 3 AUS teams which also include former Herd players Joel Bishop, Eric Brassard, Keith Getson and Austyn Hardie of Saint Mary's and Acadia's Morgan Nauss.

Getson Scores OT Winner For SMU

Keith Getson has been great for his Saint Mary's Huskies during the 2020 AUS playoffs and it continued last night when he scored the game winner in triple overtime to send SMU to the University Cup. 

The former Halifax Mooseheads forward joined the Huskies in September to continue his hockey career and finished the regular season with fourteen goals and 27 points in 30 games played. Getson's OT goal was his second game winner of the playoffs after scoring in double overtime against the UPEI Panthers in Game 2 of the opening round. 

On Wednesday, he scored at the 5:44 mark of the second period to tie the game at 1 before the Moncton Aigles Bleus scored twice more in the frame to take a 3-1 lead into the intermission. Saint Mary's picked up two goals in the third to send it to extra time. With a power play early in the third overtime frame, Getson scored at the 2:20 mark giving the Huskies a 2-0 series win in the consolation round. The 21 year old has four goals and 5 assists in 8 playoff games now and is a plus-4. Eric Brassard, who also played for the Mooseheads previously, picked up the victory with 42 saves. 

The Acadia Axemen are hosting the 2020 University Cup and because of that the AUS gets to have three teams in the national championship. Acadia and the UNB Reds are battling it out for Atlantic bragging rights and their best of 3 series is tied 1-1 after a dominating performance by the Reds last night who won 6-0. 

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.

Kyte Commits to X

Photo - Mooseheads website

Saint Francis University coach Brad Peddle announced the first commitment for the upcoming season for the X-Men hockey team and it is former Halifax Mooseheads defenceman Patty Kyte. 

The Pembroke, ON native is currently playing for the Chicoutimi Sagueneens after being traded in December. He played three seasons for the Mooseheads. Kyte has a number of family members who are alumni of StFX, including his father Murray who is the Vice President Advancement. 

Peddle commented; "He is an excellent defenceman that plays a very well rounded two-way game. He is a tremendous skater who moves the puck very well, but is also very dependable in his own end." 

Good luck to Patty with the X-Men next season. 

Mann-Dixon Going Home for University

Photo - Mooseheads website

Another university commitment for a former Halifax Moosehead has been announced. Goaltender Blade Mann-Dixon was one of 6 players to be added by the St. FX X-Men for the 2018-19 season.

Mann-Dixon, a native of Antigonish, NS, is going home to play university hockey. The 21-year-old joined the Herd before Christmas 2016 and was a stable force for the last year and a half of his junior career. Blade had a 23-9-0 record this past season with Halifax helping the Moose to a 4th place finish after the regular season. He also played for Saint John, Moncton and Charlottetown in the QMJHL.


Good luck to Blade in Antigonish. The X-Men will start their regular season against the Acadia Axemen on September 28.

Dalhousie Off to Playoffs

Photo - Trevor MacMillan

For the first time since 2011, the Dalhousie Tigers will be in the Atlantic University Sport playoffs. They made the post-season as 6th place with a 9-20-1 record and will face off against the Acadia Axemen in the first round. Other teams in the first round include UPEI Panthers and Saint Mary's Huskies who will go against each other in the other best of 3 series. The playoffs begin on Valentine's Day, February 14, with the winners of the two series going on to the semi finals where the UNB Varsity Reds and St. Francis Xavier X-Men await.

With 24-2-4 record, the Varsity Reds go into the playoffs as 1st place in the AUS but ranked second in the nation and will be looking to get back to the championship game. In second place are the X-Men with a 22-4-4 record who will join UNB as teams with byes to start the post season.

Four of the six teams to extend their seasons have players who have previously played for your Halifax Mooseheads. The Tigers have the most Herd alumni this season with 4, while Saint Mary's and UNB have 3 former Moose players and lastly the Panthers have two. Below you'll find their stats for the 2017-18 season plus the playoff schedule for round #1.

Pos	Name	Team	Pts	G	A	+/-
F	Brent Andrews	Panthers	14	4	10	-15
F	Darcy Ashley	Panthers	23	10	13	-11
F	Kelly Bent	Tigers	6	2	4	-10
F	Jake Coughler	Huskies	34	13	21	5
D	Randy Gazzola	Varsity Reds	24	6	18	13
D	Austyn Hardie	Huskies	4	0	4	9
D	Trey Lewis	Varsity Reds	4	2	2	E
D	Jesse Lussier	Tigers	11	1	10	2
D	Matt Murphy	Varsity Reds	10	3	7	22
F	Andrew Shewfelt	Tigers	6	4	2	-10
D	Zachary Taylor	Tigers	5	0	5	-1

2018 Playoff Schedule (best 2 of 3) - all game 7PM
Wed. Feb 14      Dalhousie at Acadia
UPEI at Saint Mary's
Fri. Feb 16         Saint Mary's at UPEI
Acadia at Dalhousie
Sun. Feb 18       UPEI at Saint Mary's *
Dalhousie at Acadia *

*if needed

Good luck to all six teams and the former Mooseheads.

V-Reds Are National Champs Again

Photo - UNB Reds website

The University Cup is staying in Atlantic Canada. Host University of New Brunswick cruised to a second straight national championship this past weekend after they defeated the Saskatchewan University Huskies 5-3 on Sunday afternoon in the gold medal game. The 4 day tournament was held at the Fredericton campus with the Varsity Reds giving the home fans lots to cheer about.

