Nik Scores Early, Denmark Gets Silver

A slashing penalty by Halifax Mooseheads player Nikolaj Ehlers costed his Denmark team a gold medal at the World Junior A Challenge. The Danes were competing against Team USA in the last game of the tournament and were defeated 3-2 in overtime by the States. Ehlers got the Danes on the board early in the game scoring 33 seconds into the first period. The US tied the game in the middle
frame and than Ehlers set up Denmark's second goal. The goaltending by Danish goalie George Sorenson made it look like his team would skate to a gold medal but a Ehlers penalty at 15:07 followed by a Mads Eller penalty at 16:54 gave the States an even more offensive push and the Americans were able to convert on the second PP to tie the game at 2. Sorenson faced 63 shots by USA but he 60 saves were not enough to help his team win.

Nikolaj and Team Denmark will now travel to Montreal to get ready for the World Juniors that are set to start on Boxing Day. After 9 points (6 goals and 3 assists) in this tournament, I can't imagine that Denmark will be cutting Ehlers. I will have coverage of Denmark's journey in the U20 tournament.

Ehlers, Denmark To Play In WJAC Gold Medal Game

The World Junior A Challenge that is being held in Kindersley, Saskatchewan will conclude tomorrow with the Gold Medal game. Halifax Mooseheads leading scorer Nikolaj Ehlers and Team Denmark will be taking on Team USA for the championship.

This is the first appearance for Denmark in the annual tournament that has mostly been won by the States. The Danes are in the WJAC in preparation for the U20 World Championships that start after Boxing Day. In the preliminary round, Denmark went 2-0-0-0 beating Canada West 3-2 on Sunday and Russia 4-2 on Monday. Going undefeated in the prelim round gave the Danes a bye to the semifinals on Thursday and they went on to beat Russia again, this time winning 5-1. Ehlers had 2 goals against Canada West and a hat trick on Monday. He recorded two assists in the semi-final game.

Check out the Danes tomorrow as they take on the United States for the gold medal at 4:30pm AT on three of the 5 TSN channels. Good luck to Nikolaj and team Denmark in the last game of the tournament.

Herd Word

Zach Fucale in play with the Mooseheads

FUCALE
Mooseheads goaltender Zach Fucale is in St. Catherines, Ontario this week preparing for the 2015 World Juniors that will be held in Toronto and Montreal between the December 26 and January 5. On the weekend, Team Canada had a couple of exhibition games against CIS all-stars. Fucale played in goal on Saturday and stopped 23 of 26 shots on route to helping Canada beat the university team 10-3. He did not play on Sunday evening when Canada had a rematch against the CIS. Fucale and Team Canada will have their next game on Saturday night for their first pre-comp game.

EHLERS
Winnipeg Jets prospect Nikolaj Ehlers on the other hand is trying to help his Denmark team win a gold medal at the World Junior A Challenge that is being held in Saskatchewan this week. The Danes are in the tournament as preparation for the U20 World Championships after Christmas. Ehlers and the Danes were playing Canada West on Sunday afternoon, winning 3-2 on the back of Nik's 2 goals. The good game led to Ehlers being named the Star of the Day. Nik got a hat trick during Denmark's 4-2 victory over Russia in today's action. The two wins mean that Denmark wins their division and will play next in the tournament's semifinals on Thursday.

GADOURY
Forward Philippe Gadoury was named the second star of the week today by the QMJHL. He had 3 goals and 6 points in two games played during the week of December 8, 2014. He also had a plus-5 rating in the week's games, which were both victories for the Mooseheads.

TWO WINS
Your Halifax Mooseheads skated to two very close victories on Thursday and Saturday night. The Quebec Remparts visited Moose Country on Thursday night and were able to claw back from a 3-1 deficit to take it in a shootout. Matt Murphy scored 2 goals in the last 6 minutes to tie the game and Timo Meier scored the shootout winner. Kevin Resop was in nets for the Moose with Fucale away at WJC camp and made 30 saves for the win. Timo Meier also led the Herd to a win on the road on Saturday night as they visited the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, skating away with another 5-4 ovetime win against the Titan. Meier scored the first and last goal for Halifax while Gadoury scored the tying goal with less than 2 minutes left in regulation.

WEEGAR
Former Halifax player MacKenzie Weegar scored his first professional goal on Friday night. He gave the San Antonio Rampage a 2-0 lead which led to a 3-0 win for the Rampage against the Iowa Wild. Congrats to Weegs on the goal. Here's to more in the future.

TRADE PERIOD

Acadie-Bathurst Titan logo

The QMJHL winter trade period opens on Friday December 19th officially. Some trades have already taken place including one with the Moncton Wildcats sending Vladimir Tkachev to the Quebec Remparts for Taylor Burke. It's a mix opinion about what the Mooseheads will do this holiday season. Some have been speculating that Cam Russell will trade Fucale to the Remparts while he is in Montreal playing for Team Canada. After Matt Murphy was a healthy scratch on Saturday, speculation started that there was a trade in the works to send the 20 year old veteran somewhere else in return for some picks. What will happen will soon be told but keep it here and I will let you know.

UP NEXT
The Moose will welcome the Titan on Wednesday night. This game was originally supposed to be played last Wednesday but had to be rescheduled to this week because of a snow storm in Bathurst. Halifax will then travel to Charlottetown to take on the Islanders on Thursday night. These are the last two games for the boys before Christmas break. They will be back in action after Christmas on December 28.