More Moose Win Championships

Photo - Daniel Sparre's Twitter

Former Halifax Mooseheads Kornad Abeltshauser and Daniel Sparre, as well as former goaltending coach Patrick Dallaire captured the DEL championship on Friday night. Konrad did not play in the championship game because of a broken leg. Their EHC Munchen RedBulls defeated Wolfsburg in the championship game. Sparre had a goal and an assist in the tournament.




Otto Somppi will come back to the Herd in August as a champion. Somppi was participating in the Under 18 World Championships this past week and helped his Team Finland skate to victory. The 18 year old forward had a goal in the gold medal game as the Finns defeated Team Sweden 6-1 last night in Grand Forks, ND. Earlier in the tournament the Helsinki native had an assist in the first match while also being named player of the game against Canada.

Photo - Otto Somppi's Twitter

Halifax's assistant coach Jim Midgley and Team Canada fell Team USA 10-3 in the bronze medal game. Midgley was the Canadians video coach during the tournament.

Congratulations to all players!!

Final Four in Playoffs Determined

The final four teams in the 2016 President's Cup playoffs have now been determined after the Saint John/Cape Breton series finished last night with game 7.

It will be Cavan Fitzgerald, Danny Moynihan and the Shawinigan Cataractes against Matt Murphy, Jordan King and the Sea Dogs in one semi final while Timo Meier and the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies are pitted against Cody Donaghey and the Moncton Wildcats in the other series. Game 1 for both series will start on Friday night.

Or as Jamie Tozer of the Sea Dogs fan blog Station Nation put it:




I got to say that this has been one of the most entertaining playoff years in recent memory. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the final four. I predict that Rouyn-Noranda and Shawinigan will be the finalists, both in six games.

Halifax Win Rights to 1st Overall Pick

Photo - Mikael Lalancette on Twitter

For only the second time in team history, you're Halifax Mooseheads will pick first overall at the QMJHL draft. The Herd won the coin flip today to secure the top pick in the upcoming draft that will be held in Charlottetown, PEI on June 4th. Halifax was one of two teams that were apart of the flip after finishing the 2015-16 season in 17th place with 21 wins and 50 points. The other team was the Baie-Comeau Drakkar who finished last with 14 victories and 33 points.

As you can see from the picture above, it wasn't exactly a coin flip that the league did. Both teams had 3 lapel pins put into plastic eggs which were then dropped into a bingo drum with one pin falling out to select the winner.


General manager Cam Russell had this to say after the event;

“It’s going to be an exciting day for our organization and our fans and we are looking forward to selecting a very good hockey player.” 

The Mooseheads also have the 7th and 15th overall picks from trades they made this past season as part of the rebuild the team is currently in.

Should be a fun summer. There is no definitive top choice as there was last year but Benoit Groulx and Halifax native Jared MacIsaac could either potentially be selected by the Moose.

Herd Word

QAURTERFINAL MATCHES SET
The quarter final match ups for the 2016 QMJHL playoffs are now set and all 5 Moose alumni are still in it. Former captain Timo Meier helped a dominant first place Rouyn-Noranda Huskies move on to the second round in 4 games, scoring a league best 13 points. Cavan Fitzgerald and Danny Moynihan scored 7 points each to get the Shawinigan Cataractes to the quarter finals for the first time since 2012. Veteran defensemen Cody Donaghey and Matt Murphy patrolled the blue line for the Moncton Wildcats and Saint John Sea Dogs respectively as 4 Maritimes division teams won their first round series'. The 13th Blainville-Boisbraind Armada had the biggest upset of the year, defeating the 4th place Val-d'Or Foreurs in 6 games.

