Canada, Switzerland in Quarters at U18s

Three Mooseheads have extended their season with some strong play at the under 18 world championships.

Jared McIsaac, Jocktan Chainey and Team Canada are onto the quarterfinals after finishing the preliminary round with 2 wins, an overtime win and a loss. Halifax's rookie goaltender Alexis Gravel is on the Canadian squad as well but has yet to play a game. Canada will faceoff against Team Sweden. McIsaac has 2 assists while Chainey has pitched in with 4 helpers. Jocktan is among the leaders in plus/minus with a +4.

Nico Hischier and Team Switzerland finished fourth in their group with one win and 3 losses. They'll be in tough during their quarterfinal matchup as they take on Team United States. Hischier leads the Swiss with 5 points, all assists.

Both games that Herd players are in will be played on Thursday in Spisska Nova Vas, Slovakia.
Good luck to Canada and Switzerland in the playoff round.

Mooseheads Named to U18s

Well the Halifax Mooseheads might be out of the 2017 QMJHL playoffs but that doesn't mean the hockey season is over for all the players. Three young men who played the past year on the Herd's back end were told today that they were on the upcoming U18 Canadian and Swiss World Championship teams. Rookie goaltender Alexis Gravel plus defensemen Jared McIsaac and Jocktan Chainey have been called upon by Hockey Canada to represent their country at the 2017 under-18's in Slovakia. The tournament will be played April 13 to 23 in two different host cities. Scoring sensation Nico Hischier is on Team Switzerland's roster for the international championship.

The four players will meet each other in pre-tournament play on April 10th and during the preliminary round on Monday April 17. You can watch all Team Canada's matches on TSN. Click the following link for the full schedule and more info on the tournament; http://u18worlds2017.iihf.com/.

Congratulations to these young men who get to represent their countries and good luck to both teams. I'll try to keep you updated on how they're doing.

Flower & Prospects Invited To Hockey Canada Camps

Hockey Canada announced the invitees to their summer showcase camps on Monday in preparation of the 2016-17 hockey season. The announcement comes just 2 weeks after team coaches were named with former Halifax Mooseheads head boss Dominique Ducharme being appointed as the World Junior team's head coach.

Alexis Gravel
Photo - Gravel's Twitter

Defenseman Walter Flower was invited to the under-18 selection camp. "From July 29-Aug. 2, 44 players – four goaltenders, 16 defencemen, and 24 forwards – will participate in practices and three Red-White intrasquad games." Twenty-two men will be selected to play on the 2016 Ivan Hlinka Canadian team after the five days in Calgary.

During the same time, "111 players – 12 goaltenders, 36 defenceman and 63 forwards – will participate in practices and games on one of six teams: Black, Blue, Gold, Green, Red, and White." Four kids that your Herd drafted at the beginning of the month were invited to participate in the U-17 development camp. Goaltender Alexis Gravel, defenseman Jared McIsaac along with forwards Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Raphael Lavoie were amoung the players heading to Calgary for a chance to be on 1 of three national teams at the U-17 World Hockey Challenge held in early November.

Congratulations to all five young men and good luck next month.

More Moose Win Championships

Photo - Daniel Sparre's Twitter

Former Halifax Mooseheads Kornad Abeltshauser and Daniel Sparre, as well as former goaltending coach Patrick Dallaire captured the DEL championship on Friday night. Konrad did not play in the championship game because of a broken leg. Their EHC Munchen RedBulls defeated Wolfsburg in the championship game. Sparre had a goal and an assist in the tournament.




Otto Somppi will come back to the Herd in August as a champion. Somppi was participating in the Under 18 World Championships this past week and helped his Team Finland skate to victory. The 18 year old forward had a goal in the gold medal game as the Finns defeated Team Sweden 6-1 last night in Grand Forks, ND. Earlier in the tournament the Helsinki native had an assist in the first match while also being named player of the game against Canada.

Photo - Otto Somppi's Twitter

Halifax's assistant coach Jim Midgley and Team Canada fell Team USA 10-3 in the bronze medal game. Midgley was the Canadians video coach during the tournament.

Congratulations to all players!!

