Mooseheads snap year-long drought vs Titan
2025-01-23
The Mooseheads exorcised the demons against the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Thursday night at Scotiabank Centre, where they snapped a 12-game losing streak to their division rivals with a commanding 4-1 victory.
Braeden MacPhee scored a pair of power play goals while Quinn Kennedy had a big night with a goal and two assists to give the Herd their first win over the Titan since January 3rd, 2024. Antoine Fontaine scored the other Mooseheads goal late in the third period on a breakaway to seal the win.
The Titan, who will be moving to Newfoundland for the start of next season, were in the news earlier in the day when the new ownership along with QMJHL Commissioner Mario Cecchini unveiled the new team name and logo for the franchise. They will be known as the Newfoundland Regiment in honour of the province’s rich military history.
Jacob Steinman played shutdown hockey between the pipes for the Moose in the win by stopping 24-of-25 shots in front of a crowd of 7,441 fans. Shawn Carrier notched a pair of assists while Carlos Handel extended his points streak to a seventh consecutive game with a single helper. Eddy Doyle and Justin Chiras also chipped in with an assist.
The win is the third in the last five games for Halifax to push the overall record to 14-23-6-0 and still the final seed in the QMJHL playoffs with 34 points.
The Moose used four unanswered goals to grab the victory after Bathurst opened the scoring on a Noah Laberge shorthanded tally at 8:47 of the first period. MacPhee tied it with the first of his two power play markers just 1:18 later. Kennedy was credited with the game-winner which came midway through the second period on a nice play by Carrier to take out his man in the corner before feeding the puck in front to Kennedy who knocked in his own rebound. Halifax kept the pressure coming and MacPhee tipped in a Kennedy shot from the left circle to make it a 3-1 advantage at 12:04. Steinman held the fort and Fontaine added some extra insurance late.
First career two-goal game for Braeden MacPhee.
It's a three-point night for Quinn Kennedy. #GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/D7s0V4080v
— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) January 24, 2025
Star forward Liam Kilfoil sat out with a lower-body injury and is listed as day-to-day. 16-year-old forward Cole MacLeod was called up from U18 in Cole Harbour and played right wing on the fourth line with Patrick McNab and Alec Nasreddine.
Halifax is right back in action Friday night at Scotiabank Centre against the 24-win Chicoutimi Sagueneens at 7pm and will also host Saint John on Sunday afternoon at 3pm. Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.ca.