ROAD PREVIEW: Mooseheads visit Gatineau Friday

2024-02-23

Mooseheads-X (35-14-7-1) AT Olympiques (21-30-3-3), 8pm AST, Slush Puppy Centre

Your Mooseheads will look to keep their winning ways going on the road again tonight when they face off with the Gatineau Olympiques.

Halifax got four points from Markus Vidicek (2 goals and 2 assists) last night in a 5-2 victory over the Sherbrooke Phoenix in the first of three-games-in-four-days in the province of Quebec. Mathis Rousseau was in fine form with 29 saves and five players had multiple points on the scoresheet for the Mooseheads’ sixth win in their last 10 games. The Herd maintained their nine point advantage over the Moncton Wildcats in the standings after the Cats defeated Acadie-Bathurst 3-2 in a shootout earlier in the night.

Braeden MacPhee returned to the Halifax lineup for the first time in six games and played on the third line. Jan Sprynar filled in on the top line in the absence of Mathieu Cataford who served a one-game suspension. Sprynar assisted on the opening goal of the game. Cataford is set to return to his spot on the right wing tonight versus the Olympiques.

Moose Injuries: Jordan Dumais (out indefinitely – lower body) timeline to return is approximately one-to-two weeks.

Meet the Opponent – Gatineau Olympiques

Head Coach – Serge Beausoleil (First season with Gatineau)

Team Stats: Goals per Game – 2.95 (13^th in QMJHL) | Goals Against per Game – 4.05 (16^th in QMJHL) | PP – 19.9% (12^th in QMJHL) | PK – 73.1% (18^th in QMJHL)

Leaders: Goals – Jeremie Minville (35) | Assists – Charles Boutin (47) | Points – Jeremie Minville (66)

The Olympiques went all-in last season for a run at the league title but fell short in a semi-final loss to the eventual champion Quebec Remparts. Gone are stars like Tristan Luneau, Zach Dean, Riley Kidney, Antonin Veraault. The departures didn’t just end with the players as Head Coach Louis Robitaille and the team mutually agreed to go separate ways and he went on to take the helm in Cape Breton. The coaching carousel has continued recently with GM Serge Beausoleil taking over as Head Coach when Benoit Desrosier promptly left to join the New York Islanders as an assistant to Patrick Roy. On the ice this season it’s been a struggle. They sit 15^th out of 18 teams in the league standings and continued their sell-off at the Christmas trading deadline.

Season Series: 1-0 Mooseheads. Mathieu Cataford was a force with three goals and two assists at Scotiabank Centre on December 8^th, 2023 in an exciting 5-4 overtime victory for the Herd.

If the Playoffs began today: Gatineau would be in tough as the 7^th seed and heavy underdog versus a loaded up 2^nd seeded Rouyn-Noranda.

Nova Scotians: For the second consecutive night, the Mooseheads face a team without any Nova Scotians on their roster. They do feature a pair of Atlantic Canadians amongst their forward group. 18-year-old rookie Jacob Kaine hails from Quispamsis, NB and 18-year-old Thomas Chafe of St. John’s, NL joined the team this year after a couple of seasons in the OHL with Owen Sound.

3 STATS TO KNOW

1 – Gatineau is coming off a 5-2 Thursday night win over Blainville-Boisbriand which saw their leading scorer Jeremie Minville score his second hat trick in three games. He’ll be the focus of Halifax’s defensive effort tonight.

2 – Brady Schultz is third in scoring among all QMJHL defencemen this season with 46 points. He added to his total with a goal and an assist vs Sherbrooke and is now tied with Justin Barron for ninth in career points by a Mooseheads blueliner with 112.

3 – Halifax holds the second-best road record in the QMJHL at 19-8-2-0.