MURPHY, MOOSEHEADS FIGHT BACK IN SHOOTOUT WIN
In what could be considered the definition of a character win, fans were treated to undoubtedly the most exciting comeback of the season for the Mooseheads on Thursday night, as Halifax fought back from a 3-1 deficit late in the third period to score a 4-3 Shootout victory over the visiting Quebec Remparts.
The Herd let in an Adam Erne power play goal late in the opening period and the Remparts extended their lead just over five minutes into the second period when Marc-Olivier Roy banged in a loose puck on a delayed penalty call against Halifax.
Philippe Gadoury and Guillaume Gauthier traded goals later in the frame and Quebec held the advantage until Mooseheads defenseman Matt Murphy put the team on his back to help force overtime.
Murphy’s first goal of the game came with 5:15 remaining in the third period as the big rearguard snuck in from the point in the middle of the ice and picked the short side top corner over Eric Brassard. His tally came on the tail end of a nice passing play from Timo Meier and Danny Moynihan.
“Every shift I was trying to go up, all the d-men had that in mind, I just jumped off the bench and went right to the net and Timo hit me with a nice pass,” Murphy said.
The raucous crowd of 6,759 was brought to their feet when the Fredericton native potted his second goal with less than a minute remaining and goaltender Kevin Resop on the bench in favour of the extra attacker.
“I kind of got the puck along the boards and just threw it at the net, I don’t know if it hit something before but it kind of went in the exact same spot and honestly when I shot that I didn’t expect it to go in.”
Murphy, the first star of the game, then came up with a huge blocked shot as time expired in the third period when he stuck out his leg to avoid the Remparts firing the puck into an open left side of the Mooseheads net.
Overtime featured some exciting three-on-three action with Halifax’s Jesse Lussier and Quebec’s Aaron Dutra in the box with offsetting minor penalties, but both goaltenders were sharp to send the game to a shootout.
Timo Meier, who was a man on a mission the entire night, scored the lone goal of the shootout as the Moose picked up their 15th win of the season and sixth in their last eight games. Meier finished the night with two assists and fired 11 shots on goal. The draft eligible Switzerland native has had an impressive year with 43 points and is quickly climbing the scouting rankings ahead of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft.
Resop, the rookie netminder, got the start between the pipes with Zach Fucale away at Canada’s World Junior selection camp and picked up what was easily the biggest win of his young career. The 17-year-old made 30 saves and added another three stops in the shootout to backstop the Herd to the thrilling victory.
“It’s very exciting I mean I haven’t got a win since the first weekend of the season so this one feels good. I had been getting some unlucky bounces and finally it just went our way,” he said.
The St. Petersburg, Florida native will be seeing plenty more action over the next stretch of Mooseheads games with Fucale away with Team Canada.
“I’ve been working hard in practice and every time I get a start I just have to go out and prove myself and try to get as many wins as possible for the team.”
Resop’s counterpart Brassard finished with 34 saves.
Erne was named the second star of the game and Meier picked up third star honours.
Thursday’s game also marked the return of defenseman Cavan Fitzgerald to the lineup, who has been sidelined since early in the season with a fractured patella. He recorded a pair of assists in the win.
The Moose (15-14-2-1) will travel to Acadie-Bathurst for a game on Saturday night at 7pm and the clubs will face each other once again next Wednesday night at Scotiabank Centre. That game is a make-up for one that was postponed earlier this week. Halifax will round out the pre-Christmas portion of the schedule on the road against Charlottetown on Thursday, December 18th.