Here are the quarterfinal match ups
#1 Rouyn-Noranda Huskies vs. #13 Blainville-Boisbriand Armada
#2 Shawinigan Cataractes vs. #9 Charlottetown Islanders
#3 Saint John Sea Dogs vs. #7 Cape Breton Screaming Eagles
#5 Gatineau Olympiques vs. #6 Moncton Wildcats

I'm predicting Rouyn-Noranda in 5 games, Shawinigan in 6 games, Saint John in 6 games, and Gatineau in 7 games

COACHES
Both Halifax Mooseheads' assistant coaches will be doing more coaching this spring as Jim Midgley was named to Canada's U18 coaching staff and Jon Greenwood will head coach Nova Scotia's U16 team. Midgley has left already for Grand Forks to be the video coach for the U18 National Championship that begins April 14. Greenwood will go to Quebec for the Gatorade Excellence Challenge that showcases draft eligible players for this year's QMJHL draft. Check out this link to get more information on the Challenge.

Photo - theqmjhl.ca

BRASSARD
Former Mooseheads goaltender Eric Brassard has signed a pro contract. The ECHL Brampton Beast announced on Tuesday that they have signed the 20 year old to a standard player contract. The Longueuil, QC native played in 44 games and posted a 0.892 save percentage while collecting 13 wins.

Congrats to Eric on getting a contract after a very good junior career. I am guessing that he will be invited to the Beast's training camp in September.

Photo - Herd Twitter

COIN FLIP
Tomorrow is a big day for Dom Ducharme and his staff as the Halifax Mooseheads look to get stronger for the next few seasons. The Herd and 18th place Baie-Comeau Drakkar will take part in a coin flip on Thursday afternoon at 1:00pm Atlantic time and you can watch it live on Facebook. The 'event' is to determine who will get the first overall pick in the upcoming Q draft.

For more info click here.

Top Herd

The regular season is over, I will be awarding my overall Top herd player award. This season I asked you, my readers to vote who you thought should get the award and the poll has closed. Thanks for make this the most voted poll. 

 

And the winner is....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eric Brassard

In his final junior season, Eric Brassard was a standout in almost every game he played for a very young Herd team and gave the boys in front of him a chance to win practically every night. Brassard finished the season 13th in the league with a 0.892 save percentage allowing 155 goals and getting 3 shutouts. 

 

 

Here is the list of my Top Herd that I have done this season. I didn't name one every game.
Sept 20   Saint John - Maxime Fortier
Sept 25   Moncton - Eric Brassard
Sept 27   Cape Breton - Kevin Resop
Oct 8       Blainville - Timo Meier
Oct 17     Acadie-Bathurst - Danny Moynihan
Oct 22     Moncton - Eric Brassard
Nov 7      Baie-Comeau - Danny Moynihan
Nov 14    Saint John - Cavan Fitzgerald
Nov 24    Cape Breton - Maxime Fortier
Dec 31    Cape Breton - Connor Moynihan
Jan 5      Charlottetown - Otto Somppi
Jan 14    Quebec - Eric Brassard
Feb 4      Shawinigan - Eric Brassard
Feb 21    Sherbrooke - Ilya Putintsev
Feb 27    Saint John - Arnaud Durandeau
Mar 2      Acadie-Bathurst - Jocktan Chainey
Mar 11    Moncton - Ilya Putintsev
Mar 12    Charlottetown - Kelly Bent

Here are the final poll results
Eric Brassard - 49%, Maxime Fortier - 37%, Ilya Putintsev - 12%, Other - 2%

QMJHL Playoff Matches Set for Round 1

The 2015-2016 QMJHL regular season is over and the playoffs are beginning on Friday night but without your Halifax Mooseheads in it for the first time since the 2009-2010 season. Despite that, there are a few former Mooseheads that are on teams that are favourites to win the President's Cup. Even though our boys aren't competing for the championships I thought I would keep you up to date on who is playing who in each round. The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies were regular season champions, followed by division leaders Shawiningan Cataractes and Saint John Sea Dogs. There is only one Maritime division matchup in the first round this year.

