Playoff Round 2 Series Preview
April 10, 2025 - Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL)
Halifax Mooseheads News Release
With Round 2 of the QMJHL's Gilles Courteau Trophy Playoffs set to begin on Friday night, your Halifax Mooseheads are prepping for another showdown with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. These teams have had some memorable battles over the years and this matchup marks the fifth postseason series between the two storied franchises.
In most recent memory it was the Huskies lifting a pair of trophies on Scotiabank Centre ice as the Mooseheads suffered heartbreak at home in 2019, losing the President Cup Finals in six games to the Noah Dobson-led Huskies before falling 4-2 to Rouyn-Noranda in the Memorial Cup Final.
Rouyn also got the better of the Herd in Round 1 of the 2017 playoffs with a veteran squad defeating a young, up-and-coming Mooseheads team that consisted of 16-year-old rookies Benoit-Olivier Groulx, Jared McIsaac, Raphael Lavoie and Alexis Gravel. That Halifax core would be leaders in the 2019 rematch.
Halifax skated to a series sweep of Rouyn in the 2013 semi-finals en route to winning the Memorial Cup. That series featured a pair of overtime games which included a Marty Frk OT winner that rattled the rafters which lives on in a classic camera shot that has been used in many promos by the team ever since.
The very first playoff meeting between the teams came 20 years ago in 2005 and it was another series sweep for the Mooseheads in the QMJHL semi-finals. Goalie Jeremy Duchesne had a big playoff run and players like Petr Vrana, David Brine, Rane Carnegie, Jimmy Sharrow and FP Guenette powered the offence before the team fell short against Sidney Crosby and the Rimouski Oceanic in the President Cup Finals.
What will 2025's edition bring us? We know that Halifax is a massive underdog for the second straight series after miraculously knocking off Drummondville in seven games, becoming the only 16th ranked playoff seed to ever win a series. The reward for taking down the #1 seed in the Western Conference is a chance to make more history against the #2 ranked team in the conference in Rouyn-Noranda. The Huskies easily dispatched the Gatineau Olympiques in Round 1 with a 4-games-to-1 series victory. They posted a 37-19-3-5 record during the regular season and finished 34 points ahead of the Mooseheads.
Rouyn-Noranda has a high-powered offence led by 20-year-old Antonin Verrault who scored 85 points in the regular season while linemate Bill Zonnon exploded for 83 points and is ranked 29th amongst North American Skaters by NHL Central Scouting for June's NHL Entry Draft. Defenceman Ty Higgins was the highest scoring defenceman in the league this season with 67 points and Swiss import Lars Steiner was second in QMJHL rookie scoring with 60 points. There are plenty of weapons to go around for the Huskies. Halifax will once again depend on playing a stingy defensive game and rely on the rock-solid goaltending of Jacob Steinman.
While the Huskies are fully healthy heading into the matchup, Halifax has a laundry list of injuries. Defencemen Eddy Doyle and Justin Chiras along with forwards Will Bent and Caylen Blake all remain out with upper body injuries.
The Herd and Huskies split a pair of tight battles in the season series with both games needing extra time to decide a winner. Halifax got 48 saves from the since departed Mathis Rousseau in a 2-1 shootout victory at home on November 1st that saw Liam Kilfoil bury the winner. Rousseau also stopped all three Rouyn-Noranda shooters. The rematch came 15 days later at Glencore Arena as the Huskies got revenge with a 4-3 overtime victory. Liam Kilfoil forced OT when he scored with 1:55 remaining in regulation. Halifax was heavily outshot in both games by a combined total of 94-36.
The Mooseheads are riding high after the exciting upset and will open with two games on the road this weekend before returning home on Tuesday night for Game 3 in front of a Scotiabank Centre crowd waiting anxiously to welcome them back with open arms. Nobody expected playoff hockey to continue in Halifax in Round 2 but here we are and we're ready to enjoy it.
Round 2 Schedule Mooseheads vs Huskies
DATE AWAY HOME TIME
FRI. APRIL 11 Halifax Rouyn-Noranda 8pm
SAT. APRIL 12 Halifax Rouyn-Noranda 5pm
TUE. APRIL 15 Rouyn-Noranda Halifax 7pm
WED. APRIL 16 Rouyn-Noranda Halifax 7pm
*FRI. APRIL 18 Rouyn-Noranda Halifax 7pm
*MON. APRIL 21 Halifax Rouyn-Noranda 8pm
*TUE. APRIL 22 Halifax Rouyn-Noranda 8pm
*If necessary
All times ADT
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Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League Stories from April 10, 2025
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