Shutouts not evading Herd anymore

Both goalies for your Moose now have a shutout on the season. Chris Clarke received his first shutout of the season as he back stopped his team to a 5-0 win over the Phoenix in Sherbrooke almost two weeks ago. The win against the Quebec team was the first shutout of the season for the Halifax Mooseheads. The red, green and gold now have two shutouts in five games as the Herd and Zachary Fucale beat the Chicoutimi Sagueneens tonight (January 31) 7-0 in the Quebecois city. This was the Mooseheads 40th win. The Moose are the second team this season to reach 40 wins after Portland reached it on Tuesday night also winning without letting a goal in as they beat Everett 6-0. Halifax has now passed last year's win total of 39 for the whole season and there is still 20 games left to be played this year, hopefully the team can win at least half of those games to make it a half century of wins this season for the first time in team history. The current franchise high is 46 wins set in the 1998-99 season.

This was also Konrad Abeltshauser's 200th career regular season game. He ended the night with a +5 rating and 2 assists. Jonathan Drouin scored two beautiful goals according to the team's twitter account. Big Joe added two assists and ended the night with a +4 rating. Marty Frk also had 2 goals and a plus 4 rating while also assisting on a goal. MacKinnon, Weegar and Fournier had the other goals with MacKinnon assisting on two others. Trey Lewis tied with Konrad for team lead in plus/minus.

Our team will now travel to Baie-Comeau to take on the Drakkar tomorrow night as these top division leaders battle it out. The Drakkar are now 11 points behind the Moose in the Quebec league standings. After tomorrow's tilt, the Moose will head back home to play Sidney Crosby's old team, the Rimouski Oceanic, on Wednesday. Look for my preview and game story on Wednesday.

GO MOOSE GO!!!

Mooseheads knocked out of top spot

Once again, the Canadian Hockey League announced their top 10 teams for the past week over the 3 leagues. After 11 weeks of being ranked #1 in the country this season, the Herd have been dethroned by the Portland Winterhawks. The Hawks are the first team in the CHL to reach 40 wins on the season. Three other teams from the Q were once again named in the rankings along with the Mooseheads.

Week 19's CHL Top 10

1. Portland Winterhawks (40-7-1-2) last week: 2
2. Halifax Mooseheads (39-5-2-1) last week: 1
3. London Knights (37-9-1-2) last week: 3
4. Kelowna Rockets (37-10-3-1) last week: 4
5. Baie-Comeau Drakkar (34-12-2-2) last week: 5
6. Edmonton Oil Kings (35-11-2-3) last week: 6
7. Rimouski Oceanic (33-11-1-4) last week: 7
8. Barrie Colts (32-14-0-2) last week: 9
9. Calgary Hitmen (33-13-1-3) last week: 10
10. Owen Sound Attack (30-14-1-3) last week: 8

   Honorable mentions:
   Kamloops Blazers (33-14-2-3)
   Moncton Wildcats (32-16-1-0)
   Kitchener Rangers (29-14-1-5)

Halifax suffers only second home loss of season

Tonight's game was an interesting one. The refs missed a couple of penalties. In the two games between these teams this season, the away team has won each contest. Quebec got on the board early while the Moose thought they had tied it in the first but after a 10 minute goal review (and the ref saying it was in at first) the goal was disallowed. However Big Joe tied it up to extend his point streak to twelve games. He was then cross checked from behind which led to a fight with Lewis getting a 10 minute misconduct and MacKinnon got 2 for roughing and a Quebec player getting a 5 minute fighting major. The Quebec goalie, Brassard basically stood on his head as the Remparts were outshot by the red, white and gold 32-14 after two.

Notes: Steve MacAulay's seven game point streak ended tonight... Weegar broke a 16 year old record (most home assists by a rookie defenseman) in last nights win after recording his 13th assist... Konrad will play in his 200th game on Thursday night on the road...

50/50
Congratulations to Dale of Halifax who got $16,223 winning tonight's 50/50

Three stars:
3. Shaw (QUE)
2. Drouin (HAL)
1. Brassard (QUE)

Weegar also received Dickies hardest working player of the game.

Attendance: SELLOUT 10,595

This was the first time that Quebec has returned to the Metro Centre since last season's very exciting playoff series between these two teams where Halifax was able to start a come back at home.


