Jo's big night

Team leading scorer Jonathan Drouin was the big winner last night at the annual Golden Puck Awards ceremony in Montreal. The Halifax Mooseheads great season keeps on getting better as Drouin, Konrad Abeltshauser and Dominique Ducharme all won awards during the special evening. After finishing the season with the best record in franchise history and tying a league best 58 wins, the Mooseheads were awarded the Jean Rougeau, Luc Robitaille and Robert Lebel trophies at the beginning of the playoffs.

Jonathan won the Michel Briere Memorial, the Mike Bossy and the Paul Dumont trophies as league MVP, top prospect and personality of the year. He beat teammate Nathan MacKinnon for top prospect and personality of the year. Big Jo was also named to the 1st All-Star team along with Herd goalie Zach Fucale. Konrad was awarded the QMJHL Humanitarian of the Year trophy. He was nominated for best defenceman but lost to Kevin Gagne of the Rimouski Oceanic. Coach Dom meanwhile won the Ron Lapointe trophy as Coach of the Year.

Along with Drouin and Fucale, Abeltshauser, MacKinnon and MacKenzie Weegar were named to the All-Star teams. Konrad was named as a defenceman and Nathan was named the centre for the second team. Weegar was named as one of 2 defenceman for the Rookie team.

For a full list look at the 2012-13 Awards tab.

Herd Word

ROUND TWO

The second round will finally begin Friday night at 7pm with Halifax hosting Gatineau. All four teams will play Friday.

Gatineau Olympiques vs. Halifax Mooseheads

Victoriaville Tigres vs. Baie-Comeau Drakkar

Val-d'Or Foreurs vs. Blainville-Boisbriand Armada

Rouyn-Noranda Huskies vs. Quebec Remparts

FLYNN
The Moncton Wildcats announced on Monday that they have fired Danny Flynn as their head coach. He will stay as part of the organization however as Director of Hockey Operations.

FRK
Martin Frk is tied for 5th in league playoff scoring after the first round. He scored 10 points in four games which is the second least of the top five. Only Petr Straka has scored more points in the same amount of games. Everyone else has played more games. He is second in goals scored for the Quebec league. Marty also leads the team in total shots.

WEEGAR
MacKenzie Weegar is tied for team lead in plus/minus during the playoffs. Weegar is tied for 4th in the league with a +6 along with teammates Jonathan Drouin and Austyn Hardie. I really do not understand how he was not nominated for an Golden Puck award, hopefully he gets something at the team awards.

MACKINNON
Nate only has two goals so far during this years playoffs but they are both game winners. He leads the team and is second in the league. He does have 8 assists however so he hasn't been totally dismal this year. He is second on the team in total shots with 22 in four games.

QMJHL awards night

The Golden Puck Awards night is tonight in Montreal. There are 5 Halifax Mooseheads nominated for awards; Cam Russell is nominated for GM of the year, Dominique Ducharme for coach of the year, Konrad Abeltshauser, Jonathan Drouin and Nathan MacKinnon are nominated for player awards.

Look back later tonight after the ceremony for a full list of winners hopefully our boys will pull it out. These awards are for the whole league, each team has their own awards ceremony for team awards after their season is done. For the Mooseheads, a date has not been determined as our season isn't done but hopefully it will be in late May.

For a full list of nominees click here.

Bye bye Rocket

The Prince Edward Island Rocket played their last game as the Rocket last night. The Maritime team was playing the Val-d'Or Foreurs in the first round of the playoffs. The Foreurs led Game 6 3-1 after two period. However the Rocket were able to score two goals in the third period to tie the game and force overtime. The two teams played an extra 41:03 minutes of hockey so clearly PEI wasn't ready to leave just yet. Cedrick Hanley scored the overtime winner at the 1:03 minute of the 3rd overtime period which eliminated the PEI Rocket from this years playoffs. Val-d'Or won the series 4-2 and will now play Blainville.

With the loss, the PEI Rocket are no more. They aren't disbanding or even moving, they are just changing their nickname. The name was announced earlier in the season and will take affect when they begin the 2013-14 season in August. PEI will now be nicknamed the Islanders after a fan vote took place in September.

The changes to logo, colors, and uniforms have not been announced but keep it plugged in to my blog as I will have a post when the information comes available.

Schedule for Round 2 out

PLAYOFFS

#1 Halifax Mooseheads vs #13 Gatineau Olympiques

2nd round

The Gatineau Olympiques and your Halifax Mooseheads announced their second round battle schedule today.

HALIFAX - We are now less then a week away from round two starting as the Mooseheads announced the schedule for the next step towards a cup. Halifax hasn't played a game in almost a week as they were able to dispose of Saint John very quickly in the opening round. Gatineau comes in to the second round as the lowest seed after defeating the 4th seed Rimouski Oceanic in six games. This series will be a bit tougher for the Mooseheads as barely anybody projected that any teams in the top eight would get ousted. These two teams don't play very often but have some rich history and some pretty interesting playoff history against each other.

DISTANCE - Most playoff series are a 2-2-1-1-1 scenario, however in junior hockey that does not always happen because of the ages the players are on the teams. One would have to drive for approximately 1400 kilometres to get Gatineau from Halifax and because most teams do not fly, this series will be a 2-3-2 scenario.

