Nick Cirka’s 1st career shutout leads Mooseheads to win
2025-10-17
Nick Cirka stood tall in the crease for the Halifax Mooseheads and stopped all 32 shots he faced from the Newfoundland Regiment as the Herd skated away with a 3-0 shutout victory in the first ever meeting between the franchises.
Caylen Blake, Antoine Fontaine and Danny Walters provided the offense and Cirka did the rest to pick up the first shutout of his career. Halifax improved to an impressive 7-3 on the season to remain in second place in the Eastern Conference with 14 points. It was a boisterous crowd of 7,594 for the first of back-to-back meetings.
The Mooseheads dominated the opening period by holding a 17-4 edge in shots, despite not being able to light the lamp themselves. Play evened up as the night went on but the puck luck was on the side of the hometown team who broke through 4:28 into the second period when Carlos Handel fired a shot towards the net and off the body of Caylen Blake who was parked in front. The point was the first of the season for Handel while Cam Minella picked up the secondary assist on Blake’s second goal of the year.
Veteran Antoine Fontaine enjoyed a great moment about nine minutes later when he picked up his first goal of the season off the rush. The 19-year-old has been in-and-out of the lineup as a healthy scratch somewhat frequently but made the most of his opportunity as he buried a shot while driving down the right wing. Cam Minella picked up his second assist of the night with a terrific feed ahead to Fontaine. Patrick McNab also earned an assist on the play. The Regiment were turned away time and again by Cirka who faced 16 second period shots and he continued his stellar play in the final period when he stopped another 12 as the Moose clung to the lead and sealed the win with a long range empty net goal by Danny Walters when he lifted it the length of the ice with 1:31 to play.
Cinema 🎞️ from Antoine Fontaine #GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/TGMf4uWKeY
— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) October 17, 2025
Antoine Proulx took the loss for Newfoundland, but it was a nice effort from the rookie goalie who made 28 saves.
The two teams will battle again on Saturday night at 7pm at Scotiabank Centre when the Herd look for the weekend sweep. Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.ca
