Max claimed, Hardie suspended.

Max Lindsay's head shot

First of all you will have to forgive me as I did not know he was on waivers but the Halifax Mooseheads announced this morning on their twitter account that Max Linsday has been claimed off waivers by the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. The 19 year old had been in his second year with the Moose. In 81 games played he recorded 14 points and had 26 penalty minutes as one of the more physical Halifax players. Story.

Thank you Max for your hard work with the team and I want to wish you luck with the Eagles.




Austyn Hardie has been suspended for 4 games due to a hit on Joey Richard of the Saint John Sea Dogs. The hit came in the second period of the Mooseheads-Sea Dogs game on Saturday night in Saint John.

I think that the hit did warrant a suspension but considering the fact that Adam Erne did not get a suspension for hitting Jonathan Drouin in December, the Hardie hit should of had the same result. Judge for yourself though.  *See my tweet after this post*

Voracek is an Olympian!

Former Halifax Mooseheads player Jakub Voracek is now an Olympian. He was named as one of the 25 players that will represent their home Czech Republic during the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Voracek played for the Mooseheads between 2006 and 2008 after he was drafted 1st overall by Halifax in the CHL Import Draft. In 112 games he collected 187 points scoring 56 goals and assisting on 131 others. Most of his points came in his sophmore year where he only played 53 games but got almost twice that in points, finishing the 2007-08 QMJHL season with 101 points. This is the eighth time Voracek has represented his country.

Congratulations Jakub. You can watch him and the Czechs in February when the men's tournament starts on February 12 and goes until the 23rd.

Herd Word

MACAULAY
Former Halifax Mooseheads player Stephen MacAulay has decided to join the Saint Mary's Huskies in his hometown. MacAulay was signed to an entry level contract with the Montral Canadiens in the summer and split the first half of the season between their ECHL and AHL affiliates. Stephen's scoring power couldn't keep up in the pros and as such he was a healthy scratch for a few games in December with the Hamilton Bulldogs. He decided that his talents would be better with the Huskies.

http://metronews.ca/sports/898989/dream-on-hold-former-halifax-moosehead-stephen-macaulay-joins-huskies-after-ahl-stint/

TRADE PERIOD
Liam Alcalde has been the only Mooseheads player traded so far during the winter trade period. Alcalde is now a member of the Charlottetown Islanders and he made his debut for the team over the weekend. The Moose also announced the signing of Brandon Vuic.

http://halifaxmooseheads.ca/article/moose-make-two-moves

CANADA
Zach Fucale couldn't stand on his head the whole tournament. Despite a strong performance by Fucale in the 5 games he played during the 2014 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships after Christmas, Team Canada could not medal. For the second straight year Team Canada has failed to poduim in the World Juniors losing 2-1 against Russia, the team that beat Canada last year, in the bronze medal game. In the semis Fucale made 18 saves in a 5-1 loss to the eventual gold medalists; Finland. Jonathan Drouin had the only goal in the semis.

Here are the final rankings: GOLD - Finland, Silver - Sweden (hosts), Bronze - Russia, 4th - Canada, 5th - United States, 6th - Czech Republic, 7th - Switzerland, 8th - Slovakia, 9th - Germany, 10th - Norway

Norway has been relegated to Division 1 Group A for the 2015 World Juniors.

EHLERS
Nikolaj Ehlers had his second career 5 point night on Saturday in a game against the Saint John Sea Dogs. He was a part of all of the Mooseheads goals in a comeback win in Saint John. Halifax was down 3-1 in the last 24 minutes but with the help of Ehlers, who scored the team's second goal, and strong defence in the third the boys were able to get the 5-3 win.

UP NEXT
The boys will travel to Charlottetown for a Wednesday night game against the Islanders and then Moose Country will welcome back Fucale, Drouin and Chris McDonald on Friday night with the Teddy Bear Toss game. Friday's game is against the Moncton Wildcats.

POSTPONED
The postponed game that was supposed to be played on Friday has been rescheduled to January 15, 2013.

GAMEDAY 41: at Saint John

IT'S GAMEDAY

SAINT JOHN SEA DOGS vs. HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS

Puck drops at 7:00pm

Harbour Station (6,200) ~ Saint John, NB

PREVIEW - It's the first game of the new year after last night's game against Charlottetown was postponed due to a snow storm. Halifax will welcome back a couple of injured players back in the lineup tonight versus the Sea Dogs. The Mooseheads will also welcome new player Brandon Vuic who was signed on Friday as an enforcer.


Saint John and Halifax have played four times so far this season with the home team during the last meeting winning 5-0. Nikolaj Ehlers scored 2 goals during the game on 42 shots for the Moose while Zach Fucale stopped all 22 shots for the shutout.

THE NUMBERS

Leading scorers:
HAL: Nikolaj Ehlers 50pts (22G & 28A), Jonathan Drouin 50pts (17G & 33A), Darcy Ashley 41pts (14G & 27A)
SNB: Olivier Cooper 34pts (14G & 20A), Matthew Highmore 28pts (11G & 17A), Olivier LeBlanc 25pts (5G & 20A)

LAST GAMES
Saint John finished 2013 with a 2-1 win over the Wildcats in Moncton. Left winger Kelly Bent scored the game winner as Sebastien Auger saved 30 shots in the win.