#1 Rouyn-Noranda Huskies vs. Drummondville Voltigeurs #16
#2 Shawinigan Cataractes vs. Sherbrooke Phoenix #15
#3 Saint John Sea Dogs vs. Acadie-Bathurst Titan #14
#4 Val-d'Or Foreurs vs. Blainville-Boisbriand Armada #13
#5 Gatineau Olympiques vs. Quebec Remparts #12
#6 Moncton Wildcats vs. Victoriaville Tigres #11
#7 Cape Breton Screaming Eagles vs. Chicoutimi Sagueneens #10
#8 Rimouski Oceanic vs. Charlottetown Islanders #9

My predictions for round 1
Huskies in 4, Cataractes in 4, Sea Dogs in 6, Foreurs in 5, Olympiques in 5, Wildcats in 6, Eagles in 6, Oceanic in 7

Alumni Update: National Champs, Final CIS/QMJHL Stats

In this update, I thought I would get you guys up to date with how former players are doing in university and in the QMJHL. The Canadian Interunversity Sport hockey season is over after the University Cup was played in Halifax this past weekend. Two former Mooseheads were victorious in becoming national champions on Sunday when the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds defeated the St. Francis Xavier X-Men in the gold medal game. The medal teams turned out to be all Atlantic University Sport schools after the Saint Mary's Huskies won bronze earlier in the day against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. 10 Herd alumni participated in the tournament held March 17-20 with eight receiving some colour of a medal.


After making a few trades in December and January this season, the Moose now have 5 alumni on teams that will be battling it out for the President's Cup in the next 2 months. Danny Moynihan and Cavan Fitzgerald play for the second place Shawinigan Cataractes, Matt Murphy defends for the Maritime division winning Saint John Sea Dogs, Cody Donaghey skates on the Moncton Wildcats back end and former Herd captain Timo Meier hopes to win with the regular season champion Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.

Below find the final regular season stats for the Halifax alumni playing on university teams and junior hockey teams.

Name	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Brent Andrews	UPEI Panthers	28	13	12	25	18
Darcy Ashley	UPEI Panthers	11	4	10	14	14
Dominic Beachemin	Concordia Stingers	17	6	9	15	24
Jessyko Bernard	Concordia Stingers	24	11	14	25	25
Matthew Boudreau	Concordia Stingers	22	5	11	16	2
Luca Ciampini	Concordia Stingers	25	6	7	13	4
Alexandre Cote	Dalhousie Tigers	22	0	5	5	4
Cameron Critchlow	UNB Varsity Reds	25	4	5	9	33
Brad Cuzner	St. FX X-Men	27	4	5	9	12
Cody Donaghey	Halifax Mooseheads	21	4	7	11	33
	Moncton Wildcats	30	7	19	26	30
Brendan Duke	Dalhousie Tigers	23	0	1	1	36
Cavan Fitzgerald	Halifax Mooseheads	32	10	16	26	25
	Shawinigan Cataractes	28	5	14	19	21
Philippe Gadoury	Dalhousie Tigers	25	17	6	23	36
Randy Gazzola	UNB Varsity Reds	26	2	13	25	18
Stephen Gillard	Saint Mary's Huskies	24	4	7	11	22
Gerrad Grant	Saint Mary's Huskies	25	4	11	15	34
Sawyer Hannay	St. Thomas Tommies	25	0	3	3	118
Austyn Hardie	Saint Mary's Huskies	24	2	2	4	34
Trey Lewis	St. FX X-Men	27	3	3	6	46
Max Lindsay	Toronto Varsity Blues	26	6	7	13	20
Eric Louis-Seize	RMC Paladins	27	8	11	19	14
Jesse Lussier	Dalhousie Tigers	24	1	5	6	50
Stephen MacAulay	Saint Mary's Huskies	28	13	21	34	22
Alex MacDonald	Concordia Stingers	12	0	3	3	4
Bradley MacDonald	Laurentien Voyageurs	23	2	4	6	8
Timo Meier	Halifax Mooseheads	23	11	25	36	22
	Rouyn-Noranda Huskies	29	23	28	51	24
Spencer Metcalfe	UPEI Panthers	25	1	2	3	44
Daniel Moynihan	Halifax Mooseheads	38	24	25	49	40
	Shawinigan Cataractes	29	12	9	21	26
Matt Murphy	Quebec Remparts	31	3	19	22	26
	Saint John Sea Dogs	37	8	21	29	19
Travis Randell	Acadia Axemen	28	5	1	6	2

Next month, I will recap those players in the North American professional and senior leagues.