Your Halifax Mooseheads have won seven in a row now after picking up a 4-1 victory over the struggling Shawinigan Cataractes on Saturday night. The home team got off to a bit of a slow start, being outshot 7-3 in the first five or so minutes but goaltender Jack Milner stood strong allowing Halifax to get on the board first with a goal by Mathieu Cataford at the 13:29 mark. That would be the score after twenty minutes in a game where the Cataractes seemed to have known that Jordan Dumais could make history tonight. Shawinigan was all over Dumais including at one point early in the third, after Halifax had made it 3-1, defenceman Angus Booth would not allow Jordan to skate away and brought him down to the ice. The 19-year-old clinched the win for the Mooseheads at the 16:08 mark with his 12th goal of the season which was his 303rd career regular season point. That number ties the franchise record for total points that is currently held by Brandon Benedict. Saturday's 90's night event also happened to be the 2000th regular season game in Herd history.
FINAL: Cataractes 1 to Mooseheads 4
Stars: 3. Jordan Dumais HAL | 2. David Moravec HAL | 1. Jack Milner HAL
Attendance: 8,541
MC's Top Herd: Jack Milner
GAME LOG First period
13:29 HAL Mathieu Cataford (10) | A: Moravec & Vidicek
Second period 9:14 SHA Lou-Felix Denis (10), SH | A: Bonefon
Third period
1:10 HAL Lou Levesque (9) | A: Fournier & Schultz 2:04 HAL Logan Crosby (4) | A: Furlong & Moravec 16:08 HAL Jordan Dumais (12) | A: Moravec
Powerplay: SHA - 0-for-4; HAL - 0-for-6
Shots: 25-23 in favour of Shawinigan
Next game Halifax will finish a 3-in-3 weekend on Sunday afternoon when they welcome the Cape Breton Eagles. Puck drops at 3 p.m.
Every month, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announces a Scholastic Player of the Month which recognizes a player on each team with his performance on ice and in the classroom. The player is selected based on their school results, their implication, the school-hockey conciliation, their team spirit and their on-ice performances.
For your Halifax Mooseheads, Owen Phillips was named the Scholastic Player of the Month for October. Phillips had a goal and three points in the month over 12 games.
PREVIEW - Our Halifax Mooseheads are hosting their Hockey Fights Cancer night this evening as they welcome the Sherbrooke Phoenix at the Scotiabank Centre. The Mooseheads will be looking for their fifth win in a row. The event was previously known as Pink in the Rink before the pandemic hit but now matches what the NHL has been doing in raising money for research and awareness for all types of cancers. Halifax will be wearing special purple jerseys during the game which will most likely be auctioned off afterwards. Sherbrooke is coming into the match on their own win streak, having been victorious in their last three games. We could see another netminder battle tonight as these two teams have the top goalies in goals against average. Let's fill up the arena for some Saturday hockey.
Overall records Phoenix: 9-5-0-1 = 19 games (3rd in Central division, 7th overall) Mooseheads: 12-4-1-0 = 25 points (T-2nd in Maritimes division, 5th overall)
Top 3 scorers HAL: Mathieu Cataford 23pts (7G & 16A), Markus Vidicek 22pts (10G & 12A), Jordan Dumais 18pts (7G & 11A) SHE: Israel Mianscum 20pts (7G & 13A), Lewis Gendron 12pts (5G & 7A), Olivier Dubois 12pts (5G & 7A)
Head-to-Head This is the first game of the season between these two clubs. Halifax had a 1-1-0-0 against the Phoenix in 2022-23 with their last match being a 3-0 loss on February 25. Three players scored for Sherbrooke including Nova Scotian Jacob Melanson while Mooseheads' Mathis Rousseau made 36 saves in a third star performance.
Last games Sherbrooke is coming off a 1-0 victory against the Eagles to start their Maritime division trip on Thursday. Hugo Primeau scored the lone goal for the Phoenix while Samuel St. Hilaire had a 22-save shutout in Cape Breton.
Halifax is coming off a 3-2 overtime win last night versus the Oceanic. Forward Jordan Dumais scored the winner in extra time and added an assist to lead the Mooseheads and Mathis Rousseau stopped 31 of Rimouski's 33 shots on Friday evening.
Not playing - Logan Crosby (injury) and Liam Kilfoil (U17 hockey challenge)
Out of town Titan vs. Sea Dogs - 4:00 p.m. Sagueneens vs. Tigres - 5:00 p.m. Olympiques vs. Wildcats - 5:00 p.m. Foreurs vs. Islanders - 5:00 p.m. Armada vs. Drakkar - 5:00 p.m. Cataractes vs. Voltigeurs - 5:00 p.m.