Halifax lost their last game of 2013 to the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in Sydney 5 to 4. Andrew Shewfelt led the team in scoring with 2 goals and an assist but that didn't help the visitors and neither could the 22 saves Kevin Darveau made.

HEAD-TO-HEAD
This season     3-1-0-0     172GF    9GA
October 1  Mooseheads 2 at Sea Dogs 4
October 12  Sea Dogs 0 at Mooseheads 3
November 9  Sea Dogs 5 at Mooseheads 7
November 23  Sea Dogs 0 at Mooseheads 5
January 4 @ 7pm  Mooseheads at Sea Dogs
January 21 @ 7pm  Mooseheads at Sea Dogs
March 8 @ 7pm  Mooseheads at Sea Dogs
March 14 @ 7pm  Sea Dogs at Mooseheads
Last season    7-0-1-0    43GF    16GA

NOT PLAYING - Andrew Ryan is the only injured player still out as Darcy Ashley and Brendan Duke will return tonight. Zach Fucale and Jonathan Drouin are in Sweden still.

OUT OF TOWN
Tigres at Drakkar - 5:00pm
Armada at Sagueneens - 5:00pm
Foreurs at Oceanic - 5:00pm
Huskies at Cataractes - 5:00pm
Eagles at Wildcats - 7:00pm

GAME COVERAGE
TV: None
Live: @CoolenTQN, @station_nation
Radio: News 95.7, News 88.9
Webcast: TELUS
Post-game: MooseCountry blog, Station Nation blog & The Q News

AFTER THE GAME
Halifax will play the Islanders in Charlottetown on Wednesday. Puck drops at 7pm.

BREAKING Friday's Game Postponed.

The first snow storm of the year has postponed the first Halifax Mooseheads game of the year. Tonight's tilt against the Charlottetown Islanders has been cancelled due to the snow storm affecting most of Atlantic Canada. Puck drop was supposed to be at 7:00pm tonight January 3rd. The Islanders did not travel to Halifax so that will save them some time which is good. A make up date will be announced no later than Monday along with ticket information so keep your tickets!

Halifax will hopefully be back at it tomorrow night against the Saint John Sea Dogs. The next home game will be next Friday against Moncton for the Teddy Bear Toss

WJC: Ousted.

Venue: Malmo Isstadion 

RECAP - Don't worry Canada it isn't our boys. The red and white took on the white and red team on Thursday evening for a quarterfinal match up. In the third quarterfinal game of the day, Team Canada defeated Team Switzerland 4-1 to book their tickets to the semi finals on Saturday. Zach Fucale was strong once again only letting in a blocked shot with one second left of the second period. For the first time all tournament, Team Canada scored the first goal of the game. Switzerland was never able to get back in the game.

GAME LOG
First period
18:08 CAN Griffin Reinhart (1) | A: Laughton

Second period
9:04 CAN Anthony Mantha (5), PS | A: None
19:59 SUI Nico Dunner (1) | A: Muller & Fiala

Third period
4:11 CAN Curtis Lazar (3) | A: Reinhart
13:49 CAN Derrick Pouliot (1) | A: None

Shots: 1st - 6-4 Canada, 2nd - 12-7 Canada, 3rd - 9-5 Switzerland
Powerplay: Switzerland 0-for-3, Canada 0-for-3
Goaltenders: Melvin Nyffeler (SUI) vs. Zach Fucale (CAN)
Sellout: No

Players of the Game
Griffin Reinhart CAN
Nico Dunner SUI

World Juniors Quarterfinal Match-ups Set.

The quarterfinal match-ups for the 2014 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Malmo, Sweden have been decided. Despite losing the last preliminary game, Finland still received the point that they needed to secure second place in Group B. The Finns took on Team Switzerland to see where each team would end up in the group standings. Finland came back from a 3-1 deficit in the last half of the game to force extra time and get the point they needed. The Swiss won in a shootout. There are no byes to the semifinals this year.

Here is how the quarterfinal match-ups set up on Thursday January 2:
QF1     2A United States vs. Russia 3B 7:00am/AT     TSN
QF2     2B Finland vs. Czech Republic 3A 9:30am/AT     TSN2
QF3     1A Canada vs. Switzerland 4B 12:00pm/AT     TSN
QF4     1B Sweden vs. Slovakia 4A 2:30pm/AT     TSN


Norway and Germany will battle to stay in the top division in a best of 3 round between the two teams that were last in their respective group. Here's the relegation round schedule:
January 2 - 6:00am/AT - Germany vs. Norway - Malmo Arena
January 3 - 11:00am/AT - Norway vs. Germany - Malmo Isstadion
January 5 - 7:00am/AT - Germany vs. Norway - Malmo Isstadion



FUCALE TO START?
According to Mark Masters' twitter account after Canada's win over USA on Tuesday, Halifax Mooseheads goaltender Zach Fucale will start tomorrow night for Team Canada after a strong performance yesterday.