Herd Word

QAURTERFINAL MATCHES SET
The quarter final match ups for the 2016 QMJHL playoffs are now set and all 5 Moose alumni are still in it. Former captain Timo Meier helped a dominant first place Rouyn-Noranda Huskies move on to the second round in 4 games, scoring a league best 13 points. Cavan Fitzgerald and Danny Moynihan scored 7 points each to get the Shawinigan Cataractes to the quarter finals for the first time since 2012. Veteran defensemen Cody Donaghey and Matt Murphy patrolled the blue line for the Moncton Wildcats and Saint John Sea Dogs respectively as 4 Maritimes division teams won their first round series'. The 13th Blainville-Boisbraind Armada had the biggest upset of the year, defeating the 4th place Val-d'Or Foreurs in 6 games.

Here are the quarterfinal match ups
#1 Rouyn-Noranda Huskies vs. #13 Blainville-Boisbriand Armada
#2 Shawinigan Cataractes vs. #9 Charlottetown Islanders
#3 Saint John Sea Dogs vs. #7 Cape Breton Screaming Eagles
#5 Gatineau Olympiques vs. #6 Moncton Wildcats

I'm predicting Rouyn-Noranda in 5 games, Shawinigan in 6 games, Saint John in 6 games, and Gatineau in 7 games

COACHES
Both Halifax Mooseheads' assistant coaches will be doing more coaching this spring as Jim Midgley was named to Canada's U18 coaching staff and Jon Greenwood will head coach Nova Scotia's U16 team. Midgley has left already for Grand Forks to be the video coach for the U18 National Championship that begins April 14. Greenwood will go to Quebec for the Gatorade Excellence Challenge that showcases draft eligible players for this year's QMJHL draft. Check out this link to get more information on the Challenge.

Photo - theqmjhl.ca

BRASSARD
Former Mooseheads goaltender Eric Brassard has signed a pro contract. The ECHL Brampton Beast announced on Tuesday that they have signed the 20 year old to a standard player contract. The Longueuil, QC native played in 44 games and posted a 0.892 save percentage while collecting 13 wins.

Congrats to Eric on getting a contract after a very good junior career. I am guessing that he will be invited to the Beast's training camp in September.

Photo - Herd Twitter

COIN FLIP
Tomorrow is a big day for Dom Ducharme and his staff as the Halifax Mooseheads look to get stronger for the next few seasons. The Herd and 18th place Baie-Comeau Drakkar will take part in a coin flip on Thursday afternoon at 1:00pm Atlantic time and you can watch it live on Facebook. The 'event' is to determine who will get the first overall pick in the upcoming Q draft.

For more info click here.

Herd Word

EASTLINK
Your Halifax Mooseheads will play 11 games on Eastlink TV this season. The Atlantic Canada network released their QMJHL Friday Night Hockey schedule today.

Eastlink will show 24 Q games this year which will feature home matches from Halifax, Cape Breton and Charlottetown with the majority on Friday nights but a few will be on Saturday. Playoff matches will be released at a later date. Below is the Mooseheads schedule:

September 11   at Charlottetown
September 25   vs. Moncton
October 17   vs. Bathurst
October 23   vs. Cape Breton
November 6   vs. Chicoutimi
December 4   vs. Rouyn Noranda
January 8   vs. Rimouski
February 20   vs. Charlottetown
February 27   vs. Saint John
March 5   at Cape Breton
March 11   vs. Moncton

PRE-SEASON TICKETS
Tickets for the Mooseheads' pre-season game against the Charlottetown Islanders in Truro are on sale now. You can get them through the RECC ticket office, ticketpro.ca and the season ticket office at the Scotiabank Centre. Tickets for the 2 games at the Halifax Forum will go on sale August 4.

HOCKEY CANADA
All of the Mooseheads bench staff will be in Calgary at some point in August. Coach Ducharme will serve as an assistant coach for the U20 team once again this year. The summer development camp will be held at the Markin MacPhail Centre from August 1-6. Jon Greenwood will be attending the U17 camp as a guest coach from July 29-August 4. Jim Midgley will be guest coaching as well but for the U18 men's camp from August 2-4. Chris MacDonald will be the equipment manager for the Junior team while athletic therapist will be working with the women's team from August 6-16.

PROSPECTS
Newly drafted prospects Walter Flower and Arnaud Durandeau will be in Calgary as well as part of the U17 summer showcase. The pair will than travel back home and spend a few days with family most likely before attending the Mooseheads training camp which begins August 12.

CANADA WINS GOLD!!!

