Herd Word

UNIVERSITY CUP
The 2025 University Cup was played back in March and once again there were a few Mooseheads alumni participating. This year the teams included were; #1 New Brunswick Reds (AUS champs - Peter Reynolds), #2 Saskatchewan Huskies (CW champs), #3 Concordia Stingers (OUA champs), #4 Toronto Metropolitan Bold (OUA finalist - Kevin Gursoy), #5 Mount Royal Cougars (CW finalist), #6 Moncton Aigles Bleus (AUS finalist - Denis Toner), #7 Queen's Gaels (OUA bronze - Ethan Larmand) and #8 Ottawa Gee-Gees (OUA semifinalist - David Lafrance). 

In a big upset, the host Gee-Gees defeated the top ranked Reds in their first round game 3-2 in overtime. That victory propelled the University of Ottawa to its first University Cup trophy on March 23. They met the Stingers in the gold medal game and won 3-2. 

Congrats to former Herd David Lafrance on winning gold at the tournament. 

Photo - Gee-Gees website

FROM THE OWNERS
Shortly after our Mooseheads were ousted from the playoffs, the owners of the club Peter and Sam Simon shared a letter to Moose Country about the season. 

A week ago our season came to an end, but as we reflect, we couldn't be prouder of our team, staff, and organization. This season was one of a new culture, character, and identity that will forever continue to be the "Mooseheads way". Our group worked hard each night and competed to the highest degree. The belief was strong as ever that even with our youth, there was no limity what we could achieve. Our foundation is solid, and this is the minimum standard moving forward. Now it is incumbent upon us, our staff, and the returning players to take the next step and be even stronger. We set our own expectations internally, and the standard will only elevate from here.

Peter Simon also met with Scott McIntosh for a year end interview to share his thoughts on the season, what's next for the team and more. You can watch it on the clubs YouTube channel. 

CSS RANKINGS
The ending of the NHL regular season allows fans and teams who didn't make the playoffs a chance to switch their focus to the next one. With that, the NHL and Central Scouting Services announced in mid-April their final rankings for the 2025 NHL draft. A few current Herd players were among the 225 players on the North American list. No surprise here but the top two players ranked come from the Ontario Hockey League with Matthew Schaefer of the Erie Otters first followed by the Saginaw Spirit's Michael Misa at #2. Misa led the who CHL in scoring during the 2024-25 regular season. Moncton Wildcats' Caleb Desnoyers is the highest ranked QMJHL player. 

Halifax players ranked
D Carlos Handel  - #73
C Liam Kilfoil  - #90
LW Shawn Carrier  - #148

Hopefully we will see these guys get drafted in late June. 

BRAVES CHAMPIONS

Photo - QJHL website

A late congrats to the Valleyfield Braves who won the 2025 QJHL playoffs on April 23 against the reigning champs Longueuil. Moose alum James Swan captained the Braves this season and was teammates with another former Herd player in Vincent Gauthier. Swan tied the league lead in regular season scoring with 89 points (58G & 31A) in 48 games played, while Gauthier had 26 points in the playoffs including a goal in Game 6 to help Valleyfield win the series 4-2. 

The Braves will now compete for the national championship in Calgary, AB for a chance to lift the Centennial Cup starting May 8.

NHL PLAYOFF UPDATE
We started with six Herd alumni in the NHL post-season but are now down to two. Brad Marchand and the Florida Panthers have already booked their ticket to the second round after defeating Tampa Bay in 5 games. They will play the Toronto Maple Leafs now. Nikolaj Ehlers has been injured and missed the Winnipeg Jets' first five playoff games but was back in the lineup on Friday. The Jets had a great regular season winning the President Trophy as the best team in the NHL and will hope that they can advance tonight with a Game 7 victory. 

The Colorado Avalanche lost last night in Dallas which means that they are out of the playoffs now. Halifax native Nathan MacKinnon scored in the game but it wasn't enough as the Stars won the match 4-2 picking up a 4-3 series win. MacKinnon had 7 goals and 11 points to lead the Avs while Jonathan Drouin recorded 3 assists. The New Jersey Devils were the only other team in the playoffs with former Mooseheads participating with two Swiss forwards. Both Nico Hischier (4A) and Timo Meier (2G & 2A) had 4 points in five games as the Devils lost their series 4-1 against the Carolina Hurricanes. 