Score
Remparts 4 at Mooseheads 2

UP NEXT: versus Chicoutimi on the last day of the month at the Centre Georges-Vezina

Jan 26: Quebec vs. Mooseheads game preview

The Quebec Remparts finally make their long awaited visit to Halifax tonight. This is only the second time that these two heated rivals have played each other this season. The last time Halifax and Quebec played was last Friday in Quebec City, the away team in that game was able to clinch a playoff spot with 25 games left. The Mooseheads were able to win it 11-2, riding on Drouin's four points (goal and 3 assists) and Mac Weegar's 4 assists. The win was the first in a 3-in-3 night road trip.
The Mooseheads are coming into the game winning their last four contests all against Quebec teams and are 8-1-1-0 in the last 10 games overall. Quebec City are 4-6-0-0 in their last 10 and have a 12-8-1-2 road record this season. Halifax will be without Andrew Ryan and Brendan Duke as they are both out with unspecified injuries, Ryan will be out for at least 4 weeks and Duke is now listed day-to-day.

Overall record:
QUE: 27-16-1-2 = 57 points (3rd in Telus East Division, 7th overall)
HAL: 39-4-2-1 = 81 points (1st in Maritimes Division, 1st overall)

Top Scorers:
REMPARTS: #73 Adam Erne (20G, 36A, 56 PTS), Logan Shaw (20G, 31A, 51 PTS), Mikhail Grigorenko (29G, 21A, 50 PTS)
HALIFAX: #22 Nathan MacKinnon (26G, 35A, 61 PTS), #27 Jonathan Drouin (23G, 37A, 60 PTS), #74 Stefan Fournier (27G, 26A, 53 PTS)

Around the CHL ~ volume #2 season edition #1

Thanks for following my blog and keep reading it (don't be afraid to comment). I meant to do this once amonth but obviously that didn't work very well. I will do a third edition next month and then a fourth one when the season ends. I will also do a playoff edition. I am so excited for the playoffs, I'm hoping they are as good as last years and the Mooseheads do better than last year!! GO Moose GO!

League leaders
Goals - Josh Currie 38 goals (QMJHL Prince Edward Island Rocket), Reid Boucher 38 goals (OHL Sarnia Sting), Todd Fiddler 33 goals (WHL Spokane Chiefs)
Assists - Charles Sarault 54 assists (OHL Sarnia Sting), Nicolas Petan 49 assists (WHL Portland Winterhawks), Ben Duffy 46 assists (QMJHL Prince Edward Island Rocket)
Points - Nicolas Petan 80 points (WHL Portland Winterhawks), Josh Currie 74 points (QMJHL Prince Edward Island Rocket), Seth Griffith 73 points (OHL London Knights)
Defenceman points - Brenden Kichton 57 points (WHL Spokane Chiefs), Kevin Gagne 47 points (QMJHL Rimouski Oceanic), Cody Ceci 44 points (OHL Owen Sound Attack)
Rookie points - Valentin Zykov 56 points (QMJHL Baie-Comeau Drakkar), Connor McDavid 49 points (OHL Erie Otters), Oliver Bjorkstrand 37 points (WHL Portland Winterhawks)
Goalie wins - Zachary Fucale 30 wins (QMJHL Halifax Mooseheads), Jordan Cooke 25 wins (WHL Kelowna Rockets), Mathias Niederberger 24 wins (OHL Barrie Colts)
Save percentage - Franky Palazzese 0.934 SAV% (OHL Sudbury Wolves), Mac Carruth 0.933 SAV% (WHL Portland Winterhawks), Antoine Bibeau 0.913 SAV% (QMJHL Prince Edward Island Rocket)
Goals against average - Mac Carruth 1.89 GAA (WHL Portland Winterhawks), Franky Palazzese 2.14 GAA (OHL Sudbury Wolves), Etienne Marcoux 2.17 GAA (QMJHL Blainville-Boisbraind Armada)

Division leaders
WHL - Portland Winterhawks 76 points/37 wins (U.S. division), Kelowna Rockets 71 points/34 wins (B.C. division), Edmonton Oil Kings 67 points/31 wins (Central division), Prince Albert Raiders 58 points/27 wins (East division)
OHL - London Knights 73 points/35 wins (Midwest division), Barrie Colts 62 points/30 wins (Central division), Oshawa Generals 56 points/26 wins (East division), Sarnia Sting 55 points/26 wins (West division)
QMJHL - Halifax Mooseheads 79 points/38 wins (Maritimes division), Baie-Comeau Drakkar 66 points/31 wins (TELUS East division), Blainville-Boisbraind Armada 59 points/27 wins (TELUS West division)

BMO CHL top ten ~ week 18
1. Halifax Mooseheads {38-4-2-1} week 17 #1
2. Portland Winterhawks {37-7-1-1} week 17 #2
3. London Knights {35-8-1-1} week 17 #3
4. Kelowna Rockets {34-10-2-1} week 17 #4
5. Baie-Comeau Drakkar {31-11-2-2} week 17 #6
6. Edmonton Oil Kings {32-11-2-3} week 17 #5
7. Rimouski Oceanic {30-11-1-4} week 17 #7
8. Owen Sound Attack {29-12-1-3} week 17 #8
9. Barrie Colts {30-13-0-2} week 17 #10
10. Calgary Hitmen {31-12-1-3} week 17 n/a
Honorable mentions: Kamloops Blazers {30-14-2-3 #9}, Moncton Wildcats {28-16-1-0 n/a}, Guelph Storm {26-14-1-4 n/a}


