Poor start proves costly in loss to Sea Dogs
2024-03-22
It was a brutal start for the Mooseheads in Saint John and that ultimately led to their demise in a 5-2 loss to the Sea Dogs at TD Station on Friday night. The Dogs scored two goals in 10 seconds less than a minute into the game to shell shock goalie Jack Milner and the Herd. Tyler Peddle struck at the 36 second mark and big Eriks Mateiko buried another immediately after the ensuing face-off to put Halifax in a big hole.
Peddle was the first star of the game with two goals and one assist in what was an extremely meaningful win for the Sea Dogs. Saint John entered the weekend tied in points with Quebec and in a fight with the Remparts for the final playoff spot in the QMJHL. The result is meaningless for the Mooseheads who cannot move up or down in the standings and will finish the regular season as the second seed in the Eastern Conference.
Saint John dominated the first period by adding two more goals from former Mooseheads Brody Fournier along with Peddle’s second tally and when the dust settled it was a 4-0 game in favour of the home team. Milner was not at his best and allowed the four goals on 11 shots against. He was replaced by Mathis Rousseau to begin the second period who stopped 14-of-15 shots throughout the rest of the night.
The middle period was a better effort from Halifax which included an incredible sequence of saves from Rousseau and a pair of goals from local product Liam Kilfoil and the 43rd of the season by Markus Vidicek. That pulled the Moose to within 4-2 after 40 minutes but the visitors couldn’t find a way to get any closer in the final period. Saint John extended the lead late in the game on a strange goal that was knocked in by Drew Elliott off a high dump-in shot that landed at the feet of Rousseau.
Mathis Rousseau 😱 What a sequence of saves #GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/xUafLEQNoj
— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) March 22, 2024
The Dogs took the win and went to the room to do some scoreboard watching as a Quebec regulation time loss in Rimouski would secure the playoff berth for Saint John.
Halifax played the game without several regulars who were either dealing with injuries or sickness while Jordan Dumais served the third game of his suspension. Others sitting out included Jake Furlong, David Moravec, Lou Levesque and Braeden MacPhee. Young defencemen Eddy Doyle and Jameson George were called up from their respective teams to fill in on the blueline and are expected to play again in the season finale on Saturday afternoon at TD Station.
There was a nice moment in the pregame when Mooseheads graduating player Peter Reynolds was honoured in a special ceremony by his former team where he spent his entire career prior to a trade to Halifax in January. Reynolds was presented with a jersey and joined by several former Memorial Cup champion teammates including Josh Lawrence.
Nice touch by the Sea Dogs to honour graduating player Peter Reynolds who is playing his first game back in the Port City since being traded to Halifax. #GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/SHCkRuLMKZ
— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) March 22, 2024
The teams will do battle one more time when they face-off at 4pm on Saturday afternoon to conclude the regular season schedule. Halifax is set to open the QMJHL Playoffs on home ice next weekend when they host Acadie-Bathurst for Games 1 and 2 on Friday and Saturday at 7pm at Scotiabank Centre. General Public Playoff Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.ca.