Ehlers and the herd storm Sherbrooke

The Halifax Mooseheads were in need of a bounce back effort following a lopsided road loss in Moncton earlier this week and the Herd responded with a solid 4-1 victory over Sherbrooke on Thursday night.

Kevin Resop had to be sharp early when he faced the leading scorer for the Phoenix, Kay Schweri, on a penalty shot at 4:07 of the first period. Schweri was hooked by Taylor Ford as he broke in alone on Resop which prompted the call by the officials.

The 17-year-old goaltender proved to be up to the task by sticking out his right pad to deny the Sherbrooke star, much to the delight of the 6,906 fans that braved wintery conditions to cheer on the Moose.

“On the penalty shot I made sure I was calm and patient and I waited for him to make the first move and then just reacted,” Resop said.

The rookie netminder made 24 saves for the win just two nights after allowing five goals in an 8-3 Mooseheads loss to the Wildcats.

“We obviously weren’t happy with our game in Moncton and we knew we had to bounce back. We played with a lot of heart tonight and didn’t let up and we had some big penalty kills along with good offensive support too,”he said.

Carl Neill opened the scoring for Sherbrooke on the power play in the first period, but the Mooseheads turned the momentum in their favour later in the stanza.

Nikolaj Ehlers swatted in his 27th goal of the season with the man advantage in the opening minute of the 2nd period after the puck bounced around with multiple Halifax players taking a whack at it before the rubber found his stick in front of goaltender Evan Fitzpatrick.

Timo Meier and Danny Moynihan had the assists on the goal as Ehlers and Meier extended their point scoring streaks to 26 and 20 games respectively.

The Europeans connected again for the Herd later in the period when Ehlers found Meier with a pass to the front of the crease and the Switzerland native had no trouble snapping home his team leading 29th goal.

Jordan King was also credited with an assist but would later leave the game with an upper body injury. The rookie forward will be re-examined this week but is expected to be out for a couple of weeks according to Head Coach Dominique Ducharme.

Cavan Fitzgerald helped Philippe Gadoury provide the “wow moment” of the night when he fed the puck to the speedy forward who raced past a Phoenix defender and put a number of moves on Fitzpatrick before reaching back and tucking the puck in on the far side giving Halifax a 3-1 lead.

The game turned into a rough battle especially in the final 40 minutes and featured eight fighting majors between the teams.

Andrew Shewfelt got a much deserved empty net goal to seal the victory as the energy forward put in a solid effort throughout the game, a hard working effort that was the theme of the night for a Mooseheads team looking to make a distant memory of the Moncton game.

Halifax is back on home ice on Saturday night at 7pm with Acadie-Bathurst in town for a Maritimes Division battle. Fans are asked to bring a food bank donation as the Mooseheads and Purolator team up to shut out hunger.

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.

Notes:

Ehlers was named First Star, Meier the Second Star and Gadoury took Third Star honours.

Brandon Vuic and Owen Bennington were tossed from the game at the eight minute mark of the first period for staged fighting.

Sam LeBlanc left the game early and did not return due to illness.

Ehlers’ 26 game scoring streak is the longest in the entire CHL this season.

 

Author: Scott MacIntosh