Ivan The Great!!!
Ivan Barbashev’s overtime goal at 3:56 of extra time gave the Moncton Wildcats a 3-2 come from behind win over their arch rivals the Halifax Mooseheads in front of 3540 fans at the Moncton Coliseum on Tuesday night.
The win was the Wildcats fourth in a row and was a tough game for Moncton having just completed a three game in four night stint in Quebec last weekend in Baie-Comeau, Chicoutimi and Victoriaville. Couple that tough stretch with getting storm stayed on Sunday night and not returning home to Moncton until late Monday.
The first period ended scoreless but was entertaining as both teams tried to gain the advantage with skilled passing and hard forechecking.
Timo Meier opened the scoring at 5:24 of the second period squeezing a puck under Alex Dubeau to make it 1-0 Mooseheads. Meier extended his point scoring streak to 24 games with his 33rd of the year.
Meier then gave Halifax a 2-0 lead snapping a Nikolaj Ehlers pass behind Dubeau at 8:35 on the power play for his 34th of the season. With the assist Ehlers now has a point in 30 consecutive games dating back to October 29th 2014.
To say Conor Garland had a road trip for the ages would be an understatement as number 8 racked up 9 points on the Quebec road trip and was named the first star of all three contests. Not only that, he became the first player this season to surpass the 100 point plateau on Sunday versus Victoriaville.
Garland picked up where he let off scoring his 28th of the year from Ivan Barbashev and Dominic Talbot-Tassi at 19:26 of the second period on the power play cutting the Herd’s lead to 2-1.
Garland then electrified the crowd with his second of the game and 29th of the season when he chipped another Barbashev pass behind Kevin Ressop at 1:51 of the third period to tie it at 2-all and the game streaked to overtime.
Then with Halifax defenseman Taylor Ford in the penalty box for hooking Ivan Barbashev in extra time, the Russian superstar made him pay by deflecting a Jacob Sweeney pass behind Ressop at 3:56 of overtime to give Moncton the win with his 34th goal of the season.
Conor Garland also grabbed an assist on the Barbashev winner and now has 104 points this season. Garland now has his sights on breaking Sebastein Roger single season Wildcat record of 114 points set back in the 1997-98 season. Garland was also named the games first star for an unprecedented fourth consecutive game.
Ivan Barbashev now moves into 6th place on the all time Wildcats scoring race(205 points) surpassing Marek Hruik 204 mark.
Alex Dubeau picked up his 33rd win of the year (49-33-12-0-1) and now sits four wins shy of becoming the all time career wins leader in Moncton franchise history. Dubeau now sits at 93 wins. He trails Corey Crawford who established the mark of 96 during his tenure as a Wildcat.
Moncton travels to Cape Breton to face the Screaming Eagles on Friday night for a 7 pm contest at Center 200 in Sydney. Catch the action with Roger White on CITA at 6:55.
