30th Anniversary Schedule Announced

Our Halifax Mooseheads 30th season regular season schedule was announced today. 

Like last year, the Herd will open up the season on home ice when the Charlottetown Islanders come to town on September 22. The two teams will meet at Eastlink Centre the next night with the puck scheduled to drop at 7 p.m. both evenings. Hopefully we won't get another postponement of the opening weekend in the Maritimes like in 2022. 

Other highlights for the 2023-24 regular season includes:

• The first Quebec road-trip will be October 12-15 when the Mooseheads travel to Baie-Comeau, Chicoutimi and Rimouski 
• A league finals rematch between Quebec and Halifax is set for January 13, 2024 at the Scotiabank Centre, meaning we'll probably see even more of a different team for the Remparts than we did in Game 6 
• We will get to see the return of the Hurley Cup series against Cape Breton, with the Eagles hosting on December 30 at 3 p.m. The two teams will meet again in Moose Country on New Year's Eve for an afternoon game 
• Halifax's longest home-stand will be six games from February 28-March 14 (this game being the home finale as well) while a five game road trip between Nov. 24-Dec. 2 is the longest 
• The regular season will wrap up on March 23 with the Herd visiting Saint John in back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday against the Sea Dogs. 

Halifax also announced in the press release that a full promotional schedule will be released later in the summer.

Weegar, Barron Help Canada Win Gold

Team Canada is once again world champions after they defeated Germany in the gold medal game on Sunday. 

This means that a couple of former Halifax Mooseheads players are gold medalists now. Congratulations to defencemen MacKenzie Weegar and Justin Barron on winning the last game of the 2023 tournament. Canada finished second in Group B after the preliminary round with a 4-1-1-1 record (W-OTW-OTL-L) but played like the hockey country they are in the medal round. Germany got on the board first but it didn't take long for the red and white to tie it up so the score was 1-1 after 20 minutes. Weegar would get an assist on Canada's second goal which once again sent both teams off to the dressing room with an even game as it was 2-2 after 40 minutes. Canada would open it up in the third period and win the game 5-2. It is Canada's record breaking 28th gold medal in the over 100 year tournament while the Germans won their third silver medal. 

Photo - Hockey Canada Twitter

Barron finished the tournament with three assists. Weegar on the other hand had a great tournament as he led his team in points with 11 in 10 games played. The 29-year-old actually led the tournament scoring at one point in the preliminary round. He started off with being named an alternate captain of the team in his first time representing the maple leaf in his career and ended with being named the best defenceman and a media all-star.

Photo - Swiss Hockey Twitter

A couple of other alumni were participating in the tournament over in Europe; Nico Hischier and Nikolaj Ehlers. Both players were not originally on their respective counties rosters as Hischier was actually eliminated in the NHL playoffs but I'm not sure what the delay was for Ehlers. Hischier and Team Switzerland had a strong prelim round once again this year, going 6-0-1-1 and finishing a top of Group B. Unfortunately, they could not get past Germany in the quarter-finals losing 3-1. The 24-year-old had a goal and two assists in four games played. 

Ehlers led Team Denmark in scoring with nine points (5G&4A) in 7 games played but it wasn't enough to propel the Danes to the medal round as they finished 5th in Group A with a 2-1-0-4 record. 

Photo - Winnipeg Jets Facebook

Exhibition Schedule Out

Photo - Herd website

One step into preparing to celebrate the Halifax Mooseheads 30th anniversary season has happened as the team have released their pre-season schedule on Friday. 

Halifax is anticipated to play six games over the pre-season schedule this summer. The QMJHL exhibition play will begin on August 17 and go until September 16 with a two-week break in between. Our Mooseheads are once again taking on the Charlottetown Islanders and Cape Breton Eagles. 

Here is the 2023-24 pre-season schedule:

August 22 at 7pm - vs. Cape Breton Eagles (RBC Centre)
August 23 at 7pm - at Cape Breton Eagles (Centre 200)
August 25 at 7pm - vs. Charlottetown Islanders (RBC Centre)
September 9 at 7pm - at Charlottetown Islanders (MacLauchlan Arena)
September 10 at 4pm - vs. Cape Breton Eagles (RBC Centre)
September 15 at 7pm - at Cape Breton Eagles (Membertou Sport & Wellness Centre)

Where are the Mooseheads drafting?

Photo - QMJHL website

In just over two weeks, team personnel across the QMJHL will descend on Sherbrooke, QC for the annual draft. This will be the first in person draft since 2019 thanks to the COVID pandemic and it will take place on June 10, 2023. 

Our Halifax Mooseheads will have to wait until the third round to make their first selection. Unless more trades happen, this is where the team will be drafting. 

Halifax's draft selections as of today:
Round 3 - 57th overall 
Round 4 - 67th overall (Blainville)
Round 4 - 75th overall
Round 5 - 91st overall (Gatineau)
Round 7 - 129th overall 
Round 8 - 134th overall (Saint John)
Round 8 - 147th overall
Round 9 - 165th overall
Round 10 - 183rd overall
Round 11 - 201st overall
Round 12 - 219th overall
Round 13 - 237th overall
Round 14 - 255th overall

Follow the @HFXMooseheads on Twitter during the draft for live coverage. 

