Former Moose Get New Teams for 16-17

A few former Halifax Mooseheads players will be on different teams in 2016-17 than they were last season. If you follow me on Twitter, most of this will be old news but I thought I would put all this news in one post for readers.

Photo - Nauss Facebook

During training camp, the Herd made a few transactions that moved veteran players to other teams. Halifax traded defensemen Morgan Nauss and Jean-Sebastien Taillefer to the Chicoutimi Sagueneens and Gatineau Olympiques respectively, towards the end of August for a few draft picks. 18 year old Nauss has no points in 3 games played and a minus-3 so far this season for the Sags while 19 year old Taillefer has 3 assists in 11 games and is minus-1 with the Piques. Sophomores Ilya Putintsev and Dominik Blain-Dupuis apparently didn't fit in to the direction that new head coach Andre Touriney was looking to go as the team put both players on waivers. Putintsev was picked up by the Moncton Wildcats and has since played 8 games assisting on three goals. Blain-Dupuis was picked up by the Olympiques and has gotten a lot of ice time that he probably wouldn't with the Moose, playing all 11 games for Gatineau while picking up an assist. The Mooseheads also released overager Andrew Shewfelt toward the end of camp and he now plays for the Amherst Ramblers of the MJAHL. Shewfelt has 2 assists in 8 games played.

Photo - Florida Everblades Twitter

In mid-September it was announced by the Florida Everblades of the ECHL that they signed former Herd forward Stephen MacAulay for the 2016-17 season. The 24 year old has yet to play a game this season for the Everbaldes but they're only two games into the ECHL season. MacAulay, a native of Cole Harbour, NS, spent the last two and a half seasons with the Saint Mary's Huskies. This will be Stephen's second crack at securing a pro career after he split the first half of the 2013-14 season between the Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL) and the Wheeling Nailers (ECHL) before coming home to play university hockey.

Over the summer, the Moncton Wildcats announced that the team had traded Herd alumni Cody Donaghey to the Charlottetown Islanders. The defenseman has benefited from a high-skilled Islanders team and is currently 7th in league scoring with 15 points, twelve of which are assists. He's played 10 games and is a minus-1. This will be Donaghey's last season in the QMJHL. The St. John's, NL native played the first half of 2015-16 with the Mooseheads and recorded 11 points in 21 games.

Boston, MA native Danny Moynihan was a free-agent invite to Vancouver Canucks training camp last month before being reassigned to the team's American Hockey League affiliate, the Utica Comets who signed Moynihan to a two-way AHL/ECHL contract on October 4. The Comets reassigned the 20 year old to the Alaska Aces of the ECHL a few days later where it is unknown right now if he'll make the team. Moynihan, who split the 2015-16 season between the Mooseheads and Shawinigan Cataractes, will be on a new team this year even if he doesn't make the Aces as he has been recruited by the Dalhousie Tigers. The Tigers' coach, Chris Donnelly, discussed the prospect of Moynihan coming back to Halifax should his professional aspirations not work out with John Moore, the voice of the Mooseheads News 95.7 broadcasts (see below).

After aging out of juniors, Matt Murphy has joined the University of New Brunswick Varisty Reds hockey team for the 2016-17 season. The former Herd was invited to Winnipeg Jets training camp last month but was later released. Murphy will try to help the V-Reds repeat as University Cup champions and isn't doing to bad to start the season. The 21 year old has 5 assists in 4 games played to go with 8 penalty minutes. The defenseman played two and a half seasons in front of the Moose Country faithful and also spent time with the Val-d'Or Foreurs, Quebec Remparts and Saint John Sea Dogs while in the Q.

There will be one former Moose to start the season in the National Hockey League. It was announced last Sunday that the Carolina Hurricanes claimed alum Martin Frk off waivers from the Detroit Red Wings. Frk, from Pelhrimov, Czech Republic, spent the 2015-16 season with the Wings AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins collecting 27 goals and 44 points in 67 games. The 23 year old was named to the Hurricanes opening night roster but did not play. He is expected to make his NHL debut tonight when Carolina visits the Edmonton Oilers.