WEEGAR 

Photo - Hockey Canada Twitter

The first 15 players who will wear the maple leaf at the 2025 IIHF World Championship were announced by Hockey Canada on Thursday and Moose alum defenseman MacKenzie Weegar was on the roster. Weegar previously suited up for Canada in 2023 and will look to help them back to a medal after the red and white finished 4th in last year's tournament. 

I have not seen many other countries naming players who will participate in the tournament which is taking place May 9-25 in Stockholm, Sweden and Herning, Denmark. With MacKinnon out of the playoffs now we may see him on Team Canada and hopefully Meier and Hischier will suit of for Switzerland. 

Congrats and good luck to MacKenzie in the championships. 

INTERVIEW WITH COACH
The latest This Is Moose Country podcast hosted by Scott MacIntosh and Brad Cuzner has an interview with head coach Andrew Lord. Skip to 26:48 of the video if you just want to hear what Lord has to say. 

A few other notes

• Shawn Carrier was the latest player to be featured in the Q's Meet the Future series. 
• Goaltender Zach Fucale, forward Ostap Safin and the Traktor Chelyabinsk finished on top of the KHL regular season standings and are currently leading their semi-final series 3 games to 0. 
• Check out the video that the Herd posted as the team came together following their second round playoff loss.
• Scott MacIntosh did an article about how the rest of the 2024 Mooseheads draft class performed during the 2024-25 season. A couple of prospects (Logan Trewin & Gavin Sudds) won the NSU18MHL championship with the Halifax Macs.
• The Rimouski Oceanic will look to advance to the QMJHL finals with a win this evening in Game 6 of their series against the Shawinigan Cataractes. Puck drops at 5 p.m. AT in Shawinigan. Rimouski has 3 alumni on their team. 

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. 

Alumni at University Cup this weekend

The national championship for university men's hockey is coming up this weekend in Charlottetown, PEI. There will be a few Halifax Mooseheads alumni participating, however there was only one team with former Herd on it to win their regional championship. 

For the second year in a row, Jordan Lepage, Alexis Gravel and the UQTR Patriotes came away as OUA champions on Saturday night. The almost 23-year-old Gravel made 54 saves to help his team win a 3-2 overtime game to get the Queen's Cup against the Windsor Lancers. The first four goals were scored in the first period but then neither team could get the puck past the goaltenders and the match went to a third overtime period. Congratulations to Alex and Jordan on going back-to-back. 

Photo - Patriotes Twitter

Below are the rankings of the teams participating in the 2023 University Cup from March 16-19

1. Calgary Dinos (Canada West champion)
2. UQTR Patriotes (OUA champion)
3. UNB Reds (AUS champion)
4. Windsor Lancers (OUA finalist)
5. Alberta Golden Bears (Canada West finalist)
6. Concordia Stingers (OUA bronze)
7. Saint Mary's Huskies (AUS finalist)
8. UPEI Panthers (Hosts)

Across the eight teams participating in the tournament this year, there will be a total of ten former Mooseheads players. The AUS runner-up Saint Mary's Huskies have the most alum on their team with 4 in defenceman Walter Flower and forwards Keith Getson, Ben Higgins and Joel Bishop. Other guys who played in Moose Country in the past but are now in university whose season has continued are Jordan Maher and Zac Beauregard from the host Panthers, Barrett Dachyshyn with Windsor and Concordia's Maxim Trepanier. 

Good luck to all the players and teams this weekend in Charlottetown. 

Alumni in University Cup

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. 

Photo - Wikipedia

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.

Three Former Mooseheads Win National Medals

Photo - UNB Hockey Twitter

The UNB Varsity Reds are national champions again!