Tonight's games
Rocket vs. Wildcats at 6pm/ET
Oceanic vs. Tigres at 7pm/ET
Spirit vs. Otters at 7pm/ET
Sting vs. Steelheads at 7pm/ET
Colts vs. Attack at 7pm/ET
Generals vs. Bulls at 7:05pm/ET
Olympiques vs. Drakkar at 7:30pm/ET
Greyhounds vs. Wolves at 7:35pm/ET
Oil Kings vs. Blades at 8:05pm/ET
Tigers vs. Ice at 9pm/ET
Silvertips vs. Blazers at 10pm/ET
Raiders vs. Cougars at 10pm/ET
Winterhawks vs. Chiefs at 10:05pm/ET

Happenings since last edition
*London Knights won 24 straight games overall which started with a win against Belleville on November 2nd and ended with an overtime loss to the Sarnia Sting January 1st.
*Halifax Mooseheads won 17 straight games at home starting on September 29 versus Cape Breton and ending with an overtime loss on January 4 to Saint John, this led to Halifax having the best home record in the CHL which today stands at 18-1-1-0.
*72 current CHL players were selected to play for their respective countries in the 2013 World Juniors in Ufa, Russia. Seven more CHL alumni were also chosen to represent their countries. With the United States winning the gold medal, 10 current CHL players were able to bring that experience back to their junior teams.
*The Home Hardware CHL/NHL top prospects game was played a week ago in Halifax, Nova Scotia in front of a sold out crowd which included many (at least 200) scouts and hockey personnel.
*The NHL season finally started on Saturday after a 114 day lockout. 8 CHL players were called up to represent the teams that drafted them in 2012 or 2011; this includes Mark Scheifele, Nail Yakupov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Alex Galchenyuk, Rickard Rickell, Mikhail Grigorenko, Dougie Hamilton, and Scott Laughton.

Note: the Saint John Sea Dogs and the Vancouver Giants are the only teams in the CHL to not have lost any games in overtime or a shootout. Also, despite being Memorial Cup champions last year, Shawinigan finds themselves at the bottom of the QMJHL.

Moose statistics on January 20

Team:
Record 38-4-2-1 79 points (1st overall)
Goals for/against 225/118
Power play percentage 28.6% (2nd overall)
Penalty killing percentage 78.9% (8th overall)

Top 10 skaters points
10. Brent Andrews 45gp-9g-21a-30pts
9. Konrad Abeltshauser 34gp-4g-32a-36pts
8. Stephen MacAulay 41gp-22g-24a-46pts
7. Luca Ciampini 44gp-15g-32a-47pts
6. Martin Frk 33gp-16g-31a-47pts
5. Matthew Boudreau 45gp-30g-18a-48pts
4. Darcy Ashley 45gp-15g-35a-50pts
3. Stefan Fournier 44gp-26g-24a-50pts
2. Jonathan Drouin 29gp-22g-36a-58pts (13th overall)
1. Nathan MacKinnon 35gp-26g-34a-60pts (10th overall)

Top 5 plus/minus
5. Jonathan Drouin +27
4. Darcy Ashley +28
3. Luca Ciampini +28
2. Nathan MacKinnon +34
1. MacKenzie Weegar +35

MacKinnon is also second on the team in shots and points per game, and is tied for first with Jonathan in short handed goals. While Fournier leads the team in power play goals and shots, Drouin still leads the team in points per game, while six players are still tied for second on the team with one short handed goal.

Goalies:
Zach Fucale 30-4-1-1 37gp 2148.50 minutes GAA - 2.49 SAV% - 0.897
Chris Clarke 8-0-1-0 9gp 567.08 minutes GAA - 2.96 SAV% - 0.888

Fucale is first overall in wins, second overall in goals against average and tenth overall in saves percentage.

We're going to the playoffs

Your Mooseheads have clinched a berth to the 2013 QMJHL playoffs after beating Quebec 11-2 tonight in Quebec City. Konrad scored two goals in the high scoring game to become the all-time leading defenceman scorer for the Herd. Weegar and Drouin both got 4 points in the win; MacKenzie had 4 assists while Jonathan had a goal and 3 assists. Boudreau also added to his team leading goals total and now has 31 on the season. This is only the third time the Moose have won in Quebec versus the Remparts. The red, green and gold will play against Quebec next weekend in Halifax.

Halifax will look to win a second straight game versus a Quebec team tomorrow as they continue their 3-in-3 night road trip.