Exhibition Game Schedule Released

HALIFAX - The Halifax Mooseheads announced their pre-season schedule for the upcoming season.

Our Mooseheads will play six times against three different teams over the month before the real matches begin. Not sure why but Halifax starts the pre-season with 4 games in less than a week before having a break for two weeks and finishing a home and home with the Moncton Wildcats.

All three home games will be held at the local arenas around the city including one at the recently redone Dartmouth Sportsplex.

Here is the 2019-20 pre-season schedule:
August 18 at 4pm - vs. Cape Breton Screaming Eagles (Dartmouth Sportsplex)
August 20 at 7pm - at Cape Breton Screaming Eagles (Centre 200)
August 22 at 7pm - vs. Saint John Sea Dogs (RBC Centre - Dartmouth, NS)
August 23 at 7pm - at Saint John Sea Dogs (Garcelon Civic Centre - Saint Stephen, NB)
September 6 at 7pm - at Moncton Wildcats (Superior Propane Centre - Moncton, NB)
September 13 at 7pm - vs. Moncton Wildcats (Halifax Forum)

The regular season schedule was also released today.

Huskies Win National Title

Photo - Vincent Ethier

Well, the QMJHL's 50th season has come to an end and it couldn't have finished any better I'm sure as both league representative's in the tournament were in the championship game.

The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies defeated our Halifax Mooseheads for the sixth time in the month of May to claim it's first Memorial Cup trophy on Sunday night. Halifax got out to a 2-0 lead in the final match of the year before the Huskies came back to score 4 unanswered goals to win a trophy once again on Scotiabank Centre ice. Rouyn-Noranda were crowned the President Cup winners earlier this month while the Mooseheads were the tournament hosts. The two teams finished the round-robin with 2-1 records, Halifax was given a bye to the last game because of the tie-breaker rules while the Huskies had to defeat the Guelph Storm (OHL) in the semi-final. Peter Abbandonato scored what would end up being the game winning goal just 3:02 into the third period to help his team get a 4-2 victory.

Congratulations to the Huskies on being 2019 national champs!


In other news...

• With the best goals against average and save percentage of the tournament, Alexis Gravel was named the Top Goaltender. He was also named to the all-star team along with teammate Benoit-Olivier Groulx 
• The Stanley Cup finals are underway and there is one former Moosehead still playing; Brad Marchand and the Boston Bruins are taking on the St. Louis Blues for the holy grail. Marchand leads the Bruins with 8 goals and 19 points through 18 games in this year's playoffs 
• Herd alumni Ladislav Nagy played his last international game last Tuesday, representing Slovakia at the 2019 IIHF World Championships. Nagy, who turns 40 on Saturday, scored the shootout winner for the Slovaks against Denmark in the country's final round robin game as the team did not advance to the playoff round this year

Memorial Cup Championship Game

GAMEDAY

2019 Memorial Cup Game Eight

Championship

Rouyn-Noranda Huskies at Halifax Mooseheads

May 26 - 8:00pm

Scotiabank Centre

The biggest game to be played in Moose Country is happening tonight with our Halifax Mooseheads taking on the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies at 8pm. After 10 more days of hockey, the 2018-19 junior hockey season will come to an end today. This is the 8th time this month that these two teams have met each other and just like 15 days ago, a trophy is on the line. Rouyn-Noranda is looking to win their first Memorial Cup in club history while Halifax will be hoping to repeat what happened exactly six years ago when they won the Mooseheads only national championship. The Huskies are coming off a big 6-3 victory over the OHL champion Guelph Storm in Friday's semi-final game to get to this game. It's a sell out crowd for this evening but you can watch the match on Sportsnet if you don't have tickets.

Rouyn-Noranda: 1st West Division, 1st Western Conference, 1st QMJHL 59-8-0-1=119 points

Joel Teasdale (14G & 20A), Felix Bibeau (14G & 15A), Noah Dobson (8G & 21A)

Samuel Harvey 16-3-1-0, 1.97 GAA, 0.924 SAV%

def. Shawinigan Cataractes (4-2, 1st round), Victoriaville Tigres (4-0, quarters), Rimouski Oceanic (4-0, semis), Halifax Mooseheads (4-2, finals)

Coached by Mario Pouliot

Halifax: 1st Maritimes Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 3rd QMJHL 49-15-2-2=102 points

Raphael Lavoie (20G & 12A), Arnaud Durandeau (10G & 10A), Maxim Trepanier (6G & 14A)

Alexis Gravel 14-8-0-0, 2.73 GAA, 0.917 SAV%

def. Quebec Remparts (4-3, 1st round), Moncton Wildcats (4-0, quarters), Drummondville Voltigeurs (4-2, semis), by Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (4-2, finals)

Coached by Eric Veilleux

ROUYN-NORANDA WINS

May 24, 2019

Guelph Storm vs. Rouyn-Noranda Huskies

Attendance: 10,595

In what was most certainly a pro-Guelph crowd on Friday evening, the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies battled and defeated the Storm 6-4 to earn a spot in the Memorial Cup championship game on Sunday. The Huskies got off to a quick start, with Alex Beaucage scoring just under five minutes into the game on a power-play, but Guelph came back with two goals by Isaac Ratcliffe and Jack Hanley 60 seconds apart to take the lead. It seemed like we were going to get a even higher scorer game as it was tied 3-3 with 23:11 remaining but defence came into play in the later part of the second period. Felix Bibeau scored twice in the third to give Rouyn-Noranda a two goal lead before Ratcliffe made it interesting with 73 seconds to go. With the loss, the Storm's quest for another trophy has come to an end with a semi-final defeat.

