CHL’s top team comes to town as the Isles take on the Mooseheads
The top rated team in the country, Halifax Mooseheads, come to town for the third time this season tonight to take on the Islanders.
Charlottetown leads the season series 2-1, but dropped their last meeting 6-2 at home despite outplaying Halifax over 60 minutes.
The Isles are once again looking to spark a winning streak, coming off of a 4-2 win over the Cape Breton Eagles.
The Mooseheads are coming in riding an eight game winning streak, most recently taking down the Eagles 4-0.
Aksels Ozols will start back-to-back games for the first time this season after a first star performance against the Cape Breton.
Ozols is 6-5 with a 3.61 goals against average and an .883 save percentage over 12 appearances.
Jarrett Todd will be playing in his second game since returning from injury tonight while Ross Campbell, Lucas Romeo and Sam Bowness are all out of the lineup.
Keys to victory
The Isles have to shut down the Mooseheads’ top line as much as they can. Jordan Dumais, Mathieu Cataford, and Markus Vidicek have been the driving force of this team’s offense. Cataford has already broken 30 points on the year while Dumais and Vidicek are both just two points out from reaching that mark. In their last matchup, the top line scored five of the Mooseheads’ six goals on the night.
They also need to figure out their goaltender, Mathis Rousseau. He stopped 36 of 38 shots last time facing the Isles. Rousseau is second in the Q in both major goaltending stats, with a .940 SV% and a 1.79 GAA.
Players to watch
CHA – Alexis Michaud has been solid since returning from his quad injury, scoring four points in six games. Michaud may be due for a big game. Under the lights of the top team in the country, watch for Michaud to shine as he looks to increase his goal total from five.
Since returning from the U-17 World Hockey Challenge, Owen Conrad has one assist in two games. Conrad has been clutch so far this season with back-to-back overtime winners earlier in the year. Watch for Conrad to score when they need him most, late in the game.
HFX – Reigning MVP Jordan Dumais has a whopping 28 points in his first 11 games of the season, 12 of those being goals. He scored 140 points last season to lead the league and looks to do the same once this year wraps up. The Blue Jackets prospect has a 30 per cent shooting percentage and shows no sign of slowing down.
Lou Lévesque has been Halifax’ top rookie this season with 19 points so far in his freshman year. If the Isles manage to shut down the lethal top line, they can’t take their foot off the gas as their secondary scoring is nothing to glance over.
Puck drop at the Eastlink Centre tonight is at 7:30 p.m. Fans can tune into the game at MAX 93.1FM and can purchase tickets here.