Hockey fans in Canada can cheer once again as Team Canada won Gold at the Under 18 World Championship in Sochi, Russia. The last tournament that Canadians played in was the Women's World Championships earlier this month in which Canada lost to USA for gold. The last Men's tournament was the World Juniors which Team Canada lost the bronze medal game to host Russia. The sledge hockey team shutout Team USA in the Gold Medal game 8 days ago.

Team Canada took a 1-0 lead at 9:29 of the first period from a goal by Laurent Dauphin. USA tied it up at 1:48 of the second and than took the lead at 9:42 into the middle frame with goals by Connor Clifton and Mike McCarron respectively. Canada would take a 3-2 lead before the end of the middle 20 and there was no score in the 3rd period. Team USA was very close to tying it in the dying minutes but could not get past Philippe Desrosiers who made 35 saves.

2012 Halifax Mooseheads draft picks Jack Eichel and John Hayden played for Team USA. Hayden was named alternate captain of USA. He was a -1 and had 3 shots during 16:39 of ice time. Eichel had 2 shots on goal while playing 6:41 minutes. 16 year old Connor McDavid was the tournament's leading scorer with 14 points. He was held pointless in both the semi final and gold medal games. He ended with 8 goals and 6 assists with back to back hat tricks and a +8.

Canada's record: 7-0-0-0

Scores
Slovakia 1 - 4 Canada (prelim)
Canada 3 - 1 Germany (prelim)
Canada 10 - 1 Switzerland (prelim)
Sweden 0 - 6 Canada (prelim)
Canada 6 - 0 Czech Republic (quarters)
Canada 3 - 1 Finland (semis)
Canada 3 - 2 United States (gold)


In the Bronze Medal game, Finland won 2-1 in regulation over host Russia. Finland got goals from Artturi Lehkonen and Kasperi Kapanen while Russia's only goal was scored by Vladimir Tkachyov. It was Finland's fourth bronze medal. USA won their 3rd silver medal. This was Canada's third gold medal after winning gold in 2003 and 2008, all three 5 years apart. Team USA had won the four previous tournaments.


The next tournament for Team Canada is the 2013 Men's World Championships which will be held in Finland and Sweden from May 3 to May 19 and will be qualifications for the 2014 Olympic games.

Wednesday notes

CSS RANKINGS
The final CSS Rankings for the 2013 NHL Draft were released today. Defenseman Seth Jones of the Portland Winterhawks is #1 on the list followed by our two favourite players Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin who are #2 and #3 respectively of North American skaters. Darnell Nurse (SSM Greyhounds) and Sean Monahan (Ottawa Senators) round out the top 5. Zach Fucale is ranked as the #1 North American goalie. William Carrier of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles was also named on the list at #18.

Halifax Mooseheads players on list:
#2 - Nathan MacKinnon
#3 - Jonthan Drouin
#114 - Matt Murphy
#164 - MacKenzie Weegar

New Jersey is the host of the 2013 NHL Draft which will be held on June 30th.

UNDER 18
Twenty-three of the Canadian Hockey Leagues best players from teams not currently in the playoffs are over in Sochi for the IIHF U-18 World Championships. They are highlighted by Connor McDavid who is a 16 year old rookie forward with the Erie Otters. He's been impressing scouts all over the place, which led the OHL to give him Exceptional Player status to be drafted a year earlier. He won't be NHL draft eligible until 2015 but in his first year with Erie, he racked up 66 points in 63 games. He has continued that success in Russia during the tournament having recorded 11 points in Canada's first four games. His 3 power play goals and assist on Tuesday led to a 6-0 shutout win over Sweden to clinch first place in their group. They will now play Czech Republic in the quarter finals. Russia won the other group and will play Germany, while the other two will be Finland versus Switzerland and Sweden versus USA. The quarter final games will be played on Thursday.

MATTEAU
New Jersey Devils prospect Stefan Matteau reportedly travelled back on a fan bus to Blainville from Baie-Comeau after the Armada's 2-1 loss on Saturday. It was reported that he had quit the team after the game. He has since been released by the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada for his actions.

UNDEFEATED
The Halifax Mooseheads are the only undefeated team now in the CHL playoffs after winning in overtime last night. Baie-Comeau lost their game last night 3-0 so they are now 10-1. The Moose are now one win away from their third straight sweep and a berth in the QMJHL final. They can wrap it up tomorrow night in Rouyn-Noranda.