Sweet Emotions
You could sense the weight being lifted off the shoulders of the Mooseheads as Maxime Fortier was in the midst of an emphatic fist pump with 44.3 seconds remaining in regulation giving Halifax a 2-1 advantage over the visiting Moncton Wildcats. The holiday crowd of 7,878 let out a thunderous roar as the Moose piled on in celebration.
“The goalie played amazing on the other side so it was rewarding for the whole team to put that goal in,” Fortier said.
A low backhand shot off a rebound beat Moncton goalie Matthew Waite and stood as the game winner and the Mooseheads snapped a four-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory. The play started behind the net when Nico Hischier made a nice pass to Jared McIsaac and the defenseman got a good shot off before Fortier buried the rebound with his 29th goal of the season. Fortier leads the Mooseheads in scoring with an even 80 points this season.
The win gave the Moose an important two points in the standings as Halifax pulled ahead of Rimouski for sole possession of 12th place overall and climbed within three points of Gatineau. The Mooseheads also hold a game in hand on the idle Olympiques.
The Wildcats hung around all game and got a great performance from Waite who made 41 saves to earn the first star. Moncton didn’t quit in their effort to end their franchise record losing streak which was extended to 24 games with the loss. That’s tied with 1990-91 Victoriaville for third longest streak in league history. The 1975-76 Shawinigan Dynamos hold the record with 27.
Benoit-Olivier Groulx gave the Herd the lead only 5:34 into the game when he wired in a shot from the top of the circle after Joel Bishop set him up with a nice drop pass.
“Obviously me and Bish have a lot of chemistry. We spend a lot of time together so that was a good move for us,” Groulx said.
There was a certain nervousness around the Scotiabank Centre as the Mooseheads couldn’t separate themselves any further and hung onto a 1-0 lead all the way until the midway point of the third period when Anthony Wojcik crashed the net and was able to sneak the puck past Alex Gravel. That evened the score at 1-1 but would be the only goal Gravel would allow on 18 shots. Halifax dominated in puck possession but couldn’t seem to catch a break until Fortier finally got one to go over the goal line.
Bishop and Groulx played on the third line with Captain Keigan Goetz and formed the most difficult trio of forwards for the Wildcats to play against. Bishop was named the second star and Groulx grabbed the third star of the game.
“Our line played a hell of a game and worked hard down low by beating their guys to the puck and we’ve got a lot of chemistry going,” Bishop said while wearing a new helmet given to the hardest worker on the team in a win, which looks like something stolen from the Acadie-Bathurst Titan room.
“We Goetzy was named Captain he decided that we should give out a hard hat award so I was fortunate to get it tonight.”
The Mooseheads got a boost to the lineup with the return of Nico Hischier who had missed a pair of games with a minor upper-body injury. Defenseman Walter Flower was also back on the ice after sitting out since leaving the game early against Shawinigan on February 12th.
Tickets for all Mooseheads home games are available at the Ticket Atlantic Box Office at Scotiabank Centre, select Superstore Outlets, TicketAtlantic.com or by phone at 902-451-1221