A few former Halifax Mooseheads helped the team capture the trophy. Cameron Critchlow, who has captained the V-Reds the last 3 seasons, won his third national championship in his 5 year university career which ended with the victory. Critchlow was champion in 2013 as well which was the last time UNB hosted the Cup. Third year defenceman Randy Gazzola had an assist during the weekend. Matthew Murphy, who played for the Quebec Remparts and Saint John Sea Dogs last season, was a rookie on the Frederticton university this year and picked up his first University Cup but I have no doubt that it will not be his only one.

Congratulations to the three Herd alumni and the UNB Varsity Reds on winning back to back championships. Moose Country is proud of you.

Former Moose Get New Teams for 16-17

A few former Halifax Mooseheads players will be on different teams in 2016-17 than they were last season. If you follow me on Twitter, most of this will be old news but I thought I would put all this news in one post for readers.

Photo - Nauss Facebook

During training camp, the Herd made a few transactions that moved veteran players to other teams. Halifax traded defensemen Morgan Nauss and Jean-Sebastien Taillefer to the Chicoutimi Sagueneens and Gatineau Olympiques respectively, towards the end of August for a few draft picks. 18 year old Nauss has no points in 3 games played and a minus-3 so far this season for the Sags while 19 year old Taillefer has 3 assists in 11 games and is minus-1 with the Piques. Sophomores Ilya Putintsev and Dominik Blain-Dupuis apparently didn't fit in to the direction that new head coach Andre Touriney was looking to go as the team put both players on waivers. Putintsev was picked up by the Moncton Wildcats and has since played 8 games assisting on three goals. Blain-Dupuis was picked up by the Olympiques and has gotten a lot of ice time that he probably wouldn't with the Moose, playing all 11 games for Gatineau while picking up an assist. The Mooseheads also released overager Andrew Shewfelt toward the end of camp and he now plays for the Amherst Ramblers of the MJAHL. Shewfelt has 2 assists in 8 games played.

Photo - Florida Everblades Twitter

In mid-September it was announced by the Florida Everblades of the ECHL that they signed former Herd forward Stephen MacAulay for the 2016-17 season. The 24 year old has yet to play a game this season for the Everbaldes but they're only two games into the ECHL season. MacAulay, a native of Cole Harbour, NS, spent the last two and a half seasons with the Saint Mary's Huskies. This will be Stephen's second crack at securing a pro career after he split the first half of the 2013-14 season between the Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL) and the Wheeling Nailers (ECHL) before coming home to play university hockey.

Over the summer, the Moncton Wildcats announced that the team had traded Herd alumni Cody Donaghey to the Charlottetown Islanders. The defenseman has benefited from a high-skilled Islanders team and is currently 7th in league scoring with 15 points, twelve of which are assists. He's played 10 games and is a minus-1. This will be Donaghey's last season in the QMJHL. The St. John's, NL native played the first half of 2015-16 with the Mooseheads and recorded 11 points in 21 games.

Boston, MA native Danny Moynihan was a free-agent invite to Vancouver Canucks training camp last month before being reassigned to the team's American Hockey League affiliate, the Utica Comets who signed Moynihan to a two-way AHL/ECHL contract on October 4. The Comets reassigned the 20 year old to the Alaska Aces of the ECHL a few days later where it is unknown right now if he'll make the team. Moynihan, who split the 2015-16 season between the Mooseheads and Shawinigan Cataractes, will be on a new team this year even if he doesn't make the Aces as he has been recruited by the Dalhousie Tigers. The Tigers' coach, Chris Donnelly, discussed the prospect of Moynihan coming back to Halifax should his professional aspirations not work out with John Moore, the voice of the Mooseheads News 95.7 broadcasts (see below).

After aging out of juniors, Matt Murphy has joined the University of New Brunswick Varisty Reds hockey team for the 2016-17 season. The former Herd was invited to Winnipeg Jets training camp last month but was later released. Murphy will try to help the V-Reds repeat as University Cup champions and isn't doing to bad to start the season. The 21 year old has 5 assists in 4 games played to go with 8 penalty minutes. The defenseman played two and a half seasons in front of the Moose Country faithful and also spent time with the Val-d'Or Foreurs, Quebec Remparts and Saint John Sea Dogs while in the Q.

There will be one former Moose to start the season in the National Hockey League. It was announced last Sunday that the Carolina Hurricanes claimed alum Martin Frk off waivers from the Detroit Red Wings. Frk, from Pelhrimov, Czech Republic, spent the 2015-16 season with the Wings AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins collecting 27 goals and 44 points in 67 games. The 23 year old was named to the Hurricanes opening night roster but did not play. He is expected to make his NHL debut tonight when Carolina visits the Edmonton Oilers.

Photo - NHL.com

Former captain Timo Meier participated in San Jose Sharks training camp last month and looked like he might make the NHL this season. However, it was announced at the end of September that he would be out for four weeks with mononucleosis. The Sharks than announced that they had reassigned the Swiss forward to their minor league team, the San Jose Barracuda, on Friday and that the 20 year old will stay in the Bay area to train as he recovers. Meier will most likely begin the season with the Barracuda, possibly by the end of this month. After that it shouldn't take too long for the former Mooseheads and Rouyn-Noranda Huskies player is back with the big club.

Good luck to all the players with their new teams the rest of the season. Check back here in a few weeks for a list of where more Herd alumni are playing and the first month stats.