WILDCATS DECLAWED BY THE MOOSEHEADS
The Halifax Mooseheads posted a second straight weekend victory on Sunday afternoon at Scotiabank Centre with a closely fought 4-3 decision over the Moncton Wildcats.
The Herd put on an entertaining display in the first period when the club reeled off four straight goals in a span of 2:46. Halifax fell behind 1-0 on a Stephen Johnson power play goal just over 7 minutes into the contest, but Danny Moynihan pulled his team even when he tipped in a blast from Timo Meier in front of the net.
That opened the flood gates for Halifax as Kelly Bent added his second goal in as many days, followed by a power play marker from Matt Murphy and then a Nikolaj Ehlers tally on a wicked shot from the slot.
Murphy’s third goal of the season came on a shot from the point and made its way through a crowd to bring the Sunday crowd of 7,549 to their feet. He feels the team has done a good job lately of digging deep and making the most of their opportunities.
“I mean nothing against us we have less skill, we’ve just had such a skilled team in the last two years so I think that we’ve got to be more of a hard working character team than we had been,” said the 19-year-old defenseman who added an assist on the Ehlers goal.
The four Moose goals came on their first five shots of the game to chase Moncton starting goalie Jason Rioux. Alex Dubeau took over and was solid the rest of the way for the Cats – turning aside all 17 shots he faced.
That was it in terms of scoring for Halifax as the two clubs turned what was a wide open first period into a hard hitting, chippy affair the rest of the way.
Rookie defenseman Josh Fitzgerald was inserted into the lineup for the ailing Morgan Nauss who took the day off with an upper body injury however Fitzgerald was knocked out of the game early in the second period when he was on the receiving end of a heavy hit in the Mooseheads zone.
Teammate Kelly Bent came to his aid in a spirited fight against Lane Cormier which also signalled the end of the night for Bent who was participating in his second scrap of the game. The Halifax native finished with 12 penalty minutes to go along with his second goal of the season.
“Guys like Kelly Bent like when they can score goals I mean that’s awesome to get some secondary scoring and that’s what every good team needs,” Murphy said.
The Wildcats enjoyed a power play following the Bent-Cormier throw down, and Ivan Barbashev made the Herd pay when he scored to cut the Halifax lead to 4-2.
The Mooseheads clung to the two goal lead until Zachary Maltesta came down the middle of the ice and picked the blocker side on a nice goal past Zach Fucale at 6:20 of the third period.
Moncton had a golden opportunity to even the score when Connor Moynihan took a five minute aggressor major just 50 seconds later, but Conor Garland was caught for diving when he tried to sell the officials on a phantom high stick which took a big chunk of power play time away from his team.
Moynihan will receive an automatic one-game suspension for his infraction.
Fucale made a point blank save on Will Smith late in the game to help preserve the victory. The Montreal Canadiens prospect finished with 15 saves.
Murphy was named the first star, while Garland (3 assists) took second star honours and Philippe Gadoury got the nod for third star after picking up an assist in a hard working effort.
The Moose improve to 11-12-2-1 and have points in seven of their last 10 games. Halifax sets out on a three game road trip this week which begins on Thursday night in Shawinigan and will see the team make stops on Saturday in Rouyn Noranda and next Sunday in Val d’Or.
Halifax will return home to face Charlottetown on Friday, December 5th and Saint John the following night. Tickets are on sale now at the Ticket Atlantic Box Office at Scotiabank Centre, select Superstore Outlets, www.TicketAtlantic.com or by phone at 902-451-1221.
