WJC: Fuc'd

Venue: Malmo Isstadion

RECAP - Zach Fucale stopped 13 shots in the first period to give Team Canada a chance to get their legs underneath them as the red and white only had 6 shots on net in the first 20 minutes en route to a 3-2 win over biggest rivals Team USA on New Year's Eve. The always interesting NYE game between the two North American rivals was just as big as any other year it has been as the winner would get top spot in Group A. The Canadians needed a win in regulation to win the group while the US needed any kind of point to win their group. After letting in the first goal for the 4th straight game (and 7th overall if you include pre-competition games) the Canadians rode the performance by their goaltender to a 3-1 lead with less than 5 to go in the game. Fucale let in a light goal that should have been stopped by his glove, to make the fans in the arena and at home nervous but a breakaway stop with about 45 seconds left got everyone hopping.

GAME LOG
First period
None

Second period
3:29 USA Riley Barber (1), SH | A: Jacob Slavin & Kerdiles
12:19 CAN Nic Petan (3) | A: Mantha

Third period
3:54 CAN Connor McDavid (1) | A: Horvat & Morrissey
6:13 CAN Curtis Lazar (2), PP | A: Drouin & Pouliot
17:15 USA Stefan Matteau (1) | A: Fasching & Butcher

Shots: 1st - 12-6 United States, 2nd - 11-7 Canada, 3rd - 7-7 tie
Powerplay: Canada 1-for-5, United States 0-for-3
Goaltenders: Zach Fucale (CAN) vs. Jon Gillies (USA)
Sellout: No

Players of the Game
Riley Barber USA
Zach Fucale CAN

GAMEDAY 40: at Cape Breton

IT'S GAMEDAY

CAPE BRETON SCREAMING EAGLES vs. HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS

Puck drops at 7:00pm

Centre 200 (5,000) ~ Sydney, NS

PREVIEW - After an insane game last night in Halifax, what will we see in Sydney in the second half of the home and home Battle of Nova Scotia series? We will have to wait and see. The Mooseheads will be looking to end 2013 with two straight wins after losing four straight.


This is the fifth game of this Nova Scotian battle. The home team has won all 4 games so far this season.  

THE NUMBERS

Leading scorers
CAP: Cameron Darcy 51pts (22G & 29A), William Carrier 39pts (11G & 28A), Charles-Eric Legare 32pts (15G & 17A)
HAL: Jonathan Drouin 50pts (17G & 33A), Nikolaj Ehlers 49pts (22G & 27A), Darcy Ashley 41pts (14G & 27A)

LAST GAMES
The two teams met yesterday evening at the Metro Centre with the home team winning 5-3. Nikolaj Ehlers scored two goals and Kevin Darveau made 42 saves during the game while Chase Marchand made 14 saves and Justin Hache had 2 assists.

HEAD-TO-HEAD
This season    2-2-0-0    17GF    15GA
September 22  Mooseheads 2 at Eagles 5
October 15  Eagles 3 at Mooseheads 7
November 29  Mooseheads 3 at Eagles 4
December 28  Eagles 3 at Mooseheads 5
December 29 @ 7pm  Mooseheads at Eagles
January 25 @ 7pm  Eagles at Mooseheads
February 12 @ 7pm  Eagles at Mooseheads
March 4 @ 7pm  Mooseheads at Eagles
March 15 @ 7pm  Eagles at Mooseheads
Last season     8-0-0-0    25GF    16GA

NOT PLAYING - Darcy Ashley, Andrew Ryan, Luca Ciampini and Brendan Duke will be out of the lineup because of injuries

OUT OF TOWN
Huskies at Titan - 3:00pm
Sea Dogs at Wildcats - 4:00pm
Olympiques at Armada - 5:00pm
Drakkar at Sagueneens - 5:00pm
Phoenix at Voltigeurs - 5:00pm
Foreurs at Huskies - 5:00pm
Cataractes at Tigres - 5:00pm
Remparts at Oceanic - 8:00pm

GAME COVERAGE
Live: @HFXMooseheads
TV: None
Radio: News 95.7
Webcast: TELUS
Post-game: The Chronicle Herald, Cape Breton Post

AFTER THE GAME
The Mooseheads will come back home to battle the Charlottetown Islanders on Friday night. Puck drops at 7pm.

POSTGAME: Eagles 3, Mooseheads 5

MC POST-GAME
Eagles can't keep two goal lead in third period

HALIFAX - Rookie Nikolaj Ehlers made his return to Moose Country well worth it. 

The Canadian Press' recap: The Mooseheads scored four unanswered goals in the third period to hand Cape Breton its fourth loss in a row.

Halifax Metro's recap: Understandably, Cavan Fitzgerald was a bundle of nerves before making his QMJHL debut with the Halifax Mooseheads on Saturday evening (at home, no less).