Which means that Halifax Mooseheads alumni Matt Murphy and Randy Gazzola picked up some more hardware this past weekend. The University Cup was held in Lethbridge, Alberta with 8 teams vying for the gold medal. UNB received a spot in the national tournament after defeating the St. Francis Xavier X-Men in the Atlantic University Sport finals earlier this month to get the AUS trophy. Despite being runners-up, St. FX also earned a spot to play in Lethbridge.

University of New Brunswick went up against the Canada West playoff champions and #1 seed Alberta Golden Bears in the Gold Medal game on Sunday night and defeated them by a score of 4-2. Gazzola picked up an assist in the championship match.

This is the teams' 3rd University Cup title in the last 4 years and 8th in school history. The Reds won bronze last season on home ice in Fredericton.

Murphy still has two years of eligibility while this was Gazzola's last season in university hockey.


In the Bronze medal game, the X-Men defeated the Saskatchewan Huskies 5-1 to get third place in the tournament. Former Herd Blade Mann-Dixon did not play in the final game but it was only his rookie year in 2018-19. The 21-year-old played for Halifax for a season and a half from 2016-2018 after being traded by Charlottetown during the Christmas trade period.

Congratulations to all three boys.

Herd Word

CHL PLAYER OF THE WEEK
The Canadian Hockey League announced it's player of the week today. After being named the first star of the QMJHL for the week of March 2-8, Danish forward Nikolaj Ehlers was named the CHL Player of the Week. The 19 year old had 12 points and a plus/minus rating of plus-8. This is the second time Ehlers has been given the honour this season. Read the full press release here. Congrats once again Nikolaj.

UNIVERSITY CUP

CIS University Cup logo
via ticketatlantic.ca

The Canadian Interuniversity Sport's hockey championships are less than 48 hours away. This year they will be hosted at the Scotiabank Centre by the St. FX X-Men and will be held March 12-March 15. There are 7 former Mooseheads players in the tournament, all on Atlantic University Sport teams. The host X-Men will be joined by the Alberta Golden Bears, UNB Varsity Reds, Guelph Gryphons, Windsor Lancers, Acadia Axemen, Patriotes UQTR and Calgary Dinos. The quarterfinals will be held on Thursday and Friday with the winners playing in the semis on Saturday. The bronze medal and championship games will be on Sunday at 2pm and 6:30pm respectively. Click here for the University Cup website and a more in depth look at the tournament.

KID MACK HURT
Former Halifax Mooseheads player Nathan MacKinnon won't be playing hockey for awhile. The current Colorado Avalanche forward will be out for 6-8 weeks with a broken foot. The reigning NHL rookie of the year sustained the injury on Wednesday in the Avs 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Unless Colorado makes the playoffs, MacKinnon's season is done. The Avalanche are currently 7 points out of a playoff position with 16 games to go.

CROSSLEY
It's been almost a week since the scary moment that happened last Wednesday in a game versus the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. Elijah Francis laid out a hit on rookie Brett Crossley near the boards and the 17 year old Mooseheads forward was stretchered off the ice after laying still for about 10 minutes. Luckily, Crossley is doing okay after the hit. His father Brad had this to say on Facebook on Thursday.

METRO NEWS 
Coach Domique Ducharme told the Metro News that the QMJHL reffing has 'been ridiculous in the last seven, eight games we've played in the Maritimes Division'. For the full article click here.

NEXT UP
Your Halifax Mooseheads will be on the road this weekend, travelling to Bathurst and Saint John. The Herd will visit the Titan on Friday night and than the Sea Dogs on Saturday night. Friday's match-up will be the last of the season series between the Moose and Titan. Halifax is 5-3-0-0 against Acadie-Bathurst this year. The Moose will be meeting Saint John again after this weekend, in the season finale for both teams. Halifax has yet to beat the Dogs this season, going 0-5-1-0 against them.

LIVE TWEETS
Talking about this weekend, I will be heading up to Saint John to watch the boys play and as such will be doing some live tweeting. Let's pray I don't forget my phone charger like I did last year! Though I will be going to the last two home games of the regular season, Saturday's away match-up will be my last live tweet until the playoffs.

