The post-Christmas portion of the QMJHL schedule has not been kind to the Halifax Mooseheads so far.
They were pounded for a second straight game, this time 6-0 by the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in Sydney on Tuesday. The rout follows a 10-1 defeat at the hands of the Moncton Wildcats on Sunday. The Mooseheads also lost 7-1 to the Saint John Sea Dogs in their final game before the Christmas break.
A lightning quick start was the key for the Screaming Eagles. They scored three times in the opening three minutes to take a commanding lead they were never in danger of surrendering. The win was Cape Breton’s fourth in a row.
"It was rough," said Mooseheads head coach and general manager Cam Russell. "They scored three goals on the first four shots off a couple of breakdowns and lapses. It was a tough one."
Nick MacNeil finished with a pair of goals for Cape Breton and Patrick Lapostolle, Jan Piskacek, Marc Bourgeois and Mathieu Brodeur had one each. Recent acquisition Maxime Legault picked up a pair of assists in his Screaming Eagles debut.
Cape Breton’s Olivier Roy stopped 22 shots for the shutout and Mathieu Corbeil made 33 saves for Halifax.
The Mooseheads were missing six regulars and had to call up Justin Belanger and Andrew Wigginton just to ice a complete lineup. Missing were defenceman Spencer Metcalfe (suspension), Tomas Knotek (world juniors), Brent Andrews (world under-17 tournament), Alex Lemieux (wrist), Gabriel Desjardins (flu) and Jordan Costello (thumb).
"We had a real young, inexperienced lineup tonight against a pretty good hockey team," Russell said. "We had Wigginton and Belanger playing their first games. And we had (Matthew) Boudreau and (Jamie) Bishop who have only played a few games so you’ve got a pretty inexperienced team.
"It’s a good opportunity for guys to take advantage of and some guys just aren’t doing that. I look at guys like (Sawyer) Hannay and (Steven) Gillard earlier in the year. They got their opportunities and they took advantage of it and played their way onto the team. . . . It’s a chance for other guys to step in and seize the moment. Some guys aren’t taking advantage of that and it’s making some decisions easier for us closing in on the trade deadline."
The teams meet again tonight at the Metro Centre in the second game of their Battle of Nova Scotia series. They will both wear specially made uniforms again, designed to look like the provincial flag.
"Tonight wasn’t quite the battle people were anticipating," Russell said. "Let’s hope it’s better tomorrow."
The loss leaves the Mooseheads (8-28-1-2) eight points out of the playoff race, but they still have 29 games left in their season.
Sea Dogs 5, Rocket 2: At Saint John, N.B., Nicholas Petersen had two goals and two assists and Mike Hoffman added a goal and two assists for the Sea Dogs.
Drakkar 5, Sagueneens 4: At Chicoutimi, Que., the Drakkar built a 5-2 lead and then hung on for the win.
Wildcats 4, Titan 3: At Bathurst, N.B., Nicholas Deschamps collected three assists in his second game with Moncton since being acquired from Chicoutimi.
Foreurs 2, Huskies 1: At Val-d’Or, Que., Marc-Alain Begin scored with 4:09 to snap a 1-1 tie.
Notes: Former Mooseheads head coach Shawn MacKenzie will drop the puck at the ceremonial face-off tonight. . . . Knotek had a goal and an assist in the Czech Republic’s 7-1 win over Austria on Tuesday.
( wpalov@herald.ca)
