Herd fall to Islanders for second straight night
2023-09-23
The Halifax Mooseheads fell to the Islanders for the second time in 24 hours on Saturday night to drop to 0-2 to begin the QMJHL regular season. Charlottetown welcomed the Herd to the Eastlink Centre and got four points from 17-year-old rising star Alexis Michaud in a 6-1 victory.
The 2022 second round draft pick scored twice and added two assists in the one-sided win for the home team in front of a crowd of 3,155. Halifax struggled to mount an offensive attack while still missing the veteran core of players that will form the nucleus of the team. Logan Crosby scored the lone goal for the Moose after earning the second star in an opening night 3-1 loss. The third year forward buried a rebound from the top of the crease after a shot by rookie defenceman Dominic MacKenzie. David Moravec earned the secondary assist.
The Mooseheads are still without starting goalie Mathis Rousseau remains at training camp with the Arizona Coyotes, defenceman Jake Furlong is still with the San Jose Sharks’ training camp, reigning QMJHL MVP Jordan Dumais is participating in camp with the Columbus Blue Jackets and defenceman Dylan MacKinnon remains with the Nashville Predators. all are expected back with the Mooseheads this season. Mathieu Cataford, a Vegas Golden Knights draft pick, is sitting out with an upper body injury and is listed as week-to-week.
Lucas Romeo also scored twice for Charlottetown in their latest victory while rookie defenceman Owen Conrad continued to impress early in the season with one goal and a pair of assists and was named the first star. Conrad, a first round pick from Stellarton, NS, also scored in the opener on Friday. Michael Horth had the other Islanders goal. Goalie Aksels Ozols earned the win with 19 saves. Jack Milner was tagged with the loss and was busy making 27 saves on 33 shots.
Logan Crosby lights the lamp and Dominic MacKenzie earns his first career point on the play.
🚨 Crosby (1) 18:42 2nd period
🍎 MacKenzie, Moravec | #GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/q8w9RNBrLx— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) September 23, 2023
The biggest concern for the Mooseheads came in the closing minutes when Kyle Powers of Charlottetown ran over rookie forward Lou Levesque and was called for charging. Markus Vidicek came to Levesque’s aide but was sent to the room with a five-minute major for high sticking an a match penalty which means an automatic one-game suspension for the acting Captain. The Moose will be without Vidicek when they visit the Moncton Wildcats next Saturday night. The road trip will then continue on to Acadie-Bathurst the following day. The next home game for the Herd is scheduled for Friday, October 6th when Halifax plays host to Victoriaville at 7pm. Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.ca.
