Mooseheads Players Going Home

The Halifax Mooseheads players are returning home, a team statement announced today.

Halifax also said that their business office and the Official Mooseheads Shop in Scotia Square Mall until further notice.

Read the full statement below from the Mooseheads website.

With the current QMJHL season on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all Mooseheads players have been returned to their families where their health and safety will continue to be a top priority.

The Mooseheads organization is following recommendations by Nova Scotia public health officials and has closed the business office along with the Official Mooseheads Shop in Scotia Square Mall until further notice. All staff members will continue to work remotely during these unprecedented times. For general inquiries please contact mooseheads@halifaxmooseheads.ca.

The Canadian Hockey League released the following statement on Friday about the 2020 Memorial Cup which is to be held in late-May.

Top Herd Vote

With the QMJHL season currently on hold and the possibility of games returning for our Halifax Mooseheads, I thought I would post this now. I have normally determined each game’s top herd by their overall play not just how many points they had that game which is way you have seen some defence and goaltenders (even when we loose) on the list. Look at the Top Herd tab above to see who was named over the season.

You can cast your vote on Twitter (pinned). The poll will close on March 31st.

1. Cole McLaren
2. Senna Peeters
3. Kevin Gursoy
4. Alexis Gravel
5. Other

CHL Season Suspended Until Further Notice

HALIFAX - The remainder of the 2019-20 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League season has been suspended indefinitely as of March 12.

News release:

The Canadian Hockey League and its three regional leagues the Ontario Hockey League, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and Western Hockey League, take the health and safety of our players, fans, volunteers, staff, and general public very seriously. CHL President Dan MacKenzie with Commissioners David Branch, Gilles Courteau, and Ron Robison have been monitoring the situation in regard to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) including what local, provincial, and federal health agencies have recommended. Following consultation with medical professionals and meetings today among the CHL Executive Council, and regional league Board of Governors, the CHL announces that the balance of the 2019-20 season and all hockey activity shall be paused immediately until further notice. 

It was announced as well that players will remain in the area with their billet families. No official word from the Halifax Mooseheads but considering there is no hockey activity for the foreseeable future, practices and team gatherings I am sure are suspended too.

This news came hours after the National Hockey League suspended their season because of the Coronavirus. It is unknown when the play will return, if it will at all for this season.

If the regular season does not resume, at least our Mooseheads went out on a high note by defeating the Charlottetown Islanders on Tuesday evening on the island by a score of 7-4.

Murphy & UNB Champions Again

Photo - UNB Reds Twitter

The University of New Brunswick continued their dynasty on Friday night defeating Acadia University for their third straight Atlantic University Sport championship in men's hockey. UNB features a number of former QMJHL players including Halifax Mooseheads alumni Matt Murphy. The Reds won the title by a 5-1 score in front of a sold out home crowd in Fredericton, NB. Murphy picked up an assist on the last goal of the game as UNB was led by Alexandre Goulet's hat trick in the final match of the best of three series.

Congratulations to Matt and the Reds on another championship.



UNB will now head to the University Cup which is being held this weekend March 12-15 in Halifax, NS by the Acadia Axemen. Three AUS teams will participate in this year's tournament with UNB being joined by host Acadia and the Saint Mary's Huskies. The Huskies booked their ticket to the national championship by winning the consolation playoff round with a two game sweep last week.

The seedings for the tournament are as follows; #1 UNB Reds, #2 Saskatchewan Huskies, #3 Guelph Gryphons, #4 Ottawa Gee Gees, #5 Acadia Axemen, #6 Saint Mary's Huskies, #7 Western Mustangs, #8 UBC Thunderbirds

Quarter-final matches will be played on Thursday and Friday followed by the semi-final games on Saturday and finally the bronze and gold medal games Sunday. All matches are at the Scotiabank Centre.

Good luck to all the teams especially the 3 AUS teams which also include former Herd players Joel Bishop, Eric Brassard, Keith Getson and Austyn Hardie of Saint Mary's and Acadia's Morgan Nauss.

QMJHL Names Scholastic POM

Every month, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announces a Scholastic Player of the Month which recognises 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, Said Abi-Faycal was named the Scholastic Player of the Month for February 2020. Abi-Faycal recorded an assist in 7 games and was a minus-4 during the month.

