Mooseheads clinch Maritimes Division title
2024-03-14
It was an eventful evening in Moose Country as more than 9,600 fans packed into the Scotiabank Centre to watch the Mooseheads finish the home portion of the regular season schedule with a 4-2 victory over the Charlottetown Islanders while clinching the Maritimes Division title for a second straight season.
The night kicked off with a pregame ceremony to honour Halifax’s three graduating players – David Moravec, Peter Reynolds and Lou-Felix Denis and concluded with a flurry as some bad blood was stirred up between the two divisional opponents.
In between all of that, it was Reynolds who got the scoring started with a hard one-timer on the power play in the first period before Jan Sprynar added another goal on the man advantage early in the second period to stake the Herd to a 2-0 lead. Just as the jubilant March Break crowd was enjoying the solid start from the home team, the Islanders slowly creeped back into the game when the Moose took their foot off the pedal in the middle stanza. Will Allen and Cole Huckins struck about six minutes apart to tie the game 2-2 after 40 minutes of action.
Graduation Night in front of 9,645 fans in Moose Country #GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/KUICxjovpR
— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) March 15, 2024
The physical play and distain was ratcheted up in the final period thanks to several hard hits by the Mooseheads, leading to plenty of extra curricular activity after the whistle. 21 infractions were handed out by the officials in the third period alone, including 10 roughing penalties and nine unsportsmanlike penalties. Defenceman Brady Schultz continued to sizzle on offense and buried the eventual game-winning goal with a wrist shot from the top of the left-wing circle at the 7:05 mark. Logan Crosby sealed the win with an empty net goal with 96 seconds to play and the Moose picked up their 41st victory of the season.
Schultzy with the go ahead marker
🚨 Schultz (9) 7:05 3rd period
🍎 Cataford, Vidicek | #GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/IIjxvaZB2C— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) March 15, 2024
Goalie Jack Milner played a solid game between the pipes with 20 saves while Carter Bickle took the loss at the other end with 29 saves on 32 shots. Markus Vidicek had a pair of assists on the night while other helpers for the Herd went to Mathieu Cataford, Lou-Felix Denis, Jake Furlong, Owen Phillips and Liam Welsh.
LFD popping mouth guards #GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/WdyEaZfeNK
— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) March 15, 2024
At 41-16-7-1, the Mooseheads have an even 90 points on the season with three games to play in the regular season and all of them will come on the road. Next up for the Herd is a battle on Saturday night at 7pm in Moncton followed by back-to-back meetings with the Sea Dogs in Saint John next Friday and Saturday to close out the schedule. The next time the Mooseheads will play on home ice is Friday, March 29th and Saturday, March 30th for Games 1 and 2 of the QMJHL Playoffs. Tickets will go on sale for the General Public on Friday, March 22nd at 11am at Ticketmaster.ca.