Photo - NHL.com

Former captain Timo Meier participated in San Jose Sharks training camp last month and looked like he might make the NHL this season. However, it was announced at the end of September that he would be out for four weeks with mononucleosis. The Sharks than announced that they had reassigned the Swiss forward to their minor league team, the San Jose Barracuda, on Friday and that the 20 year old will stay in the Bay area to train as he recovers. Meier will most likely begin the season with the Barracuda, possibly by the end of this month. After that it shouldn't take too long for the former Mooseheads and Rouyn-Noranda Huskies player is back with the big club.

Good luck to all the players with their new teams the rest of the season. Check back here in a few weeks for a list of where more Herd alumni are playing and the first month stats.

Moose Get 1st Road Win

The streak is broken. Your Haifax Mooseheads have finally picked up their first road win, defeating the Victoriavile Tigres in the Quebec city. The victory ends a 5 game losing streak by the Herd this season as the visiting team. Rookie goaltender Alexis Gravel started the game against the Tigres, which was his second straight start for Halifax. It's the first time this season that the 16 year old has started back to back games after getting the call on Saturday evening against Blainville. The Mooseheads got on to the board less than 4 minutes into the game with a goal by Maxime Fortier short handed and would hold on to that lead until there was 8 seconds left in the first period when Antoine Lessard got the puck past Gravel to tie the game at 1 after 20 minutes. It was goals galore in the middle frame as the Moose broke open the game with five goals in the period. Rookie defenseman Jared McIsaac scored his first career goal to start the breakout, putting the puck in behind Victoriaville's starting goalie James Povall just 33 seconds into the second. The home team would tie the game once again a minute and a half later before Nico Hischier scored twice to give Halifax a 4-2 lead at 4:47 of the period, forcing the Tigres to pull Povall and replace him with Olivier Tremblay. The third period was filled with penalties and only one goal (an empty net by Otto Somppi).

FINAL: Mooseheads 7 at Tigres 3
Stars: 3. Nico Hischier HAL | 2. Maxime Fortier HAL | 1. Jared McIsaac HAL
Attendance: 1,923
MC's Top Herd: n/a

GAME LOG
First period
3:19 HAL Maxime Fortier (7), SH | A: none
19:51 VIC Antoine Lessard (1) | A: Calgaro & Huntington

Second period
0:33 HAL Jared McIsaac (1) | A: Hischier & Goetz
2:07 VIC Alexandre Goulet (5) | A: Phelan & Smith
3:00 HAL Nico Hischier (4), PP | A: Chainey & Somppi
4:47 HAL Nico Hischier (5) | A: Lepage & Fortier
6:02 HAL Ben Higgins (2) | A: Charlebois
16:45 VIC Felix Meunier (3) | A: Demers
18:50 HAL Bradley Kennedy (3), PP | A: McIsaac & Fortier

Third period
15:54 HAL Otto Somppi (4) | A: none

Powerplay: HAL - 2-for-7, VIC - 0-for-5
Shots: 26-23 in favour of Halifax

MISSING IN ACTION - Brett Crossley & Anthony Sorrentino

SCORES
Cape Breton 5 at Acadie-Bathurst 3
Gatineau 1 at Rimouski 7
Sherbrooke 8 at Baie-Comeau 4
Quebec 1 at Chicoutimi 2 SO
Moncton 1 at Shawinigan 2

UP NEXT: Halifax will return home for three games starting with the Pink in the Rink game on Friday. Puck drops at 7pm.

GAMEDAY #10: at Blainville-Boisbriand

GAME PREVIEW
BLAINVILLE-BOISBRIAND ARMADA VS HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS
Puck drops at 7:00pm
Radio: News 95.7 | TV: Webcast | Live: @HFXMooseheads
Centre d'Excellence Sports Rousseau (3,100) ~ Boisbriand, QC

The Halifax Mooseheads are still looking for their first win on the road. Halifax has started the season 0-4 away from the Scotiabank Centre but they're a young team so to even be in the top half of the league standings is pretty good. The Herd are heading to Boisbriand today to take on the Armada who are pretty good at home in their own right, they have a 3-0-0-1 record at the Centre d'Excellence Sports Rousseau. For the second straight night, Halifax will be a part of a pink in the rink event that is not theirs as Blainville is hosting the annual event this evening. Despite being the youngest team in the league, there have been promising lights to start the season. Veteran Maxime Fortier is once again the team leader in points, five of the remaining 6 player rookies (Raphael Lavoie has left the team) have at least a point while three of them have goals and goaltender Alexis Gravel has a 2.45 goals against average in 146 minutes of action. Today's game is the second of a 3 games in 3 nights Quebec road trip for the Moose and they're going up against some good teams. Blainville has won a lot of tight games and have scored the third lowest amount of goals but they haven't given up too many either. Will our boys get their first road win today? We'll have to wait and see.

