Milner’s 29 saves push the winning streak to 10
2023-11-18
Make it 10 wins in a row for the surging Halifax Mooseheads as the Herd completed a quick weekend road trip with a 3-1 victory over the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Saturday night.
Mathieu Cataford was the first star with one goal and two assists while goalie Jack Milner was nearly perfect with 29 saves on 30 shots. Markus Vidicek and Brody Fournier had the other Mooseheads goals to improve the record to 18-4-1 for the hottest team in the QMJHL.
It was a slow start at the K.C. Irving Regional Centre for the Moose, who were on their heels for most of the first period while the Titan piled up 15 shots in the opening 20 minutes compared to just five for Halifax. The momentum shifted in favour of the Herd in the middle period when Cataford opened the scoring at the 5:06 mark as part of a 14 shot period. The Vegas Golden Knights prospect swept the puck in from the top of the crease as he was falling to the ice with line-mates Jordan Dumais and Markus Vidicek grabbing the assists.
Bathurst tied the game 1-1 less than a minute after Cataford’s 13th goal of the season when Igor Mburanumwe picked up the only blemish on Milner’s stat sheet. The big line restored the lead for the Mooseheads midway through the period when Vidicek struck for his 15th goal and fifth in the last three games as Dumais and Cataford had the helpers. The trio has combined for 96 points this season and Cataford leads the team in scoring with 33 points on 13 goals and 20 assists.
Brody Fournier scored the only goal of the third period as he added some insurance not long after a power play ended for Halifax with 6:26 remaining in regulation. Cataford and Jake Furlong had the assists and Milner held the fort the rest of the way.
Final shots were 30-28 in favour of the Titan with Antoine Keller taking the loss in goal. Neither team found any success on the power play. The Mooseheads went 0-for-4 on the man advantage while Bathurst was 0-for-2. There were 1,660 fans in attendance.
The next home game for Halifax is coming up on Thursday, November 23rd at 7pm when the Moose will host Baie-Comeau in a showdown of the QMJHL’s two top teams. Thursdays are Student Nights in Moose Country with tunes by DJ Codak and $10 tickets for students! Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.ca
