Tight Battle with Drummondville
2025-01-09
A new-look and extremely young Mooseheads lineup put a scare into the Western Conference leading Drummondville Voltigeurs on Thursday night at Scotiabank Centre before eventually falling 4-3 to the powerhouse team.
Halifax played for the first time this season with no 19-year-old players on the roster and 11 skaters aged between 16-and-17-years-old. The Herd more than held their own for the opening 40 minutes of action before running out of steam in the final stanza as the Voltigeurs rallied from a 3-2 deficit to grab the victory.
Quinn Kennedy had a goal and an assist for the Mooseheads while Liam Kilfoil and Antoine Fontaine also scored for the home team while defenceman Carlos Handel notched two assists.
Sam Oliver had a pair of goals to increase his league-lead to 34 tallies, Bridgewater’s Luke Woodworth had three assists and the Volts also had goals from Canadian World Junior forward Ethan Gauthier and newly acquired Justin Larose.
The Mooseheads honoured Gauthier and Drummondville coach Sylvain Favreau in a pregame ceremony for their participation in the recent World Junior Championship and the team also had a special presentation for Carlos Handel who was one of the top three players for Germany at the international event.
Goalie Jacob Steinman was a major factor in the game and earned the third star of the night in his first game with the Mooseheads. He made 41 saves and kept his team in the contest all night with some miraculous stops. Woodworth was named the first star while Kennedy earned the second star. Riley Mercer was the winning goalie with 29 saves.
Special teams play was the difference in the outcome as the first three Voltigeurs goals were scored on the power play. Halifax was two-for-three on the man advantage with the Kennedy and Kilfoil goals both coming on the pp.
Liam Kilfoil converts on the Kennedy feed🔥#GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/50geNhbOSj
— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) January 10, 2025
16-year-old forward Will Bent suited up for the first time for the Mooseheads and played right wing on a line with Braeden MacPhee and Danny Walters. He finished with one shot on goal and one hit. The Dover, Massachusetts native and Providence College commit agreed to join the team earlier this week after starting the season with Mount St. Charles Academy U16.
Upper body injuries kept defencemen Owen Phillips and Mathieu Taillefer out of the lineup again, although both players are expected to return to action this weekend. Forward Cade Moser remains week-to-week with an upper body injury.
Halifax will play at home again on Saturday night at 7pm against the Saint John Sea Dogs. Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.ca.