This is the first meeting between the two teams this season. Last year, Halifax was 1-1-0-0 against the Armada while Blainville had a 1-0-1-0 record versus the Mooseheads. The last matchup in the 2015-16 season was October 8, 2015. Timo Meier had 2 goals and four points including the game winner to lead Halifax to a 5-4 overtime victory while Eric Brassard made 21 saves to pick up the win.

OVERALL RECORDS
Mooseheads: 5-4-0-0 = 10 points (3rd in Maritimes ivision, 7th overall)
Armada: 5-3-0-1 = 11 points (3rd in West division, 6th overall)

LEADING SCORERS
BLB: Alexandre Alain 6pts (3G & 3A), TJ Melancon 6pts (2G & 4A), Yvan Mongo 5pts (4G & 1A)
HAL: Maxime Fortier 13pts (6G & 7A), Connor Moynihan 7pts (5G & 2A), Nico Hischier 7pts (3G & 4A)

PREVIOUS GAMES
Halifax is coming off a 6-3 defeat at the hands of the Cataractes on Friday night. Taylor Ford led the Mooseheads with a goal and an assist while Kevin Resop made 24 saves on 30 shots to take the loss in Shawinigan.

Blainville-Boisbriand is coming off a 3-2 overtime victory over Saint John on Wednesday night. Alexandre Alain scored the OT winner for the Amarda on home ice while Samuel Montembeault stopped 27 of the Sea Dogs 29 shots for the win.

ALUM ON ARMADA - none

HEAD-TO-HEAD
October 15  Halifax at Blainville-Boisbriand - 5pm
December 9  Blainville-Boisbriand at Halifax - 7pm

OUT OF TOWN
Sagueneens vs. Sherbrooke   5:00pm
Islanders vs. Screaming Eagles   7:00pm
Huskies vs. Voltigeurs   8:00pm
Foreurs vs. Sea Dogs   8:00pm
Tigres vs. Wildcats   8:00pm

AFTER THE BUZZER
Halifax will finish their 3 night Quebec road trip on Sunday afternoon with a visit to Victoriaville to take on the Tigres. Puck drops at 5pm.

3 Moose on World U17 Roster

Hockey Canada announced on Wednesday afternoon the players that will represent the three Canadian teams at the World U17 Hockey Challenge at the end of October. Among the roster are three Halifax Mooseheads players. Rookies Raphael Lavoie, Jared McIsaac and Benoit-Olivier Groulx were listed among the 66 Canadian under 17 players listed. All three young men were in the summer camp back a few months ago and clearly impressed the Hockey Canada personnel.

In 7 games so far this season, Groulx has three goals and 5 points while defenseman McIsaac has 2 assists in 8 games. Forward Raphael Lavoie has an assist in 4 games played but has made contributions in other ways. The three players are 16 years old. The 3 will most likely leave around October 27 to get set up for the pre-tournament games and will be back after the tournament finishes on November 5. Hockey Canada will announce the individual team rosters in the next couple of weeks. In the World U17 Hockey Challenge, Canada has three teams named black, red and white and will go against teams from Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, Russia and the United States.

Congratulations to Benoit-Olivier, Jared and Raphael on making the roster and representing your country. Check back in a couple weeks for which Canadian team each player is on for the tournament.

GAMEDAY #8: at Acadie-Bathurst

GAME PREVIEW
ACADIE-BATHURST TITAN VS HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS
Puck drops at 7:00pm
TV: Rogers TV | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @HFXMooseheads
K.C. Irving Regional Centre (3,162) ~ Bathurst, NB

The Halifax Mooseheads begin a four game road trip tonight when they visit the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. Halifax has found ways to win despite being a very young group and questionable goaltending by veteran Kevin Resop. No word on who will start tonight. The Herd have won 3 straight, all at home, and will be looking to get their first victory away from the Scotiabank Centre. Bathurst on the other hand has yet to win on home ice, of course they've only played two games at the KC Irving Regional Centre. The Titan have lost 5 straight after getting a couple of victories over the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in Sydney during their opening weekend. Which streak will continue? We'll have to wait until later this evening to find out.