The Q News' recap: In his return to Halifax, Danish forward Nikolaj Ehlers scored twice leading the Mooseheads to a 5-3 victory over the Cape Breton Screaming on Saturday night in the first segment of the annual Battle of Nova Scotia in front of 9,624 fans at the Halifax Metro Centre.

halifaxmooseheads.ca's recap: What a turn of events.

capebretoneagles.com's recap: Cavan Fitzgerald's goal at 15:06 of the third period proved to be the game winner as the Halifax Mooseheads got by the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 5-3 in front of 9,624 fans on hand at the Halifax Metro Centre on Saturday.

MISSING IN ACTION: Andrew Ryan (hurt), Darcy Ashley (hurt), Ryan Falkenham (hip), Jonathan Drouin (World Juniors), Luca Ciampini (hurt), Brendan Duke (whiplash) and Zach Fucale (World Juniors) were scratched for the Mooseheads while Matthew Donnelly, Jason Bell, Bradley Lalonde and Michael Lyle were not in the lineup for Cape Breton

COMEBACK
The Mooseheads came back from a 3-1 deficit in the third period. Four goals in the last twenty minutes by the home team was the difference in this game.

BATTLE OF NS
It was the annual Battle of NS event which is held by the two Nova Scotian teams the weekend after Christmas break. The team's home special blue game worn jerseys are raffled off to fans in support of NS Special Olympics.

SHOTS
Halifax was overly outshot by Cape Breton last night through two periods as shots after 40 minutes were 37 to 12 in favour of the Eagles.

FITZGERALD 
Rookie Cavan Fitzgerald who was called up late last week scored his first QMJHL career goal in his first career game. With so many injuries and two of the top players on the team in Europe, Fitzgerald and Mike Molloy were called up for this weekends games. Cavan also received 2nd star honors.

EHLERS
Nikolaj Ehlers returned to Metro Centre ice last night after helping his home country Denmark to a perfect 5 and 0 record at the Division 1 Group A and was part of the third period comeback. Ehlers scored the tying goal and an empty net goal that sealed the deal. It was his 7th two goal game.

DARVEAU 
Kevin Darveau was certainly the busier of the 2 goaltenders in round one of the 2013 Battle of NS. Darveau stopped 42 pucks during the game. He was named the first star of the game.

OTHER SCORES
Chicoutimi 2 - 1 Baie-Comeau
Victoriaville 5 - 3 Shawinigan
Drummondville 5 - 2 Sherbrooke
Bathurst 0 - 4 Charlottetown
Moncton 5 - 4 Saint John
Blainville 2 - 4 Gatineau
Rimouski 4 - 5 Quebec OT
Rouyn-Noranda 4 - 5 Val-d'Or OT

UP NEXT 
The two teams meet again tonight in Cape Breton for the second round of the Battle of Nova Scotia. Puck drops at 7pm.

Ehlers Power Blue Moose.

Rookie Nikolaj Ehlers made his return to Moose Country well worth it. Ehlers helped his Quebec Major League team to a 5-3 win over the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in the annual Battle of Nova Scotia home and home series where special blue jerseys get raffled to help Special Olympics. Nikolaj scored the tying goal midway through the third period. The Mooseheads were down 3 to 1 going into the last 20 minutes of the game before MacKenzie Weegar started the come back just a few minutes into the last period. Ehlers added a shorthanded empty net goal to seal the deal for the home team. Rookie call up Cavan Fitzgerald scored his first career goal to give the team the lead.

FINAL: Eagles 3 at Mooseheads 5
50/50 Winning Draw: $10,879 
Three stars: 3. Hache CAP | 2. Fitzgerald HAL | 1. Darveau HAL
Attendance: 9,624
MC Top Herd: Kevin Darveau

GAME LOG
First period
7:54 CAP Julien Pelletier (12), PP | A: Leveille & Hache
15:08 CAP Charles-Eric Legare (15), PP | A: Darcy & Beaudry

Penalties: Hardie HAL (6:23, Elbowing), Moynihan HAL (14:25, Holding)
Shots: Cape Breton out shoots Halifax 14 to 5

Second period
12:18 HAL Vincent Watt (2) | A: Molloy
16:42 CAP Williams Carrier (11) | A: Leveille & Hache

Penalties: None
Shots: Mooseheads outshot big time in middle frame 23-7

Third period
3:33 HAL MacKenzie Weegar (8) | A: None
12:50 HAL Nikolaj Ehlers (21), PP | A: Weegar & Andrews
15:06 HAL Cavan Fitzgerald (1) | A: Shewfelt & D. Moynihan
19:45 HAL Nikolaj Ehlers (22), EN/SH | A: Hardie

Penalties: Leveille CAP (12:17, Delay of game), Lindsay HAL (16:34, High-sticking), Lindsay HAL (16:34, High-sticking)
Shots: Gap was closer 8-7 Eagles in third, 45 to 19 for Cape Breton overall

GOALIES
Winning goaltender: Kevin Darveau HAL 42 saves
Losing goaltender: Chase Marchand CAP 14 saves

POWERPLAY
Halifax: 1-for-1
Cape Breton: 2-for-4

WJC: Comebacks Fall Short.