Team	Player	Educational Institution	Program
BAT	Cole Larkin	Bathurst High School	Grade 12
BAC	Nathan Légaré	Cégep à distance	Human Sciences/Business
BLB	Nathan Lavoie	Cégep de Saint-Jérôme	Natural Sciences
CAP	Logan Kelly-Murphy	Cape Breton University	Business
CHA	Christopher McQuaid	UPEI	Business
CHI	Félix-Antoine Drolet	Cégep de Chicoutimi	Natural Sciences
DRU	Brandon Skubel	Athabasca University	Independent student
GAT	Émile Hegarty-Aubin	Cégep de l’Outaouais	Human Sciences
HAL	Said Abi-Faycal	Prince Andrew High School	Grade 12
MON	Ryan MacLellan	NSCC & NSVHS	Grade 12
QUE	Tristan Côté-Cazenave	Cégep à distance	Human Sciences
RIM	Justin Bergeron	Cégep de Rimouski	Human Sciences
ROU	Olivier-Luc Haché	Acadia University	Independent student
SNB	Brady Burns	Saint John High School	High School
SHA	Félix-Olivier Chouinard	Cégep de Shawinigan	Natural Sciences
SHE	Patrick Guay	Pre-North University	Grade 11
VDO	Mavrick Gauthier	Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue	Human Sciences
VIC	Thomas Éthier	Cégep de Victoriaville	Human Sciences

Getson Scores OT Winner For SMU

Keith Getson has been great for his Saint Mary's Huskies during the 2020 AUS playoffs and it continued last night when he scored the game winner in triple overtime to send SMU to the University Cup. 

The former Halifax Mooseheads forward joined the Huskies in September to continue his hockey career and finished the regular season with fourteen goals and 27 points in 30 games played. Getson's OT goal was his second game winner of the playoffs after scoring in double overtime against the UPEI Panthers in Game 2 of the opening round. 

On Wednesday, he scored at the 5:44 mark of the second period to tie the game at 1 before the Moncton Aigles Bleus scored twice more in the frame to take a 3-1 lead into the intermission. Saint Mary's picked up two goals in the third to send it to extra time. With a power play early in the third overtime frame, Getson scored at the 2:20 mark giving the Huskies a 2-0 series win in the consolation round. The 21 year old has four goals and 5 assists in 8 playoff games now and is a plus-4. Eric Brassard, who also played for the Mooseheads previously, picked up the victory with 42 saves. 

The Acadia Axemen are hosting the 2020 University Cup and because of that the AUS gets to have three teams in the national championship. Acadia and the UNB Reds are battling it out for Atlantic bragging rights and their best of 3 series is tied 1-1 after a dominating performance by the Reds last night who won 6-0. 

STATS SUNDAY: February

Games played: 13
Record: 1-10-1-1, 4pts
Goals for/against: 30/62
Powerplay*: 16.8%
Penalty kill*: 82.1%
Shutouts: one

Top 5 leading scorers
Points: D'Artagnan Joly 12, Zack Jones 11, Kevin Gursoy 11, Senna Peeters 8, Jason Horvath 5
Goals: Senna Peeters 7, Kevin Gursoy 5, Zack Jones 3, Gavin Hart 3, D'Artagnan Joly 2
Assists: D'Artagnan Joly 10, Zack Jones 8, Kevin Gursoy 6, Jason Horvath 4, Olivier DesRoches 4
Penalty minutes: Cameron Whynot 27, Brandon Tomilson 22, Jason Horvath 21, Keegan Hunt 15, Olivier DesRoches 12
Plus/minus: Gavin Hart +2, Alexandre David +2, Keegan Hunt E, Kyle Petten E, Olivier DesRoches -1
Rookie scoring: Zack Jones 11pts, Senna Peeters 8pts, Gavin Hart 5pts, Sonny Kabatay 2pts, Cameron Whynot 2pts

Goaltender stats*
Alexis Gravel: 11-21-2-1     3.96 GAA     0.891 SAV%
Cole McLaren: 8-13-1-1     3.99 GAA     0.889 SAV%
Alec MacVicar: 0-1-0-0     6.71 GAA     0.692 SAV%



*overall