This is the first meeting between the two teams this season. Last year, Halifax was 4-5-0-0 against the Titan while Acadie-Bathurst had a 5-4-0-0 record against the Mooseheads. The last matchup in the 2015-16 season was March 8. Maxime Fortier scored two goals to help the Herd to a 4-2 win over the Titan in the New Brunswick city while Kevin Resop made 39 saves to pick up the W.

OVERALL RECORDS
Mooseheads: 5-2-0-0 = 10 points (3rd in Maritimes division, 5th overall)
Titan: 2-3-1-1 = 6 points (6th in Maritimes division, 15th overall)

LEADING SCORERS
BAT: Christophe Boivin 10pts (5G & 5A), Antoine Morand 8pts (3G & 5A), Dawson Theede 5pts (2G & 3A)
HAL: Maxime Fortier 13pts (6G & 7A), Otto Somppi 7pts (3G & 4A), Connor Moynihan 6pts (5G & 1A)

PREVIOUS GAMES
Halifax is coming off a 6-5 overtime victory on home ice against the Rimouski Oceanic. Maxime Fortier led the Mooseheads with a goal and 3 assists while import player Nico Hischier scored the OT winner. Kevin Resop was pulled 6 minutes into the third after letting 5 goals in on 15 shots.

Acadie-Bathurst is coming off a 7-3 defeat at the hands of the Voltigeurs on Saturday night. Captain Jeffrey Truchon-Viel scored the first goal for the Titan while Danil Timchenko took the loss making 29 saves before being pulled after the 5th goal in Drummondville.

ALUM ON TITAN - none

HEAD-TO-HEAD
October 12  Mooseheads at Titan - 7pm
October 26  Titan at Mooseheads - 7pm
November 20  Titan at Mooseheads - 2pm
November 22  Mooseheads at Titan - 7pm
December 14  Titan at Mooseheads - 7pm
February 2  Titan at Mooseheads - 7pm
February 17  Mooseheads at Titan - 7pm
February 24  Titan at Mooseheads - 7pm
March 10  Mooseheads at Titan - 7pm

OUT OF TOWN
Armada vs. Sea Dogs   8:00pm
Drakkar vs. Remparts   8:30pm

AFTER THE BUZZER
Halifax will now head to Quebec for a 3 game in 3 nights trip starting with a visit to the Shawinigan Cataractes on Friday. Puck drops at 8:30pm.

Mooseheads Win Thanksgiving Matinee

Photo - Myles Dennis

And they've done it. For the first time since the 1998-99 season, your Halifax Mooseheads have started the season 5 and 0 on home ice after picking up an overtime victory on Monday afternoon against the Gatineau Olympiques. Connor Moynihan got his third goal of the weekend to get the good guys on the board exactly 6 minutes in to the game but shortly after the Mooseheads received a holding penalty and the Olympiques converted on their powerplay to tie the game. The first period ended with a 3-2 Halifax led score while shots were 18-7 in favour of the Herd. It was a pretty strong period by the home side and it continued in the middle frame. Gatineau couldn't keep up in the second period, giving up two more goals while being outshot 13-4 but the Piques were a different team in the third period as were the Moose. The Olympiques scored three times on their first 4 shots of the final 20 minutes to tie the game at 5 goals a piece, forcing head coach Andre Tourigny to pull starter Kevin Resop. Alexis Gravel came in and made 15 saves in relief to keep the game tied after regulation. In overtime, Halifax killed off a penalty and than at 3:35, Maxime Fortier passed cross ice to Nico Hischier who slammed the puck into the net to win the game.

