After a struggle bus of a game against the second last place team in Saint John on Thursday, our Halifax Mooseheads offence was firing on all cylinders Saturday evening. Mathis Rousseau picked up a 13 save shutout as Halifax defeated the Charlottetown Islanders 7-0, allowing the home team to clinch a playoff spot. Dylan MacKinnon got the ball going with his second goal of the season at the 5:24 mark of the opening period. Before you knew it, the Herd had created a 3-0 lead less than 12 minutes into the game and the Islanders decided to change goaltenders after Aksels Ozols gave up three goals on 7 shots. The power play was having a good time as well, with Mathieu Cataford, Jake Furlong and Jan Sprynar scoring on the man advantage. Charlottetown was frustrated for most of the game so the almost 10,000 fans that were in attendance were close to seeing a fight about three times.
FINAL: Islanders 0 at Mooseheads 7 Stars: 3. Mathis Rousseau HAL | 2. Brady Shultz HAL | 1. Lou-Felix Denis HAL Attendance: 9,855 MC's Top Herd: n/a
GAME LOG First period 5:24 HAL Dylan MacKinnon (2) | A: none 7:35 HAL Peter Reynolds (23) | A: Denis & Crosby 11:57 HAL Lou Levesque (12) | A: none
Second period 5:25 HAL Mathieu Cataford (33), PP | A: Denis
Third period 2:56 HAL Liam Welsh (1) | A: Moser 12:36 HAL Jake Furlong (3), PP | A: Philips 19:37 HAL Jan Sprynar (9), PP | A: Furlong & Philips
Powerplay: CHA - 0-for-4; HAL - 3-for-7 Shots: 37-13 in favour of Halifax
Next game The Mooseheads will travel to Cape Breton as they kick off the long weekend with a visit to the Eagles on Friday. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
Happy New Year everyone! I've been taking a break lately so this is my first blog post of 2024. There's been some news regarding current and former Halifax Mooseheads the last couple of weeks so thought I would do a Herd Word to wrap it all up.
CATAFORD SIGNS
Photo - Golden Knights website
On December 31, the Vegas Golden Knights announced that they had signed forward Mathieu Cataford to a three-year, entry-level contract. The 18-year-old was leading the QMJHL in scoring at the time of the announcement with 53 points in 35 games. He has posted a current total of 181 points in 169 games played over three seasons with Halifax. The Chateauguay, QC native was drafted by Vegas in the third round (77th overall) of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.
Photo - Herd Twitter
WORLD JUNIORS The 2024 World Junior Hockey Championships didn't turn out how Hockey Canada or the Mooseheads representatives probably wanted it to go but that doesn't mean there wasn't highlights of the tournament. Mathis Rousseau took the starting role over for the preliminary round and had a strong tournament meanwhile Jordan Dumais and Jake Furlong both scored a goal but they couldn't help Canada make it past the quarter-finals. Furlong's marker tied up the QF match at 2-2 late in the second against Czechia so it was said that his first point was gigantic.
Our three guys have lots to be proud of representing their country.
GREAT SAVE Like I said above, Rousseau had a good tournament, recording a 2.00 goals against average and was fourth in save percentage at 0.912%. In a game against Finland in the prelims, the 18-year-old made a really nice glove save which ended up being on Sportscentre's 1v1 challenge for a few days. You can watch it below (it's the second clip in the video).
He also made another stop in the game versus Sweden that impressed former NHL goalie Henrik Lundqvist. The toe save was on a Canadian penalty kill late in the first period to keep the score 0-0.
FIRST STAR OF MONTH Halifax Mooseheads alumni Nathan MacKinnon had a stellar month of December and was rewarded for it as the NHL named him the first star of the month. The 28-year-old had eleven goals and 29 points during the month to lead the league as the Colorado Avalanche went 8-5-2-0 in December. According to the NHL, 'his 29 points set a franchise record for a single calendar month, besting Peter Stastny's 28 in February 1981.' Congratulations to Nate. He hasn't slowed down so far in January.
Photo - NHL PR Twitter
HERD MAKE ANOTHER TRADE The Mooseheads made another move, this one just before the 1pm AST trade deadline on January 6 which saw the team adding forwards Lou-Felix Denis and Jan Sprynar from the Shawinigan Cataractes. 20-year-old Denis was leading the Cats in scoring with 38 points when the deal was made. Sprynar is an 18-year-old import and is on his third team over two seasons.
Shawinigan received in return overage forward Ethan Larmand, sophomore Reece Peitzsche and rookie import Yannik Ponzetto along with two draft picks.
Welcome to the team Lou-Felix and Jan! The two new players made their debut for Halifax on Sunday when the team took on the Charlottetown Islanders where Denis scored the overtime winner in a 3-2 victory.
Photo - Avalanche Twitter
DROUIN RECORDS 300TH POINT I missed this originally but alumni Jonathan Drouin had a good night last Thursday to help the Colorado Avalanche win 5-4 in overtime against Dallas. The 28-year-old scored twice during the game with his first goal being the 300th point of his NHL career. Drouin has record 86 goals and 216 points in total over 524 regular season games.