Remparts Champions in Halifax

Our Halifax Mooseheads made it a series but in the end, the Quebec Remparts got a last minute goal in Game 6 and hosted the Gilles Courteau Trophy on Scotiabank Centre ice Sunday evening. It was yet another back and forth game tonight. The two teams were pretty even in the first period and after 20 minutes, the score was 0-0. Rookie Jack Martin scored the opening goal for the home team, recording his first of the playoffs, at the 2:18 mark of the second period. A little over three minutes later, overager Alexandre Doucet extended the Mooseheads lead to 2-0. Quebec got a power play opportunity late in the middle frame and they took advantage of it, making it a 3-2 Halifax game after 40 minutes. The Remparts came out in the third strong and Zachary Bolduc tied it up at the 5:18 mark. It looked like we would be going to another overtime as much didn't happen for about 10 minutes. With 3:13 left to go in regulation though, Zachary L'Heureux sent most of the 10,595 fans at the arena into a frenzy when he scored as the Mooseheads retook the lead. But the cheering didn't last long, as Quebec tied it again a minute later. 20-year-old Pier-Olivier Roy broke the hearts of the home team when he made it 5-4 for the Remparts with 59 seconds remaining. Congratulations to Quebec on winning the championship. We had a great series to witness and unfortunately for us Moose fans, it just wasn't meant to be this year. 

FINAL: Remparts 5 at Mooseheads 4
Stars: 3. Zachary Bolduc QUE | 2. Jack Martin HAL | 1. Alexandre Doucet HAL
Attendance: 10,300

GAME LOG
First period 
No scoring

Second period 
2:18 HAL Jack Martin (1) | A: Vidicek
5:38 HAL Alexandre Doucet (14) | A: Dumais & Martin
11:14 QUE Evan Nause (5) | A: Robidas & Savoie
15:24 HAL Josh Lawrence (12) | A: Dumais & Doucet
16:44 QUE James Malatesta (14), PP | A: Rochette & Bolduc

Third period
5:18 QUE Zachary Bolduc (11) | A: Rochette & Komarov
16:47 HAL Zachary L'Heureux (11) | A: Dumais
17:52 QUE Kassim Gaudet (5) | A: None
19:01 QUE Pier-Olivier Roy (6) | A: Gaudet

Powerplay: QUE - 1-for-3; HAL - 0-for-1
Shots: 36-25 in favour for Quebec

DID NOT PLAY - David Moravec and Attilio Biasca out with injuries

UP NEXT: Pre-season in August, opponent to be determined 

Dumais, Biasca Win Golden Puck Awards

In the mix of the playoffs beginning, I never shared that there were some trophies handed out during the Mooseheads first post-season home game back in late March. Veteran Jordan Dumais received the Jean Beliveau Trophy for being the QMJHL's top scorer in the regular season. Our Halifax Mooseheads were also awarded the Luc Robitaille Trophy as the team with the best goals for average. Halifax led the entire Canadian Hockey League in goals scored with 335. 

A few Mooseheads were named as finalists for other awards last month but only two actually won. Captain Attilio Biasca won the Frank J Selke Memorial Trophy as the Most Sportsmanlike Player on April 20. Meanwhile, the Michel Briere Memorial Trophy was the last award to be given out and Halifax forward Jordan Dumais was named the league's MVP on Thursday. 

Other nominees for awards were Mathieu Cataford (top prospect & scholastic player of the year) and head coach Sylvain Favreau (coach of the year). 

The players on the all-star teams were also named over the last few weeks as well. Dumais' 140-point season led him to be given a first team crystal star by the Q while Alexandre Doucet and Josh Lawrence were named to the 2nd all-star team. 

Congratulations to all the players who won awards, especially our Herd guys. 

Photos - QMJHL website & Twitter

10 Years Ago...

Ten years. Somehow, it has been 10 years since our Halifax Mooseheads won their first President Cup after defeating the Baie-Comeau Drakkar in five games. 

Photo - QMJHL website

While I wasn't able to be in the arena that night, it didn't mean I wasn't cheering them on. I was among probably a thousand people out watching the game in Grand Parade Square. It would be nice if the city would do this kind of event again especially for the away games. 

The Mooseheads won that final game by a score of 5-1, with two goals coming from Halifax-native Stephen MacAulay - one of which was an empty netter. Singles were scored by Stefan Fournier, Jonathan Drouin and Nathan MacKinnon. Goaltender Zach Fucale made 34 saves to get the win, helping his team to a 16-1 post-season. 

Halifax had a great 2012-13 season, finishing with a 58-6-3-1 record before winning their first three playoff rounds in sweeps. Their lone loss in the playoffs came during Game 3 of the final. You can see the scores for the championship series below: 

May 3 Drakkar 0 at Mooseheads 4
May 4 Drakkar 3 at Mooseheads 4
May 7 Mooseheads 1 at Drakkar 3
May 8 Mooseheads 7 at Drakkar 4
May 10 Drakkar 1 at Mooseheads 5

Check out the highlights below. 

Here's a fan's video of the final moments and celebration. 

Our boys will get another chance to become champs as they made it to the finals for the fifth time in franchise history. That series will begin on Friday night in Quebec. I know it isn't guaranteed this year but let's fill up the Scotiabank Centre like we did in 2013 Moose Country and support our boys.