The post-holiday blues continued for the Halifax Mooseheads in Charlottetown on Sunday.
The Mooseheads dropped a 4-1 decision to the P.E.I. Rocket to keep them winless since the Christmas break. They have now lost their last five games.
"Actually, the guys played well," said Mooseheads head coach and general manager Cam Russell. "They played hard but we’re just not generating a lot of offence right now."
P.E.I.’s Samson Mahbod scored a pair of goals, including an empty-netter, and Benjamin Casavant and Michael Stinziani had one each. Gabriel Desjardins was the only Halifax shooter to beat Rocket goalie Wendell Vye, who stopped 23 shots. Mathieu Corbeil made 25 saves for Halifax.
The loss also cost the Mooseheads a few more players to injuries. Defenceman Sawyer Hannay left the game with a bad cut on his heel, defenceman Garrett Clarke suffered a concussion and overage forward Linden Bahm broke his wrist after crashing hard into the boards during the second period.
"(Bahm) went to hit their guy and the guy ducked and he flew over him and into the boards," Russell said. "It’s hard to say how long he’ll be out. With Konrad (Abeltshauser) it was only three weeks but you never know. If he needs an operation he could be gone for the year.
"Hannay will be gone for a week or so. He’ll have to get his Achilles (tendon) looked at. Clarke will miss some time because it’s a concussion and (Spencer) Metcalfe was throwing up so he didn’t play after the start of the second period. It was a tough day."
The win snaps a six-game losing streak for the Rocket, who dealt most of their top veterans last week. The loss was the Mooseheads’ 30th of the season and leaves them well back in last place overall. They now trail the Lewiston Maineiacs by 12 points for the final playoff spot with just 27 games remaining.
"It’s tough right now," Russell said. "We’re missing a lot of our guys; some key guys. It’s going to be nice to get Tomas (Knotek) and (Brent) Andrews back. We know that once we get a healthy line-up we can compete against anybody but right now it’s a grind with the low numbers."
The Mooseheads play their next game on Friday at home against the Montreal Juniors.
Wildcats 2, Screaming Eagles 1: At Moncton, Marek Hrivik scored at 2:24 of the third period to snap a 1-1 tie.
Mark Barberio had Moncton’s other goal and Patrick Lapostolle was the lone scorer for the Eagles, who had their six-game winning streak snapped.
Nicola Riopel and Shane Owen combined to stop 28 shots for Moncton and Olivier Roy made 24 saves for Cape Breton.
Sagueneens 4, Remparts 1: At Chicoutimi, Que., head coach Richard Martel tied Gaston Drapeau for most wins in franchise history (222).
Olympiques 5, Foreurs 4: At Gatineau, Que., Tye McGinn had three goals and an assist for Gatineau.
Tigres 5, Oceanic 4 (OT): At Rimouski, Que., Philip-Michael Devos notched the winner with 54 seconds left in overtime.
Huskies 5, Juniors 3: At Montreal, Sergey Ostapchuk scored twice for Rouyn-Noranda.
Drakkar 3, Voltigeurs 2: At Baie-Comeau, Que., Maxime Renaud had a goal and an assist in the Drakkar’s upset win.
Notes: Knotek had two goals and an assist for the Czech Republic in a 9-2 win over Latvia in a relegation game at the world junior championship in Saskatchewan. He was his team’s leading scorer with nine points in five games. Andrews helped Team Atlantic beat Team Canada West 4-2 in the seventh-place game at the World Under-17 challenge in Timmins, Ont. Both players are expected to return for Friday’s game. Charles Bety (suspension), Alex Lemieux (wrist) and Jordan Costello (thumb) were also out of the Halifax line-up.
( wpalov@herald.ca)
