Brassard Out Indefinitely, Langlais Recalled

Eric Brassard will be out indefinitely
Photo via Myles Dennis on Facebook

Halifax Mooseheads announced today that goaltender Eric Brassard is out indefinitely with a lower body injury. Brassard sustained the injury during a match-up against the Quebec Remparts on Friday evening. The former Rempart started Friday's game but was trying to make a play in his net and possibly stretched too far. Chronicle Herald writer Willy Palov stated that Eric will be out for 4 weeks. This injury will effect the Moose quite a bit. Brassard had been pretty good for his new team since being traded on December 19. He had a 4-1-1 record with a 2.40 goals against average.

This means Kevin Resop will become the starter for a while and Christopher Langlais was recalled from the South Shore Lumberjacks of the Maritime Junior A Hockey League.

Voracek Leads Team Toews

The 2015 National Hockey League All-Star weekend is now complete and Team Toews was able to win the game while Team Foligno won the skills competition. Former Halifax Mooseheads forward Jakub Voracek had a very awesome game. The Philadelphia Flyers player went back to the city that drafted him back in 2007 and was booed by the Columbus Blue Jackets fans. Voracek scored a hat trick and assisted on three others in his first appearance at the all-star competition. He joins Mario Lemieux with the most points in an all-star game. The 25 year old also participated in the skills competition on Saturday night. He was in the breakaway challenge, team relay and the shootout.

Jonathan Drouin did not participate in the actual game as he is a rookie. He was in the fastest skater competition and WON with a time of 13.103 seconds. He also participated in the shootout.

RECAP: Fucale Best Former Team

QUEBEC CITY - Goaltender Zach Fucale was in enemy colours on Friday night as the Mooseheads visited the Remparts at the Colisee Pepsi and was almost perfect against his former team. Fucale picked up his second win as a Rempart, making 24 saves to collect a 6-1 victory. Halifax couldn't muster too much in the second half of the game after taking penalties. Two 5 on 3's back to back gave Quebec all the life they needed scoring two goals to make it a 3-1 game instead of a 1-1 tie. It was very evident that these two teams do not like each other even with the turn around. Fucale was basically the only that was having any fun with our boys and you could see that when Nikolaj Ehlers fell down on his net and both guys had a chuckle. Halifax goalie Eric Brassard seemed to hold the Moose in the game for the first half making 19 saves before being taken down and having to leave the game with what will probably be called a lower body injury. The evil Adam Erne, who has always somehow gotten under the skin of the Herd did so again last night, recording a goal and 4 assists. Erne technically scored two goals on the night but the refs determined that the play was offside for the first one and took it back.

FINAL: Mooseheads 1 at Remparts 6
Stars: 3. Verrier QUE | 2. Brouillard QUE | 1. Erne QUE
Attendance: 9,227
MC's Top Herd: n/a

GAME LOG
First period
None

Shots: Quebec led shots in this frame 12-8

Second period
0:13 HAL Maxime Fortier (6) | A: Meier & Ehlers
16:01 QUE Jerome Verrier (5), PP | A: Erne & Duclair
17:51 QUE Adam Erne (28), PP | A: Brouillard

Shots: The Remparts got 10 pucks to the net to Halifax's 6

Third period
6:50 QUE Massimo Carozza (9) | A: Duclair & Timashov
7:36 QUE Guillaume Gauthier (20), PP | A: Erne & Brouillard
8:27 QUE Nicolas Brouillard (11), PP | A: Timashov & Erne
13:40 QUE Marc-Olivier Roy (19) | A: Graves & Erne

Shots: Quebec led third period shots 13-11, and had an overall shot advantage of 35 to 25

POWERPLAY
Halifax: 0-for-7
Quebec: 4-for-7

GOALTENDERS
Winning goaltender: Zach Fucale QUE 24 saves
Losing goaltender: Kevin Resop HAL 10 saves

Konecny, Meier Lead Team Orr

Timo Meier certainly did not hurt his draft stock during last night's BMO Top Prospects game.

The Halifax Mooseheads forward help lead his team, under coach Bobby Orr, to a 6-0 victory over the team coached by Don Cherry. Meier, who hails from Harisu, Switzerland, scored a first period goal and assisted on two others. The 18 year old was playing on a line with top ranked Connor McDavid of the Erie Otters and Ottawa 67's sophmore Travis Konecny. McDavid had an assist in a game that was sold out because everyone wants to see this kid play. He created plenty of plays for Timo and Konecny to use to get their points however. Travis scored two goals and had an assist for Team Orr and received the player of the game. 

Here is the NHL.com's recap.

PREVIEW: Quebec Road Trip

Since I am going on the road with the Mooster Club, I figured I would preview this weekend's trip through the province of Quebec. The first stop on the trip will be visiting the largest arena in the Canadian Hockey League for some Friday night hockey. Games between the Quebec Remparts and the Halifax Mooseheads are always entertaining, including last year. The Mooseheads will than be travelling south part of the province to take on the Sherbrooke Phoenix. There isn't much history between Halifax and the Phoenix as the team that wears blue and white has only been in the league for two and a half seasons. Halifax's last home game was against the Drummondville Voltigeurs and that's who they'll end this four game road streak against on Sunday evening.