FINAL: Olympiques 5 at Mooseheads 6OT
Stars: 3. Otto Somppi HAL | 2. Bradley Kennedy HAL | 1. Nico Hischier HAL
Attendance: 5,110
MC's Top Herd: Nico Hischier

GAME LOG
First period
6:00 HAL Connor Moynihan (5) | A: Dachyshyn & Charlebois
7:23 GAT Nicolas Meloche (1), PP | A: Abramov & Dostie
13:18 HAL Maxime Fortier (6) | A: Sorrentino
17:16 HAL Otto Somppi (3) | A: Ford & Fortier
17:44 GAT Nicolas Meloche (2) | A: MacEwen & Breton

Second period
5:17 HAL Benoit-Olivier Groulx (3) | A: Charlebois
12:55 HAL Bradley Kennedy (2), PP | A: Somppi & Fortier

Third period
0:48 GAT Alex Dostie (3), SH | A: none
4:40 GAT Zack MacEwen (4) | A: none
5:28 GAT Zack MacEwen (5), PP | A: Meloche

Overtime
3:35 HAL Nico Hischier (2) | A: Jones & Fortier

Powerplay: GAT - 2-for-7, HAL - 1-for-6
Shots: 41-33 in favour of Halifax

MISSING IN ACTION- Raphael Lavoie, Joel Bishop, Brett Crossley

SCORES
Moncton 1 at Charlottetown 10
Blainville-Boisbriand 2 at Victoriaville 1

UP NEXT: The Mooseheads go on the road now for 4 games starting with a trip to play the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. Puck drops at 7pm.

GAMEDAY #6: vs. Gatineau

GAME PREVIEW
HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS VS GATINEAU OLYMPIQUES
Puck drops at 3:00pm
TV: Q Webcast | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @MC_MooseCountry
Scotiabank Centre (10,595) ~ Halifax, NS

Happy Thanksgiving Moose Country. Your Halifax Mooseheads host their first holiday matinee of the season today as the Gatineau Olympiques come to town. The game also happens to be the last in a 3 game home-stand for the Herd and the last home game until the team's pink in the rink match on October 21. Halifax will be looking to win their third straight and start the year 5-0 on home ice for the first time since the 1998-1999 season. The Mooseheads somehow keep finding ways to win despite being out shots in a couple of games and sometimes being out played as well. Gatineau on the other hand seems to be starting a rebuild as they have only one win in 7 games. The Olympiques were the 6th overall team last season and have scored 11 goals so far. On paper the outcome should be in the Herd's favour but it will depend on goaltending.

This is the first meeting between the two teams this season. Last year, Gatineau was 2-0-0-0 against the Mooseheads while Halifax had a 0-2-0-0 record versus Olympiques. The last matchup in the 2015-16 season was February 10. Alex Dostie and Chiwetin Blacksmith scored two goals each in Gatineau's 6-0 victory while Kevin Resop made 35 saves for Halifax.

OVERALL RECORDS
Olympiques: 1-5-1-0 = 3 points (6th in West division, 17th overall)
Mooseheads: 4-2-0-0 = 8 points (4th in Maritimes division, 9th overall)

LEADING SCORERS
HAL: Maxime Fortier 9pts (5G & 4A), Connor Moyniahn 5pts (4G & 1A), Arnaud Durandeau 5pts (3G & 2A)
GAT: Vitalii Abramov 5pts (2G & 3A), Alex Dostie 5pts (2G & 3A), Zack MacEwen 3pts (3G)

PREVIOUS GAMES
Gatineau is coming of a 2-1 loss to the Screaming Eagles. Vataloo Abramov scored the lone goal for the Olympiques while Mathieu Bellemore made 24 saves to take the defeat in Cape Breton on Sunday afternoon.

Halifax is coming off a 5-2 victory over the Islanders in a rematch game on Saturday evening. Connor Moynihan scored twice to lead the Mooseheads while rookie Alexis Gravel stopped 35 of Charlottetown's 37 shots to get his first career win.

NOT DRESSED - n/a

ALUM ON OLYMPIQUES - Jean-Sebastien Taillefer and Dominik Blain-Dupuis

HEAD-TO-HEAD
October 10  Olympiques at Mooseheads - 3pm
November 2  Mooseheads at Olympiques - 8:30pm

OUT OF TOWN
Islanders vs. Wildcats   3:00pm
Tigres vs. Armada   3:00pm

AFTER THE BUZZER
Halifax will go on the road now for four games starting on Wednesday in Acadie-Bathurst against the Titan. Puck drops at 7pm.