Eagles Return To Action For A Battle With Halifax
On the one year anniversary of the unplanned final day of the 2019-20 QMJHL season due to Covid-19, the Eagles will return from a pandemic hiatus to take on the Halifax Mooseheads tonight at the Scotiabank Centre. The entire Maritime Division is back in action, as the Saint John Sea Dogs and Acadie-Bathurst Titan took to the ice for the first time since November on Tuesday, and the Moncton Wildcats return to play this evening.
Tonight’s game will be the first for the Eagles since a 6-3 loss on February 27th at home to Charlottetown. The Mooseheads returned from their two week hiatus with a 5-2 defeat at home against the Islanders on Tuesday. The Eagles have had plenty of success in Halifax this year, winning all four meetings between the Nova Scotian rivals in the capital. In total Halifax has won six of 11 meetings between the two Nova Scotian clubs, with each team holding an overtime victory on the road.
Based on winning percentage, the Eagles are currently holding 15th place in the QMJHL (sixth in the Maritime Division) with a record of 11-15-1, 6-6 on the road. The Mooseheads are in 14th (fifth in the Maritime Division) at 10-14-6, with a 3-8-3 home record.
It will be a big night for 20 year old Eagles defenseman Nathan Larose, who will play in his 200th QMJHL game. This season Larose, who had a two point outing in the loss to Charlottetown, leads the league in goals by defensemen (15) and is in the top ten among all QMJHL players in goals.
The break did heal injuries for some Eagle players. Matthew MacDonald will not miss any action after leaving the contest against Charlottetown mid-game. Forward Davis Cooper and defensemen Zach Welsh are both expected to return this evening while captain Jarrett Baker, fellow blueliner Jérémy Langlois and forward Logan Camp remain sidelined. The Eagles will also be without assistant coach Chris Culligan, who was given a two game suspension after being ejected in the Charlottetown loss.
While Halifax is still without import forward Attilio Biasca due to injury, they are happy to have star forwards Elliot Desnoyers and Zachary L’Heureux on three and four game point streaks respectively, after each started slow when the QMJHL season resumed in January. Senna Peeters, late arriving this season due to travel restrictions and out of the line-up for some of February due to injury, scored his first of the season on Tuesday. The Mooseheads have high hopes for the Belgian-Austrian forward who scored 23 goals last year.
Tonight’s game goes at 7 PM and will be broadcast on Eastlink Television. You can also hear all the action beginning with the pre-game show with Patrick McNeil at 6:30 PM on 1270 AM CJCB or online at www.cjcbradio.com
