Coming Home with Commanding Series Lead
2023-04-20
Your Halifax Mooseheads played a perfect road game on Thursday night while getting a 25-save, shutout performance from Mathis Rousseau in a 3-0 defeat of the Moncton Wildcats. The Herd will now head home to Scotiabank Centre with a three-games-to-one series lead and a chance to advance to the QMJHL Semi-Finals with a win on Sunday afternoon at 2pm.
First star Mathieu Cataford scored the game-winning goal and added an assist while Alex Doucet and Zach L’Heureux also scored in the Game #4 victory in front of a hoard of Mooseheads fans who made the journey to the Avenir Centre to cheer on their team. The fans made their voices heard throughout the night and stood and applauded as Halifax swept the three stars of the game honours. Rousseau got the nod as second star and the red hot L’Heureux was the third star.
First of the playoffs is a sweet one for Cat
???? Cataford (1) 14:35 1st period
???? Dumais, MacKinnon | #GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/WUO7xWxC8R— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) April 20, 2023
The 19-year-old L’Heureux has scored five goals in his last three games and is up to 11 points in eight playoff games this spring. His latest tally came on a breakaway as he used a shoulder shake to deke goalie Jacob Steinman before going back to the forehand and getting the puck to trickle across the line. He then gestured to the boisterous visiting fans who were already making noise in the nearby section.
Halifax got on the board in the first period just moments after a four-minute power play ended when Mathieu Cataford received a perfect pass from the corner by Jordan Dumais who found the forward in front of the net for his first goal of the playoffs. Moncton’s Riley Sampson was barely out of the box for his high sticking double minor when Cataford put one high over Steinman for a 1-0 lead.
Alex breaks through and doubles the lead
???? Doucet (6) 4:11 2nd period
???? Cataford | #GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/iLEwEOaPXI— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) April 20, 2023
The lead was doubled 4:11 into the second period when Alex Doucet sped past defenceman Natan Grenier who fell down with the 20-year-old bearing down on him, and Doucet scored a beauty on a partial breakaway to make it 2-0. L’Heureux added to the scoring less than four minutes later and that’s all the Herd needed before switching gears into shutdown mode the rest of the way.
There were some fireworks between the teams at times, including a melee on the ice a few seconds after the L’Heureux goal as Max Barbashev targeted Josh Lawrence with a big hit at centre ice as he took a number of strides before hitting the Mooseheads forward. That led to everyone grabbing a partner and five penalties being handed out with the Cats winding up with a power play. Moncton then had a glorious chance to make something happen with Lawrence being called for slashing 33 seconds later leading to a lengthy two-man advantage but they couldn’t sustain any real dangerous pressure and Rousseau easily handled the few shots fired his way.
Boo him, it only makes him better.
???? L’Heureux (5) 8:04 2nd period
Unassisted | #GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/crKZDjsVyw— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) April 20, 2023
Final shots were 34-25 in favour of the Moose while neither team could strike on the power play. Halifax was 0-for-5 and Moncton was 0-2.
Game #5 will be played Sunday at 2pm at Scotiabank Centre where the Mooseheads can finish the series. Tickets are on sale now at TicketAtlantic.com.