Do or die for the Mooseheads after ugly loss
2024-04-02
The second seeded Halifax Mooseheads are on the brink of elimination in the QMJHL Playoffs following a disastrous 7-2 loss on the road in Game 3 of their first round matchup against the underdog Acadie-Bathurst Titan. Colby Huggan scored a hat trick and finished with five points to lead the Titan to the lopsided win which gave Acadie-Bathurst a commanding 3-0 series lead. The season will be on the line on Wednesday night at the K.C. Irving Regional Centre where the Herd will need to find a way to win in order to stay alive.
The Mooseheads once again struggled out of the gate and fell behind for the third consecutive game when Dawson Sharkey scored his first goal of the series at 13:42 of the first period. The Souris, PE native knocked in a loose puck in front of Mathis Rousseau after a broken play that led to the opportunity. The Titan held the 1-0 lead after 20 minutes of play while the Herd managed only four shots on goal in the opening period.
Disaster struck again for the Moose just 14 seconds into the second period when Milo Roelens doubled the Bathurst lead to continue his dominant series. The goal was his third in as many games and the big winger later added three assists for a four-point effort. Louis-Francois Belanger increased the Titan lead to 3-0 with a power-play tally about two minutes later and Halifax quickly found themselves behind the eight ball. Rookie Liam Kilfoil did all he could to give his team some life by scoring a pair of second period goals but Colby Huggan mixed in his first-of-three in between the Kilfoil markers and it was a 4-2 game when the horn sounded to end the period. Huggan’s goal came on a shorthanded breakaway moments after some great saves by goalie Antoine Keller on a Mooseheads power play.
Things fell apart for Halifax in the third period as the home team put their foot on the gas against a deflated looking Mooseheads squad. Huggan and Bobby Orr scored 13 seconds apart early in the period before Huggan capped off his hat trick on the power play at 6:41. The play got chippy from there with several penalties handed out to both teams while Jake Todd was tossed from the game when he was handed an agressor infraction for fighting. Alexandre Lallier of the Titan was the other culprit in the fight and was sent to the room with a game misconduct. As the period wore on and frustrations mounted for the herd, Brady Schultz received a game misconduct for checking to the head and Lou-Felix Denis and Mathieu Cataford were also assessed 10 minute, unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
Final shots were 37-25 in favour of Acadie-Bathurst as Rousseau made 30 saves in the loss. Keller picked up his third win of the series with 23 stops. A 3-0 series deficit is a daunting task for the Mooseheads, but the franchise has pulled off the feat once before when the young 2011-12 team pulled off the shocking feat in the second round of the 2012 playoffs versus the Quebec Remparts. All the Moose can do now is take it one game at a time and that begins Wednesday night at 7pm in Game 4 at the K.C. Irving Regional Centre. Fans can listen to the game on CityNews 957 or watch on CHL TV. If Game 5 is necessary, it would be played back in Halifax on Friday night at 7pm at Scotiabank Centre.
