MOOSE MAGIC IN OT AGAINST TITAN
They may be missing the big guns on the ice, but the Halifax Mooseheads keep finding ways to win. The Herd scored their third straight victory with a 3-2 overtime defeat of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Wednesday night at Scotiabank Centre.
With Nik Ehlers, Timo Meier and Zach Fucale all preparing for the upcoming World Junior Hockey Championship it was Connor Moynihan who potted the winner at 3:47 of the extra period on the power play when he grabbed the puck in a scramble in front of the net, kicked it up to his stick and slid it past a sprawling Jacob Brennan.
It’s the second time in less than a week that Halifax has celebrated an OT victory over the Titan after a thrilling 5-4 comeback win at the K.C. Irving Regional Centre on Saturday night.
Rookie goaltender Kevin Resop continued his stretch of solid play between the pipes as he made 39 saves and wowed the crowd on several occasions with his flashy glove hand.
“Yeah, I mean I just saw it the whole way and reacted well I guess. Maybe I added a little extra to some of them,” Resop laughs “Those are always fun to make,” he said.
The 17-year-old has won all three of his starts since taking over for Zach Fucale who left for Canada’s World Junior camp last week.
“It’s always nice to just get a string of games together and when you’re winning it’s a lot more fun and the confidence just grows personally and as a team.”
The Mooseheads jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second period when defenseman Cavan Fitzgerald wired a wrist shot by Brennan from between the circles on the power play. In fact all three Halifax goals came with the man advantage. Danny Moynihan got his 15th of the season with 4:53 to go in the second period when his shot trickled past Brennan.
Fitzgerald ended the night with one goal and two assists and has been a major contributor for the Herd with six points in three games since coming back from a fractured patella.
“Coming back I feel like I’m stronger and maybe buying into the system a little bit,” he said while noting that he spent nearly every day doing rehab in the pool with Mooseheads athletic therapist Diane Ouimet in the three months he missed with the injury.
That hard work training his legs has paid instant dividends and the 18-year-old projects to be a fixture on the Halifax power play unit for the rest of this season.
“I mean hopefully, we’ll see I guess. I’ll keep trying to contribute as much as possible.”
The Titan certainly made the game interesting by scoring a pair of third period goals to force overtime. Aaron Kerr, who was dangerous all night, pulled his team to within one just 34 seconds into the final frame while Mark Trickett got his first of the season midway through the period with Kerr picking up an assist.
Connor Moynihan finished with one goal and two assists in a First Star effort, while brother Danny had two points.
The Mooseheads will wrap up the first half of the season tomorrow night when they visit the Charlottetown Islanders at 7pm. The Herd will return home following the Christmas break to face off with the Isles at 2pm on New Year’s Eve. Great family packs are available for the special game which will surely be an exciting event for everyone involved. Click here for more info.
Call-ups Eddie Banville and Michael Lyle made their Mooseheads debuts on Wednesday. The 17-year-old Banville was a 10th round pick of the Herd in May’s QMJHL Entry Draft, while Lyle was picked up spending parts of the past three seasons between Acadie-Bathurst and Cape Breton.