Our Halifax Mooseheads swept a home-and-home series with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan after a comeback 5-4 shootout victory on Wednesday night. Despite outshooting the away team 14-6, Halifax found themselves down 1-0 after twenty minutes as overager Igor Mburanumwe scored his first goal of the season. Acadie-Bathurst continued to make Mathis Rousseau look human in the middle frame as they got three more goals past the Mooseheads goaltender on 10 shots. The Herd looked like they were still not feeling very good as most of the guys seemed to be skating not as fast as they normally do. Whatever the coaches said during the second intermission, it seemed to work as Mathieu Cataford scored a power-play goal to start the comeback. Jordan Dumais' assist on Jake Furlong's first goal of the season marked another franchise record for the 19-year-old, who now leads the team in regular season assists with 185 helpers. Markus Vidicek scored at the 16:45 mark of the third period to tie the game up so we headed to overtime with the score 4-4. The extra frame solved nothing, leading to a shootout where Cataford scored the game winner.
FINAL: Titan 4 at Mooseheads 5 SO Stars: 3. Mathieu Cataford HAL | 2. Colby Huggan BAT | 1. Markus Vidicek HAL Attendance: 5,606 MC's Top Herd: n/a
GAME LOG First period 15:35 BAT Igor Mburanumwe (1) | A: Roelens & Pilgrim-Edwards
Second period 2:10 BAT Donovan Arsenault (7) | A: Huggan 13:53 BAT Colby Huggan (5) | A: Arsenault 16:40 BAT Joseph Henneberry (6) | A: Orr & Huggan
Third period 6:59 HAL Mathieu Cataford (7), PP | A: Dumais & Vidicek 9:41 HAL Jake Furlong (1) | A: Fournier & Dumais 12:36 HAL Jack Martin (1) | A: Levesque & Todd 16:45 HAL Markus Vidicek (9) | A: Levesque & MacKinnon
Overtime None
Shootout Donovan Arsenault - Miss Jordan Dumais - Miss Colby Huggan - Miss Markus Vidicek - Goal Robert Orr - Goal Owen Phillips - Miss Milo Roelens - Miss Mathieu Cataford - Goal
Powerplay: BAT - 0-for-1; HAL - 1-for-2 Shots: 48-28 in favour of Halifax
Next game Our Mooseheads are back at home on Friday night against the Rimouski Oceanic. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
This week has started off quite well for players associated with our Halifax Mooseheads. Here are some stories to end the month of October.
LAVOIE
Former Herd forward Raphael Lavoie was named the AHL Player of the Week on Monday. The 23-year-old record four goals and six points in 3 games for the period ending October 29, 2023. His great week helped the Bakersfield Condors to three straight victories. According to the release; 'he recorded a game-high eight shots on goal and assisted on the winning goal early in the third period of the Condors' 4-1 victory at Tucson' on Friday evening. Lavoie leads Bakersfield in scoring with seven points through five games so far this season.
Photo - AHL website
Congrats to Raphael and keep it going for the rest of the year.
Photo - QMJHL website
TEAM OF THE WEEK Veterans Markus Vidicek and Jordan Dumais were named to the QMJHL's Team of the Week yesterday. Vidicek recorded 4 goals and nine points while recording a +4 in the Mooseheads three games last week. Dumais continued to be hot as he collected 8 more points and was a +7 during the week.
Vidicek's performance also landed him on the CHL's Team of the Week.
EHLERS Halifax Mooseheads alumni Nikolaj Ehlers hit a milestone during the Winnipeg Jets game against the NY Rangers last night. The 27-year-old scored a goal in the match which was his 400th NHL career point. Ehlers has played 532 regular season games recording 178 goals and 222 assists now. Congrats to Nikolaj on the accomplishment.
CHL TOP 10 On Tuesday, the Canadian Hockey League announced the top 10 rankings and our Mooseheads found themselves in the #1 spot after going 2-1 during the week. You can find the full Top 10 below
1. Halifax Mooseheads (10-4-1-0) last week: 2 2. Moose Jaw Warriors (10-6-0-0) last week: 7 3. Prince George Cougars (10-4-0-0 last week: 4 4. Portland Winterhawks (8-4-0-0) last week: 1 5. Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (8-3-1-3) last week: 6 6. London Knights (7-4-0-1) last week: 5
7. Saskatoon Blades (8-5-0-0) last week: 3
8. Baie-Comeau Drakkar (12-2-2-0) last week: 10 9. Mississauga Steelheads (10-3-0-0) last week: 8 10. Moncton Wildcats (11-3-1-0) last week: n/a
Photo - AMH Photography
ROUSSEAU GOAL In case you missed it, Halifax net-minder Mathis Rousseau scored the first goalie goal in franchise history on October 20 in a 6-4 victory over the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies at home. The goal made it onto TSN's The Best feature the next morning and was shown on Sportsnet Central too I believe. It was a very exciting event and as someone who has missed many of them by our Mooseheads, I was super excited to be in the audience for the historic moment. I loved seeing how happy all the boys were for him and the big smile Mathis had on his face.
Video of the goal below
THIS WEEK
It should be quite a week in Moose Country as the Mooseheads will play three games at the Scotiabank Centre. Halifax will host the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Wednesday, the Rimouski Oceanic on Friday and the Sherbrooke Phoenix on Saturday. All games are 7pm puck drops. Saturday's match will be the annual Mooseheads Fight Cancer event so the team should be wearing special purple jerseys.
