There were a few new players in the Halifax Mooseheads’ lineup on Friday but it wasn’t enough to spark a win.
Peter Delmas and Bradley MacDonald played their first games for the Mooseheads since being acquired in trades on Thursday and Dylan MacGuigan made his major junior debut after being called up from the Truro Bearcats. But the injection of new blood meant little in a 4-1 loss to the Montreal Juniors at the Metro Centre. The loss is Halifax’s sixth in a row.
"We just got out of the trade period so there are some new faces here and some other guys are gone, but it’s time to move forward and get back to work," said Mooseheads forward Brent Andrews.
"We had a strong first period, I thought. But then the second period they got a couple quick ones on us. I thought we had another strong period in the third but we just couldn’t finish our chances."
Delmas didn’t start the game but was pushed into action after Mathieu Corbeil gave up three goals during a 10-minute stretch in the middle of the second period. Delmas, a Bedford native, got off on the wrong foot when he let in his first shot but settled down to stop the next 11 pucks fired his way.
"I was so nervous on the first shot," said Delmas, a four-year league veteran. "All I was thinking about was just saving that first shot and then (I didn’t). I came back in between periods and kind of settled myself down and went out and played and had fun.
"Even during the warm-up I was a little nervous," he added. "It’s a new team and you don’t know all the rules and all that kind of stuff. Even sitting on the bench I was feeling nervous. It was definitely not how I thought I would get my first game in Halifax as a Moosehead but I’ll take it."
The Juniors took the game over in the second period when they got unanswered goals from Nicolas Chouinard, Loik Poudrier, Matthew Breton and Hugo Roux. Gerrad Grant scored Halifax’s only goal at 7:04 of the third period.
Jean-Sebastien Berube made 26 saves for the Juniors and Corbeil and Delmas combined to stop 26 shots.
"We won the third period so I was happy about that," Delmas said. "That’s something to build off for tomorrow night."
The Mooseheads play the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles tonight and then wrap up their weekend with a road game against the Moncton Wildcats on Sunday.
"Moncton and Cape Breton are both really good teams so it’ll be two big challenges this weekend," Andrews said. "Hopefully we bring our best effort both days."
The game also marked the return of Andrews and Tomas Knotek, who were away at international tournaments. Both had good games but there wasn’t enough strong play across the board from the Mooseheads to even come close to winning.
"I was pretty anxious to get home," said Andrews, who was Team Atlantic’s best player at the world under-17 tournament. "It’s nice to be back in Halifax and sleep in my own bed."
Sea Dogs 3, Screaming Eagles 1: At Saint John, N.B., North Sydney’s Michael Kirkpatrick assisted on two goals to help Saint John beat Cape Breton.
Mike Hoffman, Zack Phillips and Tomas Jurco scored for the Sea Dogs and Cory MacIntosh answered for the Eagles.
Tigres 8, Sagueneens 0: At Victoriaville, Que., Kevin Poulin stopped 20 shots and Brandon Hynes scored twice.
Oceanic 4, Maineiacs 3: At Lewiston, Maine, Petr Straka had a goal and two assists for Rimouski.
Voltigeurs 3, Foreurs 2 (OT): At Val-d’Or, Que., Andrew Randazzo scored at 3:54 of overtime.
Rocket 5, Olympiques 4: At Gatineau, Que., Benjamin Casavant snapped a 4-4 tie with 8:02 remaining in the third period.
Remparts 6, Drakkar 0: At Baie-Comeau, Que., Antoine Tardif made 26 saves for the shutout.
Notes: Not dressed for the Mooseheads were Garrett Clarke (concussion), Sawyer Hannay (ankle laceration), Linden Bahm (broken wrist), Jordan Costello (strained hip flexor), Charle Bety (suspension) and Alex Lemieux (mononucleosis). Trey Lewis was also called up to fill out the roster.
( wpalov@herald.ca)
