Hard working effort leads to 3-1 victory over Moncton
2024-03-10
The Halifax Mooseheads put in a full 60-minute effort and worked their way to a 3-1 victory over the Moncton Wildcats on Sunday afternoon at a sold-out Scotiabank Centre. 10,595 cheered as Lou-Felix Denis scored a second period game-winning goal and dished out six of Halifax’s 10 hits in the contest to help the Mooseheads earn their 40th win of the season.
Brady Schultz assisted on all three goals while Jan Sprynar and Mathieu Cataford also lit the lamp in a key victory. The two points secured by the Herd puts them 11 ahead of Moncton in the race for the Maritimes Division title. Halifax has 88 points and can officially clinch the division with one more victory in their final four games of the season. The record sits at 40-16-7-1 through 64 games and the intensity was dialed up a notch for a playoff-like matchup against Moncton.
The effort appeared to be a complete 180 degree turnaround from Friday’s 3-1 home loss to Acadie-Bathurst which perhaps served as a bit of a wakeup call for the Eastern Conference’s second seeded Mooseheads. Head Coach Jim Midgley’s squad was hustling and fighting for every puck from the start of the game right until the final horn sounded. Halifax became the first home team to win a game in the season series between the rivals. Up until today, the Mooseheads had won four times at the Avenir Centre and the Wildcats had three victories at Scotiabank Centre. They will meet one final time in Moncton on Saturday night.
The Wildcats opened the scoring on the power play when defenceman Etienne Morin fired in his 11th of the season 14:38 into the first period. Halifax answered right back about three minutes later on a power play of their own with a nicely executed play as Cataford finished off the passing play that included Schultz and Markus Vidicek. That sent the teams to their respective rooms with a 1-1 tie through 20 minutes of action.
The effort by the Moose ramped up further in the second period and saw the team take the lead for good 2-1 when Schultz put the puck across to Denis who deflected it in from the top of the crease on the power play. Schultz was the catalyst again late in the frame when his shot was redirected by Jan Sprynar for a 3-1 advantage. Dylan MacKinnon also assisted on the goal. Mathis Rousseau was superb in the game with 28 saves on 29 shots to pick up his 30th victory of the season.
Lou-Felix puts us in front on the man advantage
🚨 Denis (28) PP 12:16 2nd period
🍎 Schultz | #GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/dpJzwXM24k— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) March 10, 2024
Prior to the game the organization recognized the billet families of the players by bringing them onto the ice as part of billet appreciation day. The families were announced and joined by their player for pictures.
There is now just one home game remaining for the Mooseheads before the regular season wraps up with three on the road. Halifax will play host to the Charlottetown Islanders on Thursday night at 7pm in another well attended game. Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.ca