Drouin was drafted 3rd overall back in 2013 by the Tampa Bay Lightning where he played until 2017. The Ste-Agathe, QC native than suited up for the Montreal Canadiens from the 2017-18 season until 2023. He becomes the 9th former Moosehead player to reach 300 points.
MOOSE CLAIM MCPHEE 'The Mooseheads filled out the roster with a waiver claim addition late Sunday when GM Cam Russell picked up forward Luke McPhee from the Cape Breton Eagles. The 18-year-old native of Cole Harbour, NS will join the Mooseheads for the remainder of the season and will suit up in his first home game on Saturday' according to the press release. He has played in 59 games between the Moncton Wildcats and Eagles, collecting 3 goals and five points.
The Halifax Mooseheads announced a couple of trades on Friday afternoon.
Up first was an exchange of draft picks with the Moncton Wildcats. Halifax received a 2nd rounder in 2024 and a 2025 1st round pick plus a 3rd rounder that was originally Victoriaville's in exchange for three picks all in 2026. Considering there will be a number of players leaving once again at the end of this season, having these early picks for the next two drafts should be helpful.
In addition, Cam Russell moved overager Brody Fournier and the 2025 1st round pick they got from the Wildcats earlier in the day to the Saint John Sea Dogs. Coming back is 20-year-old Peter Reynolds.
Fournier leaves the Mooseheads with 26 points over 35 games played so far this season, which is one more than he had during the whole 2022-23 year. Reynolds suited up for Saint John in 166 games while collecting 158 points, 44 of which have come this season. The Fredericton, NB native was drafted by the Sea Dogs 21st overall at the 2019 QMJHL draft.
Good luck to Brody in Saint John, we'll miss watching you battle it out for the red and green. Welcome to Moose Country Peter.
Last night's home game was the final match for our Halifax Mooseheads before the holiday break and unfortunately, it did not end well as the Saint John Sea Dogs won in overtime 3-2. As we are at the half-way point of the season, I thought I would give you an update on the team's stats at this time.
Halifax has been without their star players so they have limped into the break but it has been a good chance for the second tier players some playing time and put up some points. Forward Mathieu Cataford has been stellar lately picking up 13 points (8G & 5A) in the last five games and he now leads the QMJHL in scoring with 51. The Mooseheads are 4-4-2-0 in their last 10 games, however they still sit on top of the Maritimes division.
The holiday break also begins the trading period for the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. There hasn't been as many rumours as in previous years and I've only seen one related to the Mooseheads. According to some sources, Israel Mianscum will be traded to Halifax. Moves have already been made today and more will be made official over the next couple of weeks. Trades that involve players at the World Juniors won't be announced until January 6 when they come back.
NEXT UP
When the team returns from the break, they will host the Charlottetown Islanders on December 28 before playing in a home-and-home series against provincial rivals, Cape Breton Eagles during the last weekend of 2023.
Photo - Vecteezy
THANK YOU
Lastly, I just wanted to a big Thank You to all of you who have read my blog, followed me on social media and liked/commented on my posts this year. I also would like to say I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday season.
The Halifax Mooseheads are celebrating their 30th anniversary this season and the club kicked it off in style with the retirement of Nathan MacKinnon's #22 jersey in a pre-game ceremony during the home opener on September 22. Since it is Throwback Thursday, I thought I would share some media from the ceremony.
"I've never experienced anything like this before... being from here, I spent my summers back home in Halifax. Definitely a close connection to the city, a lot of family and friends here tonight," MacKinnon said to press before the event. "It's cool to share it with people, not just myself. I think the best part is having everyone around me."
Among the 10,198 fans in attendance were Nathan's parents, sister and girlfriend plus the new Mooseheads owners; Sam and Peter Simon who all joined him on the ice for the ceremony. Before MacKinnon stepped up to the podium, a video was played that showed prominent members of the hockey and Halifax community saying congratulations to the 28-year-old.
Here are a couple of photos from the night as well.
Photo - AMH Photography
Photo - Global News
It was a very nice speech that Nate shared. I hope I wasn't the only one but the clips and speech made me emotional. The Halifax, NS native of course spent only two seasons with the Herd, collecting 153 points in 102 games played. He then went on to be drafted 1st overall by the Colorado Avalanche at the 2013 NHL draft. Check out the full ceremony below.
What a great way to start this anniversary season, unfortunately the current team went on to lose the home opener game 3-1 against the Charlottetown Islanders.
Nathan MacKinnon is having a pretty good 2023, helping the Avalanche win a Stanley Cup back in June and just picked up his 800th career NHL point on Wednesday evening. He is 3rd in league scoring this season with 41 points.
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, Lou Levesque was named the Scholastic Player of the Month for November. Levesque scored two goals and five points in the month over 6 games before getting injured.
