Herd Named to CSS List

Photo - The Chronicle Herald

The National Hockey League along with the Central Scouting Services released their Players to Watch for the month of September. The players are ranked in three different categories. 'A' players are ones who can be projected to go in the first round while 'B' players should go in the 2nd/3rd rounds. 'C' ranked players most likely will go in the 4th to 7th rounds.

Halifax Moosehead forwards Maxime Fortier and Otto Somppi received ratings on the list. Somppi received a 'B' rating while Fortier was given a 'C' rating.

Both players have been pretty good to start the season. Looks like Max will be having a breakout year as he leads the Herd with 4 goals and 8 points. Otto, a rookie, is second in team scoring with 6 assists plus his first career goal in the season opener.

A total of 34 players from the QMJHL were given ratings on the list. Two are listed with 'A' ratings; Pierre-Luc Dubois of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles and Val-d'Or Foreurs' Julien Gauthier.

Meier is back!

Swiss forward Timo Meier will be in the Halifax Mooseheads lineup on Friday night when the team visits the Sherbrooke Phoenix. The San Jose Sharks announced this afternoon that they assigned the almost 19 year old to the Herd.

Halifax tweeted a video at lunchtime, showing Timo arriving at the Scotiabank Centre with his gear.

https://twitter.com/HFXMooseheads/status/648541921007259648


Some fans were confused because the video was tweeted before San Jose officially announced the re-assignment in a news release. The Mooseheads faithful will see Meier back on home ice on October 8 when the Herd hosts the Blainville-Boisbrand Armada. The Halifax brass held a team meeting and announced that the third year player will be this year's captain!! No word on how this will affect the alternate captains that were announced before the season began.

Congratulations to Timo on being named captain of your 2015-16 Halifax Mooseheads. #TimoTime will be strong this season.

Sept 27: Mooseheads vs. Eagles preview

GAMEDAY

HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS VS CAPE BRETON SCREAMING EAGLES

Puck drops at 3:00pm

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

Scotiabank Centre (10,595) ~ Halifax, NS

Happy birthday Hal! The Halifax Mooseheads will be celebrating the "birth" of one of their beloved mascots today when they take on their provincial rival Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in the first Sunday afternoon matinee. Battle of Nova Scotia matchups are always exciting and with 19th overall Evgeny Svechnikov being reassigned, the Eagles got much better. Your Mooseheads will have a tough time to get a victory but with Eric Brassard in nets their chances are pretty good to make it an interesting game.

Overall Record
Eagles: 2-2-1-0 = 5 points (4th in Maritimes division, 14th overall)
Mooseheads: 1-2-0-1 = 3 points (6th in Maritimes division, 14th overall)

Team Leaders
HAL: Maxime Fortier 7pts (3G & 4A), Otto Somppi 6pts (1G & 5A), Danny Moynihan 4pts (1G & 3A)
CAP: Pierre-Luc Dubois 7pts (4G & 3A), Evgeny Svechnikov 4pts (2G & 2A), Jordan Ty Fournier 4pts (4A)

Last Games
Cape Breton is coming off a 6-3 win on home ice against Acadie Bathurst. Evgeny Svechnikov led the team with 2 goals and 4 points in his first game after returning from NHL camp while Kyle Jessiman made 19 saves for the victory against the Titan on Friday.

Halifax is coming off a 4-1 loss against the Wildcats at home on Friday evening. Cavan Fitzgerald had the lone goal for the Herd against Moncton while Eric Brassard made 40 saves in the defeat.

Season Series
Head to Head: 0-0-0-0 = 0 points
September 27 Cape Breton at Halifax - 3pm
October 20 Halifax at Cape Breton - 7pm
October 23 Cape Breton at Halifax - 7pm
November 24 Cape Breton at Halifax - 7pm
December 29 Halifax at Cape Bretton - 7pm
December 31 Cape Breton at Halifax - 6pm
January 31 Cape Breton at Halifax - 3pm
February 18 Halifax at Cape Breton - 7pm
March 5 Halifax at Cape Breton - 7pm

After the Buzzer
Halifax will go on their first Quebec road trip this weekend, first visiting Sherbrooke on Friday night. Puck drops at 8pm.