QUEBEC REMPARTS vs. HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS

January 23, 2015 at 8:00pm

TV: Webcast | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @CoolenTQN

Pepsi Colisee (15,176) ~ Quebec City, QC

This is the second game of the season series, with Halifax coming out on top on December 11th in 4-3 home overtime victory. Former Herd player Matt Murphy scored twice for the Mooseheads while Kevin Resop made 30 saves. The Remparts have a 26-17-1-2 record which is good enough for 55 points and 5th overall in the standings. Quebec is led by Dmytro Timashov (15G & 48A), Adam Erne (27G & 28A), and Guillaume Gauthier (19G & 25A). The Remparts are coming off a 3-2 loss on Sunday at home despite outshooting the Charlottetown Islanders 38-29. Nikolas Brouillard had a goal and an assist to lead Quebec while Fucale made 26 saves to take the loss.

SHERBROOKE PHOENIX vs. HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS

January 24, 2015 at 5:00pm

TV: Webcast | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @CoolenTQN

Palais des Sports Leopold-Drolet (3,646) ~ Sherbrooke, QC

Halifax has yet to play the Phoenix this season. The Mooseheads were 1-1-0-0 against Sherbrooke last season while the blue and white team was 1-0-0-1 in 2013-14. This will be only the 6th meeting between these two teams with our boys having the advantage in the series, after winning all three games during the 2012-13 season. The Phoenix have a 24-16-1-3 record, good enough for 8th overall in the standings. Sherbrooke's top 3 scorers are Daniel Audette (19G & 30A), Kay Schweri (7G & 41A), and Tim Wieser (30G & 15A). The Phoenix are coming off an almost collapse to the sixth overall Sea Dogs on Sunday at home. Audette helped Sherbrooke build a 4-0 lead with 2 goals and 2 assists in the game before Saint John forced a shootout. Evan Fitzpatrick made 28 saves to get the 6-5 victory.

DRUMMONDVILLE VOLTIGEURS vs. HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS

January 25, 2015 at 5:00pm

TV: Webcast | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @MC_MooseCountry

Centre Marcel Dionne (4,000) ~ Drummondville, QC

When this game is played, there will be 10 days between this matchup and the previous one these two teams played. The Mooseheads hosted the Volts back on January 15 and skated away with a hard fought 3-2 shootout victory. Anthony Brodeur stopped 53 of Halifax's 55 shots in regulation and overtime but couldn't stop a nice goal by Cavan Fitzgerald in the shootout. The Voltigeurs has 45 points with a 21-21-0-3 for a 14th place in the standings. Joey Ratelle (27G & 12A), Alex Barre-Boulet (14G & 19A) and George Golovkovs (9G & 18A) lead Drummondville in scoring so far this season. The Voltigeurs are coming off a 6-2 defeat at the hands of the Screaming Eagles in Sydney on Saturday. Drummondville was once again out-shot, only getting 14 pucks on Cape Breton's net. Joe Fleschler made 22 saves letting in 4 goals before being replaced by Brodeur who made 8 saves.

Meier 12th In Mid-Season CSS Rankings

Timo Meier signing autographs at the
Christmoose skate in December
Photo via: Meier's Twitter

The National Hockey League along side Central Scouting Services announced their mid-season rankings for the upcoming 2015 NHL entry draft. This year's draft will be held in Sunrise, Florida  on June 26 & 27. With his hot play, Timo Meier is close to the top 10. The Herisau, Switzerland native was ranked 12th out of the 210 players ranked in North American clubs. Meier has a team leading 25 goals scored this season in 37 games played but his 56 points are just two behind fellow European Nikolaj Ehlers.

Boston, Massachusetts native Connor Moynihan was ranked 142nd by the CSS. The 17 year old has 4 goals and 8 points in 37 games. Former Halifax Mooseheads player Matt Murphy was ranked 138th. He's scored twice so far in 11 games played for the Quebec Remparts while also helping on 4 others. This is the second year that Murphy has been in the draft rankings. 

As always Connor McDavid of the OHL's Erie Otters and former Herd draftee Jack Eichel of Boston University were ranked the top 2 draft eligible players. 

POSTGAME: Mooseheads 4, Screaming Eagles 5 OT

MC POST-GAME

Here's some stories from last night's 5-4 overtime loss to provincial rivals, the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles

The Q News' recap: Loik Leveille scored twice, including the overtime winner, as the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles defeated the Halifax Mooseheads 5-4 at Centre 200 on Sunday. 

Metro Halifax's recap: The Halifax Mooseheads had quite the comeback Sunday evening in Sydney - until they didn't. 

Cape Breton Post's recap: The Cape Breton Screaming Eagles continue to soar. 

The Canadian Press' recap: Loik Leveille scored his second goal of the game 4:12 into overtime as the Screaming Eagles edged Halifax for their fifth straight win. 

halifaxmooseheads.com's recap: The outcome looked grim early on for the Halifax Mooseheads on Sunday afternoon in Sydney after the visiting Herd fell behind 4-0 by the midpoint of the second period but a never say die attitude and some great work on the powerplay resulted in an exciting overtime affair between the provincial rivals. 

theqmjhl.ca's recap: Game summary.

MISSING IN ACTION: Domenico Argento (healthy scratch), Brandon Vuic (healthy scratch) and Vince Watt (healthy scratch)

SCORES
Charlottetown 3 - 2 Quebec
Saint John 5 - 6 Sherbrooke SO
Moncton 3 - 7 Rimouski

NEXT GAME: The Mooseheads travel to Quebec City on Friday night to take on Zach Fucale and the Remparts. Puck drops at 8pm.