Herd Word

UNIVERSITY CUP
On Sunday, the University Cup was handed out in Saskatoon, which may or may not be a coincidence with the city hosting the Memorial Cup. The Maritimes were well represented in the finals as both AUS teams made it with the Saint Mary's Huskies and the UNB Varsity Reds battling it out. UNB was the only team to go undefeated in the tournament. The V-Reds won by a score of 2-0 at the Credit Union Centre. Former Mooseheads players Bryce Swan, Cam Critchlow and Colby Pridham all won with the New Brunswick team.

PREVIEW
The Mooseheads play-by-play man John Moore recorded a little preview of the upcoming Saint John/Halifax series.

ROUND ONE
Playoffs are finally here as they start tonight at 7:00pm. Here are the Quebec league round one battles:

Saint John Sea Dogs vs. Halifax Mooseheads

Sherbrooke Phoenix vs. Baie-Comeau Drakkar

Acadie-Bathurst Titan vs. Blainville-Boisbraind Armada

Gatineau Olympiques vs. Rimouski Oceanic

Chicoutimi Sagueneens vs. Quebec Remparts

Victoriaville Tigres vs. Moncton Wildcats

Val-d'Or Foreurs vs. PEI Rocket

Drummondville Voltigeurs vs. Rouyn-Noranda Huskies

The Mooseheads and Sea Dogs don't start their series until Friday night with back-to-back weekend games. Puck drops at 7pm for both games. Good luck to all teams especially the Moose as the playoffs get ready to roll. GO MOOSE GO!

TV
Game one of the Halifax/Saint John playoff series will be televised in the Maritimes on Eastlink TV Friday night. Coverage starts at 6:30pm/ET.

RANKINGS
Your Mooseheads go into the 2013 playoffs ranked #1 in the Canadian Hockey League. They were ranked the top guns in the final BMO CHL MasterCard Top 10 Rankings of the season that were released yesterday afternoon.

DEMOTED
After the NHL returned to action on January 19th after the lockout, six junior players were able to crack the rosters of their pro teams. Two of them however were returned to their junior clubs just before the end of CHL regular season on Sunday. Mikhail Grigorenko was returned to the Quebec Remparts and recorded 4 points in his first game back, while Stefan Matteau was returned to Blainville-Boisbraind and has yet to play a game. Mikhail and Stefan were returned by the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils respectively to help their junior teams in the playoffs.

MACAULAY
Forward Stephen MacAulay will play against his former team; the Saint John Sea Dogs, in the first round of the playoffs. He was unable to play in the last regular season game between the two teams on Friday as he was grieving his mother's death. Many of the Sea Dogs, including former SJ player Jonathan Huberdeau, went to the funeral Friday morning before the game that night to support their former teammate. He returned to the lineup on Sunday afternoon.

He will look to play in his fourth straight league final and third straight Memorial Cup. He will also be looking to win his third straight President's Cup after winning the last 2 with the Dogs. Stephen finished 8th in team scoring while recording 13 goals and 13 assists for 26 points in 25 games with the Herd.

DROUIN
A twenty-nine game scoring streak was finished on the last day of the season. Because Jonathan Drouin was unable to record any points against the Screaming Eagles on Sunday he ended the season 2nd overall in league scoring. Despite only playing 49 games, he finished with 2.14 points per game, 0.52 more then league leading Ben Duffy.

WEEGAR
Rookie defenceman MacKenzie Weegar ended the season atop the QMJHL plus/minus board with a +55. He became the first team defenceman to have a +/- rating 50 or higher. How he is not nominated for a defenceman award is beyond me. Halifax holds 10 other spots in the first 15 players with boys at #2, #3, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #11, #13 and #15.

ASHLEY
I would like to again congratulate Darcy Ashley on being named Dickies Hardest Working Player of the Year for the QMJHL. He was named with the honour on March 6th and was given a special jersey on Friday night. He also receives a $1,000 scholarship and $200 in Dickies merchandise.

FUCALE
Zachary finished the season with 45 wins on the season and a 2.35 goals against average which is a new franchise record. He will look to continue his success in the playoffs all the way to Saskatoon.