Fucale sent to AHL's IceCaps

Photo - David Chan

Former Halifax Mooseheads goaltender Zachary Fucale is going to St. John's, Newfoundland! The Montreal Canadiens, who drafted Fucale in the second round of the 2013 NHL draft, announced that they have reassigned 17 players to their American Hockey League affiliate team ahead of their matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Fucale is originally from Rosemere, Quebec and played 3 and a half years with the Mooseheads before being traded to the Quebec Remparts before Christmas break last season. With goalies like Carey Price and up & comer Dustin Tokarski, there isn't much space for Zachary in the Canadiens lineup.

Zach will be joined by former teammate Stefan Fournier in Newfoundland. Fournier split his time the last 2 seasons between the Hamilton Bulldogs (Montreal's former AHL affiliate) and the ECHL's Wheeling Nailers. Stefan was the captain of the Memorial Cup champions Herd team. The players will travel to St. John's tomorrow to begin training camp with the IceCaps.

Good luck to Zach and Stefan on your new adventure.

Sept 25: Mooseheads vs. Wildcats preview

GAMEDAY
HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS VS MONCTON WILDCATS
Puck drops at 7:00pm
TV: Eastlink | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @HFXMooseheads
Scotiabank Centre (10,595) ~ Halifax, NS

Halifax looks to keep the momentum of the win last weekend as they host the Moncton Wildcats tonight. This is a rematch of the 2015 playoff series against the Wildcats which saw Moncton go on to face the Remparts in the next round with a 4-3 series win. Tonight newly acquired defence man Cody Donaghey will be in the line up for the Herd after participating in the Toronto Maple Leafs training camp, which was held in Bedford over the weekend. The Mooseheads are still without new scoring power Timo Meier who is still participating in San Jose Sharks camp. However, new scorers have come to light with Meier gone, including Max Fortier leading the team in scoring after 4 games. Moncton's leading scorer from last season Conor Garland is back in the lineup and will be a big test for the rookie defence of Halifax.

Overall Record
Mooseheads: 1-2-0-1 = 3 points (5th in Maritimes division, 13th overall)
Wildcats: 3-1-0-0 = 6 points (2nd in Maritimes division, 6th overall)

Team Leaders
MON: Kelly Klima 7pts (3G & 4A), Kevin Klima 6pts (4G & 2A), Will Bower 5pts (2G & 3A)
HAL: Maxime Fortier 7pts (3G & 4A), Otto Somppi 6pts (1G & 5A), Ilya Putinsev 4pts (1G & 3A)

Last Game
Halifax is coming off a 5-1 win at home against the Saint John Sea Dogs. Fortier scored a hat trick to lead the way for the herd, while Somppi had three assists and Durandeau scored his first QMJHL goal. Watt had the other goal for the herd.

Moncton is coming off a 5-4 win at home against the Acadie Bathurst Titan. Eric Leger lead the way for the Wildcats with two goals along with Kevin Kilma had two goals as well. The other goal was scored by Will Bowers.

Season Series
Head to Head: 0-0-0-0 = 0 points
September 25 Moncton at Halifax - 7pm
October 18 Halifax at Moncton - 7pm
October 22 Moncton at Halifax - 7pm
November 13 Halifax at Moncton - 7pm
December 17 Moncton at Halifax - 7pm
December 28 Moncton at Halifax - 7pm
January 30 Halifax at Moncton - 7pm
March 11 Moncton at Halifax - 7pm
March 18 Halifax at Moncton - 7pm

Out of town
Titan vs Screaming Eagles 7:00pm
Sea Dogs vs Islanders 7:00pm
Drakkar vs Olympique 8:00pm
Fourers vs Oceanic 8:00pm
Armada vs Phoenix 8:00pm
Huskies vs Tigre 8:00pm
Sagueneen vs Voltigeurs 8:30pm

After the Buzzer 
Halifax will welcome their provincial rivals, the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles to town on Sunday. Puck drop is at 3:00pm

Fortier's hatty gives Moose 1st win of season

Maxime Fortier has his first career hat trick! Fortier's three goals on Saturday evening helped your Halifax Mooseheads get their first win of the new season, defeating the Saint John Sea Dogs 5-1. Many believe that the visiting Dogs will win the league title this year, but for most of the game they didn't look like that team. Max got the game going just under the 10 minute mark of the 1st period on the Herd's first shot and the Mooseheads never looked back, outshooting the Dogs 31 to 22 overall. The first few games of the season have been pretty good for Halifax's top rookies with Arnaud Durandeau becoming the third 1st year player to record their first QMJHL career goal. Eric Brassard looked much better tonight and so did the defense in front of him.