Final: Rouyn-Noranda 6 at Guelph 4
Shot count: Storm - 38, Huskies - 39
Goal scorers: Alex Beaucage ROU (1) P1 4:58(PP), Isaac Ratcliffe GUE (2) P1 6:28, Jack Hanley GUE (1) P1 7:28, Joel Teasdale (ROU (3) P1 9:31, Cedric Ralph GUE (1) P2 5:53, Tyler Hinam ROU (3) P2 6:49, Felix Bibeau ROU (3) P3 5:40, Felix Bibeau ROU (4) P3 12:33, Isaac Ratcliffe GUE (3) P3 18:47, Rafael Harvey-Pinard ROU (1) P3 19:57(EN)
Powerplay: ROU 1/1, GUE 0/2
3 stars: 3. Noah Dobson ROU, 2. Dmitri Samorukov GUE, 1. Felix Bibeau ROU

MEMORIAL CUP GAME #7: Semi-final

GAMEDAY

2019 Memorial Cup Game Seven

Semi-final

Rouyn-Noranda Huskies at Guelph Storm

May 24 - 8:00pm

Scotiabank Centre

Rouyn-Noranda: 1st West Division, 1st Western Conference, 1st QMJHL 59-8-0-1=119 points

Joel Teasdale (14G & 20A), Felix Bibeau (14G & 15A), Noah Dobson (8G & 21A)

Samuel Harvey 16-3-1-0, 1.97 GAA, 0.924 SAV%

def. Shawinigan Cataractes (4-2, 1st round), Victoriaville Tigres (4-0, quarters), Rimouski Oceanic (4-0, semis), Halifax Mooseheads (4-2, finals)

Coached by Mario Pouliot

Guelph: 2nd Midwest Division, 4th Western Conference, 8th OHL 40-18-6-4=90 points

Nick Suzuki (16G & 26A), Isaac Ratcliffe (15G & 15A), Dmitri Samorukov (10G & 18A)

Anthony Popovich 16-7-1-0, 3.12 GAA, 0.894 SAV%

def. Kitchener Rangers (4-0, quarters), London Knights (4-3, semis), Saginaw Spirit (4-3, finals), Ottawa 67's (4-2, OHL finals)

Coached by George Burnett

Rouyn-Noranda wins

May 22, 2019 
Rouyn-Noranda Huskies vs. Halifax Mooseheads

Attendance: 10,004

The Halifax Mooseheads celebrated despite losing a close game against the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies to finish the round robin on Wednesday night. Because of the way the Canadian Hockey League decides their tie-break scenarios for first place if three teams have 2-1 records, the Herd needed to lose by one goal with the score 4-3 or lower, if they couldn't win, to secure a bye to the Memorial Cup championship game. That 4-3 result was how the match would end after the Huskies dominated in the third period and were able to get two goals past Alexis Gravel. It looked like Rouyn-Noranda might get the result they wanted to get the bye as they led 2-0 after twenty minutes with goals from Felix Bibeau and Joel Teasdale but Halifax took the intermission to regroup and had a very strong period. The Mooseheads scored three times in the middle frame, including a power play goal from Antoine Morand, which was his third of the tournament, coming with just 43 seconds left. William Rouleau picked up his first at the 10:!3 mark, making a lot of the 10,000 fans nervous. Jakub Lauko scored in the final minute to give his team the victory.

Final: Halifax 3 at Rouyn-Noranda 4
Shot count: Huskies - 40, Mooseheads - 27
Goal scorers: Felix Bibeau ROU (2) P1 14:38, Joel Teasdale ROU (2) P1 15:50, Benoit-Olivier Groulx HAL (1) P2 0:48, Arnaud Durandeau HAL (1) P2 7:34, Antoine Morand HAL (3) P2 19:!7, William Rouleau ROU (1) P3 10:13, Jakub Lauko ROU (2) P3 19:05
Powerplay: HAL 1/3, ROU 0/2
3 stars: 3. Jakub Lauko ROU, 2. Benoit-Olivier Groulx HAL, 1. Peter Abbandonato ROU

MEMORIAL CUP GAME #6: Hosts vs. QMJHL

GAMEDAY

2019 Memorial Cup Game Six

Round Robin

Halifax Mooseheads at Rouyn-Noranda Huskies

May 22 - 8:00pm

Scotiabank Centre 

It's a President Cup rematch tonight at the Memorial Cup as the round robin portion closes out. There's big stakes with this evening's game as a bye to the final is on the line. A win from our Halifax Mooseheads will give them a 3-0 record while a loss would leave three teams with 2-1 records and it would get complicated to determine who would get first in the standings. The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies will be the designated home team for the game and will be looking to win another contest on Scotiabank Centre ice but the Mooseheads will want some revenge. Even though it's a mid-week affair, I imagine the arena will be electric. Let's cheer on the boys Moose Country to a victory.

Halifax: 1st Maritimes Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 3rd QMJHL 49-15-2-2=102 points

Raphael Lavoie (20G & 12A), Arnaud Durandeau (10G & 10A), Maxim Trepanier (6G & 14A)

Alexis Gravel 14-8-0-0, 2.73 GAA, 0.917 SAV%

def. Quebec Remparts (4-3, 1st round), Moncton Wildcats (4-0, quarters), Drummondville Voltigeurs (4-2, semis), by Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (4-2, finals)

Coached by Eric Veilleux

Rouyn-Noranda: 1st West Division, 1st Western Conference, 1st QMJHL 59-8-0-1=119 points

Joel Teasdale (14G & 20A), Felix Bibeau (14G & 15A), Noah Dobson (8G & 21A)

Samuel Harvey 16-3-1-0, 1.97 GAA, 0.924 SAV%

def. Shawinigan Cataractes (4-2, 1st round), Victoriaville Tigres (4-0, quarters), Rimouski Oceanic (4-0, semis), Halifax Mooseheads (4-2, finals)

Coached by Mario Pouliot