Venue: Malmo Isstadion

RECAP - Jonathan Drouin scores to tie it up a second time but his Team Canada couldn't with stand the Czechs who kept pushing and getting one pass Jake Paterson every time the Canadians were able to even it. For the 5th straight game, which includes pre-competition games, Canada gave up the first goal of the game. Drouin also had an assist on the 4th goal to send it to overtime. The third period was quite interesting. Drouin's goal was scored 24 seconds into the third period to make the score 2-2 and after the Czechs made it 3-2, the teams traded goals in less than 2 minutes in the last ten minutes of the game. Overtime solved nothing so for the first time in the tournament this year, we went to a shootout as well. Jonathan scored the first goal in the penalty shot portion while Paterson was unable to save all 3 shots from Czech Republic.

GAME LOG
First period
7:10 CZE David Kampf (1) | A: Kase
15:50 CAN Sam Reinhart (2), PP | A: Horvat & McDavid

Second period
17:16 CZE Michal Plutnar (1), PP | A: None

Third period
0:24 CAN Jonathan Drouin (1), PP | A: Reinhart & Mantha
4:07 CZE Vojteck Tomecek (1) | A: None
11:09 CAN Aaron Ekblad (1), SH | A: Laughton & LAzar
12:19 CZE Jakub Vrana (1), PP | A: None
13:01 CAN Charles Hudon (1) | A: Mantha & Drouin

Overtime
None

Shootout
Round 1: CAN Drouin | CZE Kase
Round 2: CAN Petan | CZE Pastrnak
Round 3: CAN McDavid | CZE Simon

Shots: 1st - 13-5 Canada, 2nd - 11-5 Czech Republic, 3rd - 12-11 Czech Republic
Powerplay: Czech Republic 2-for-5, Canada 2-for-5
Goaltenders: Marek Langhanner (CZE) vs. Jake Paterson (CAN)
Sellout: No

Players of the Game
Jonathan Drouin CAN
Petr Sidlik CZE

CONFIRMED Boudreau traded again.

Former Mooseheads player Matt Boudreau has been traded once again. A month and a half ago it announced that Boudreau had been traded from Shawinigan to Victoriaville.

Now for the third time in 2013, Matt is back in Atlantic Canada after Victoriaville traded him to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan before Christmas. The trade was made official today. 

Us fans will only see Boudreau once more unless he gets traded for a fourth time. The Titan come to Moose Country on January 11th. The two teams will meet three more times afterwards this season all of which will be played at the K.C. centre. Once again good luck Matt in a new city.

WJC: Mantha Scores Hat Trick.

Venue: Malmo Isstadion 

RECAP - Anthony Mantha scores a hat trick. Brent Sutter stays perfect as coach. Jonathan Drouin has 3 assists. Connor McDavid gets chances. How can you ask for a better start to the 2014 World Juniors? Germany not scoring the first goal and tying it up at two with 4 minutes left in the first period. But the Canadians rebounded on the back of Mantha and Drouin who combined for 6 points and led the team to a 7-2 win over the Germans. Despite the big gap in the score, the Germans weren't manhandled like normal as they were only outshot 30 to 24.

GAME LOG
First period
1:35 GER Dorian Saeftel (1) | A: Palausch & Klopper
6:21 CAN Josh Anderson (1) | A: Gauthier & Dumba
10:41 CAN Anthony Mantha (1), PP | A: Lazar & Drouin
15:59 GER Janik Moser (1), PP | A: Kahun
17:36 CAN Anthony Mantha (2) | A: Pouliot & Drouin
18:29 CAN Bo Horvat (1) | A: Reinhart

Second period
6:45 CAN Sam Reinhart (1) | A: Morrissey & McDavid
11:28 CAN Anthony Mantha (3), PP | A: Drouin & Pouliot

Third period
10:13 CAN Nic Petan (1) | A: McDavid

Shots: 1st - 12-8 Canada, 2nd - 11-9 Canada, 3rd - 7-7 tie
Powerplay: Canada 2-for-5, Germany 1-for-3
Goaltenders: Jake Paterson (CAN) vs. Marvin Cupper (GER)
Sellout: No

Players of the game
Janik Moser GER
Anthony Mantha CAN