FINAL: Sea Dogs 1at Mooseheads 5
Stars: 3. Durandeau HAL | 2. Somppi HAL | 1. Fortier HAL
Attendance: 6,133
MC's Top Herd: Maxime Fortier

GAME LOG
First period
9:51 HAL Maxime Fortier (1) | A: Fitzgerald & Ford
17:36 HAL Arnaud Durandeau (1) | A: Shewfelt & Crossley

Second period
1:02 HAL Vincent Watt (2) | A: Fortier & Somppi

Third period
2:44 SNB Ryan Chaisson (1) | A: Pare
11:08 HAL Maxime Fortier (2) | A: Shewfelt & Somppi
13:39 HAL Maxime Fortier (3), PP | A: D. Moynihan & Somppi

POWERPLAY
Saint John: 0-for-5
Halifax: 1-for-5

GOALIES
Winning goaltender: Eric Brassard HAL 21 saves
Losing goaltender: Alex Bishop SNB 4 saves

Sept 18: Mooseheads vs. Titan preview

GAMEDAY
HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS VS ACADIE-BATHURST TITAN
Puck drops at 7:00pm
TV: Webcast | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @HFXMooseheads
Scotiabank Centre (10,595) ~ Halifax, NS

Your Halifax Mooseheads will be looking for a bounce back game on home ice after a couple of road losses last weekend. The team's second leading scorer during the 2014-15 campaign is still participating in San Jose Sharks main camp but with another young team on the Scotiabank Centre ice tonight, we should see some quality scoring from the rookies. Ilya Putintsev and Otto Somppi, Halifax's only forward rookies this year, didn't disappoint in the season opener but went dry the next night. Bathurst's record versus the Mooseheads the last few seasons has not been favourable for the Titan but we'll most likely see another pretty even matched series like we did last year when Halifax went 5-4-0-0 against the New Brunswick team.

Overall Record
Titan: 0-1-1-0 = 1 point (5th in Maritimes division, 15th overall)
Mooseheads: 0-0-1-1 = 1 point (6th in Martimes division, 16th overall)

Team Leaders
HAL: Ilya Putintsev 4pts (1G & 3A), Otto Somppi 3pts (1G & 2A), Maxime Fortier 3pts (3A)
BAT: Jeffrey Truchon-Viel 3pts (1G & 2A), Christophe Boivin 3pts (3A), Antoine Morand 2pts (2G)

Last Games
Acadie-Bathurst is coming off a 6-3 deficit to the Moncton Wildcats on Saturday evening. Rookie Antoine Morand scored two goals to lead the Titan while Reilly Pickard and Daniel Vautour both saw action and made a combined 31 saves on home ice.

Halifax is coming off a 5-2 loss to the Saint John Sea Dogs on the road. The Moynihan brothers provided the scoring, with a goal each while Kevin Resop got his first start of the season and made 21 saves on Saturday night.

Season Series
Head to Head: 0-0-0-0 = 0 points
September 18 Acadie-Bathurst at Halifax - 7pm
October 14 Halifax at Acadie-Bathurst - 7pm
October 17 Acadie-Bathurst at Halifax - 7pm
October 28 Halifax at Acadie-Bathurst - 7pm
November 12 Halifax at Acadie-Bathurst - 7pm
January 12 Acadie-Bathurst at Halifax - 7pm
January 29 Halifax at Acadie-Bathurst - 7pm
March 2 Acadie-Bathurst at Halifax - 7pm
March 8 Halifax at Acadie-Bathurst - 7pm

Out of Town
Screaming Eagles vs Sea Dogs 7:00pm
Wildcats vs Islanders 7:00pm
Armada vs Tigres 8:00pm
Sagueneens vs Voltigeurs 8:00pm
Drakkar vs Oceanic 8:30pm
Huskies vs Olympiques 8:30pm
Cataractes vs Remparts 8:30pm
Foreurs vs Phoenix 8:30pm

After the Buzzer
The Mooseheads will host 15 year old Joe Veleno and the Saint John Sea Dogs tomorrow night. Puck drops at 7pm.