There may be 60 points separating the Halifax Mooseheads and Saint John Sea Dogs in the standings but it was hard to tell Friday night at the Metro Centre.
The last-place Mooseheads (11-37-1-4) played the first-overall Sea Dogs (43-8-1-0) hard in front of 5,676 fans, nearly pulling off the upset in regulation time before finally succumbing 5-4 in the shootout.
"I think we played good," said Mooseheads forward Gabriel Desjardins. "The first period was a little bit hard but I think the second and the third was pretty good. We had a good effort and everyone played together.
"There are a lot of positives and it’s just too bad we lost, but we got one point. Every point we get is important to put us in the playoffs. And that’s the first (ranked) team in the CHL and we played hard. I think we can play with every team in the league."
Despite being outshot badly in each of the first two periods, the Mooseheads managed to go into both intermissions tied with the powerhouse Sea Dogs. Halifax’s Tomas Knotek and Saint John’s Nicholas Petersen traded goals in the opening period and Desjardins and Sea Dogs rookie Tomas Jurco had offsetting scoring plays in the second period.
It wasn’t until midway through the third period that the game finally broke open. Carl Gelinas and Brent Andrews scored 1:53 apart to give the Mooseheads a 4-2 lead. Petersen brought the Sea Dogs back to within a goal with eight minutes remaining and then North Sydney’s Michael Kirkpatrick tied it with just 42.5 seconds left. He scored on a Saint John power play that was boosted by having goalie Karel St-Laurent on the bench for an extra attacker.
"It’s always a tough one to swallow in the last minute of any period and it’s even harder when it’s the third," said Mooseheads defenceman Sawyer Hannay. "We were on the kill and our killers tried their best and so did (goalie Peter) Delmas; he played a great game. It was just against us on that shift."
Jurco scored the only goal of the shootout on a nice shot off the post. Halifax is now 1-4 in the shootout this year.
"Sometimes it’s just luck, maybe one bounce for you and it changes everything," said Desjardins. "You never know what’s going to happen when it goes to a shootout."
Delmas stopped 31 shots in the Halifax net and St-Laurent made 16 saves for Saint John.
The Mooseheads play the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles tonight at the Metro Centre.
"Tonight’s over and we’ve got to focus on tomorrow’s game," Hannay said. "Cape Breton’s a really good team. They’ve got some tough guys in their line-up and they play hard every night so we’ve got to come ready."
Screaming Eagles 4, Rocket 2: At Charlottetown, Luke Adam had two goals and an assist in Cape Breton’s road win over P.E.I.
Marc Bourgeois and Stephen Horyl also scored for the Eagles and Olivier Roy stopped 25 shots.
Josh Currie and Adam Polasek were the Rocket goal scorers and Evan Mosher made 31 saves.
Sagueneens 1, Olympiques 0: At Chicoutimi, Que., Antoine Roussel scored the game’s only goal and Robin Gusse turned aside 24 shots.
Tigres 5, Voltigeurs 2: At Victoriaville, Que., Drummondville led 2-1 early in the second period but surrendered four unanswered goals.
Cataractes 3, Maineiacs 2: At Lewiston, Maine, Philippe Paradis snapped a 2-2 tie with 2:58 left in the third period.
Titan 2, Drakkar 0: At Baie-Comeau, Que., Eric Faille and David Gilbert scored the Titan goals and Francois Lacerte kicked out 30 shots.
Oceanic 5, Foreurs 3: At Val-d’Or, Que., Ryan Kavanagh broke a 3-3 tie at 7:40 of the third period.
Notes: Alex Lemieux did not play for Halifax because of mononucleosis and Steve Gillard was out with a shoulder injury. Jordan Costello and Dylan McGuigan were healthy scratches.
( wpalov@herald.ca)
