Rousseau stands tall as Mooseheads take game one
BATHURST, NB – The Halifax Mooseheads took game one of the best-of-five playoff series against the Acadie-Bathurst Titan Thursday night in Bathurst. Halifax pulled away with a 6-3 win over the Titan at the K.C. Irving Regional Centre.
“I mean their best players were their best players,” said Titan head coach Jason Clarke, when asked about his thoughts in Game 1. “I mean that’s the end of story. You take a look at the shots for and shots against… that tells the story right there.”
James Swan got the Mooseheads on the board first in the series opener off the faceoff in Bathurst’s zone with an assist from Zachary Beauregard. The visitors maintained the one-point lead into the second frame before Jordan Dumais extended their lead to 2-0 at the 7:30 mark on the powerplay.
Ben Allison slipped the puck to Bennett MacArthur, who scored the Titan’s first goal of the playoffs at 9:57 and brought 40 minutes of major action to a close with a 2-1 score. The Mooseheads pulled away with the lead in the final frame where they scored four goals—two of which were empty net goals—while the Titan scored twice in the third period.
Mathieu Cataford opened the third period with a power playgoal at 3:13, before Zach Biggar scored at 15:07 to get back within one, 3-2. Dumais then responded with Halifax’s game-winning goal at 15:25, before Zachary Beauregard grabbed an empty net goal at 18:24. Cole Huckins got the puck to Marc-Andre Gaudet who scored the home teams third and final goal of the night at the 19-minute mark, before Markus Vidicek put the puck into the empty net at 19:15 to close the game 6-3.
The Titan outshot the Mooseheads 34-19 in the game. The two are back on the ice for game two of the series tomorrow night in Bathurst at 7 p.m.