HEAD-TO-HEAD ~ all-time: 24 games 11-12-1; this season: 2 games 1-1-0-0; playoffs: 16 games 7-7-2-0

LAST GAME - the Olympiques are coming off a 2 to 1 Game 6 win in Round 1 of the President's Cup playoffs on Sunday. Halifax also won their last game in the first round by a score of 6-1 in Game 4to sweep the series.

Playoffs tickets for game one on Friday and game two on Saturday are available on Wednesday at 10am at the Ticket Atlantic Box Office, select Superstores, www.ticketatlantic.com or by calling (902) 451-1221

Game #1
Friday April 5 @ 7:00pm at Halifax Metro Centre ~ Halifax, NS
Game #2
Saturday April 6 @ 7:00pm at Halifax Metro Centre ~ Halifax, NS
Game #3
Tuesday April 9 @ 8:30pm at Robert Guertin Centre ~ Gatineau, QC
Game #4
Wednesday April 10 @ 8:30pm at Robert Guertin Centre ~ Gatineau, QC
Game #5*
Friday April 12 @ 8:30pm at Robert Guertin Centre ~ Gatineau, QC
Game #6*
Sunday April 14 @ 7:00pm at Halifax Metro Centre ~ Halifax, NS
Game #7* 
Monday April 15 @ 7:00pm at Halifax Metro Centre ~ Halifax, NS

*if necessary

P.S. This is not an April Fool's joke

Nova Scotian proud

Despite having the second least amount of teams in a province, Nova Scotia is second most with the amount of players that are on teams in the Quebec league. Most of the Nova Scotian players hail from the city. Here is a list of players from Nova Scotia who played during the regular season:

Adam Stevens (Acadie-Bathurst Titan, F) Bedford
Alex Hazlehurst (Sherbrooke Phoenix, F) Halifax
Ben Duffy (PEI Rocket, F) Lower Sackville
Brendan Duke (Halifax Mooseheads, D) Halifax
Brandon Whitney (Victoriaville Tigres, G) Halls Harbour
Brennan Bailey (Halifax Mooseheads, D) Luneburg
Brent Turnbull (Quebec Remparts, F) Stellerton
Bronson Beaton (Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, F) Springhill
Cameron McDonald (Moncton Wildcats, D) Halifax
Casey Babineau (Rimouski Oceanic, D) Truro
Chris Clarke (Halifax Mooseheds, G) Fall River
Cole Hawes (Drummondville Voltigeurs, F) Halifax
Cole Murphy (Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, F) Halifax
Daniel Perigo (PEI Rocket, F) Truro
Devon Oliver-Dares (Saint John Sea Dogs, F) Cole Harbour
Gareth Nicholson (Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, D) Kentville
Ian Saab (Saint John Sea Dogs, D) Halifax
Jack Flinn (Sherbrooke Phoenix, G) Halifax
Jacob Brennan (Acadie-Bathurst Titan, G) Halifax
Jamie McIntyre (Quebec Remparts, F) Dartmouth
John-Michael Walsh (Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, D) Sydney
Kelly Bent (Gatineau Olympiques, F) Halifax
Kyle Campbell (Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, F) Halifax
Kyle Farrell (Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, F) Howie Centre
Liam O'Brien (Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, F) Halifax
Logan Shaw (Quebec Remparts, F) Glace Bay
Mark Tremaine (Moncton Wildcats, F) Dartmouth
Mason McDonald (Acadie-Bathurst Titan, G) Halifax
Matthew Highmore (Saint John Sea Dogs, F) Halifax
Michael Clarke (Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, F) Halifax
Michael Lyle (Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, F) Florence
Mitchell Deruelle (Moncton Wildcats, F) Sydney
Nathan MacKinnon (Halifax Mooseheads, F) Cole Harbour
Robert Davis (Acadie-Bathurst Titan, F) Truro
Ryan Falkenham (Halifax Mooseheads, F) Halifax
Ryan Graves (PEI Rocket, D) Yarmouth
Ryan Penny (Moncton Wildcats, F) Fall River
Stephen MacAulay (Halifax Mooseheads, F) Cole Harbour
Stephen Woodworth (Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, D) Middleton
Taylor Burke (Gatineau Olympiques, F) Halifax
Zachery Moody (Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, F) Margaretsville
Zachary Taylor (Shawinigan Cataractes, D) Halifax

Gazzola, Foreurs look to move on

Former Moose player Randy Gazzola is still playing in the QMJHL with the Val-d'Or Foreurs. Gazzola and his team are playing in the first round of the President's Cup playoffs against the PEI Rocket. Randy was traded to the Foreurs in January when Halifax traded for Matt Murphy. Randy recorded 2 goals and 11 assists in 28 games with Val-d'Or to end the season with 33 points (7 goals & 26 assists). Game 6 between Val-d'Or and PEI goes tonight with the Foreurs looking to move on to round 2. It's do or die time for the Rocket as they are down 3-2 in their series and are hosting the Quebec team on the island at Charlottetown Civic Centre. Puck drops at 7:00pm Atlantic time.

The other two players that were released in January are still playing right now in the Junior A leagues. Steve Gillard is playing in the second round of the MHL with the Woodstock Slammers who are playing the Summerside Western Capitals. The Capitals are leading the series 1-0 in the best of seven. Anthony Terenzio is playing for the Whitecourt Wolverines in the third round of the AJHL. Whitecourt is down 2-0 in their series against the Spruce Grove Saints