Sports stats



QMJHL Halifax Mooseheads

Road Warriors Win Again

February 23, 2024 - Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL)
Halifax Mooseheads News Release


The perfect road trip continued on Friday night, despite a scare for the Mooseheads in Gatineau. Lou-Felix Denis scored the overtime winner and Halifax won for the third straight time on the road, and 20th overall away from home this season with a 5-4 defeat of the Olympiques.

Denis capped off an emotional roller coaster of a game by burying a shot from the slot 1:45 into the extra period. It was a shock to the Moose to even be in overtime after they surrendered a pair of Gatineau goals in a chaotic final minute of regulation time to squander a 4-2 lead.

Nonetheless, the Mooseheads found a way to get it done in front of a large group of supporting fans who came from all over to cheer on their team. That included several family members of Lou Levesque who witnessed their favourite player set up the Denis game-winner as part of a two assist night for the rookie. The hot streak also continued for defenceman Brady Schultz who added three assists of his own and has now scored nine points in the three games on the road trip so far. The 14th round pick from 2020's QMJHL Entry Draft passed Justin Barron and pulled into a tie with Chris Peyton for eighth in career points scored by a Mooseheads defenceman with 115.

Mathieu Cataford opened the scoring early in the game as he quickly made up for lost time after sitting out with a one-game suspension on Thursday in Sherbrooke. He also added an assist for a two-point effort. Peter Reynolds also scored a goal and an assist and netted his 26th goal of the campaign on a pretty breakaway move after forcing a Gatineau turnover at the Halifax blue-line. Rookie Cade Moser came up with one of the biggest goals of his young career when he put the Herd ahead 3-2 in the third period by coming off the bench and finding some open ice before ripping home his shot from the slot. Markus Vidicek followed that up with his 39th goal of the season to make it a 4-2 game with 7:33 remaining in regulation time. The goal also helped Vidicek reach the 250-point plateau for his career, becoming just the fifth player in franchise history to accomplish the feat.

The Olympiques pulled goalie Zach Pelletier with 2:05 to play before being gifted a power play on a questionable slashing call against Jake Furlong. That's when Gatineau's Justin Boisselle went to work. He cut the deficit to 4-3 by scoring with two extra attackers on the ice and he wasn't done there. The game's first star hammered in a one-timer for his second goal in 35 seconds to send the Slush Puppy Centre into a frenzy and the game was tied with only 12 seconds left in the third period.

Lou-Felix Denis and the Moose would get the last laugh though as he scored the winner minutes later and let his opponent Charles Boutin know about it. The two players went back and forth at each other all night long with Boutin accounting for all eight Gatineau penalty minutes and Denis serving six-of-eight minutes that were assessed to Halifax.

Jack Milner was the winner between the pipes for the Moose with 34 saves. Halifax improved to 20-8-2-0 on the road this season and grabbed their 36th win overall and now lead the idle Moncton Wildcats by 11 points for second place in the Eastern Conference and top spot in the Maritimes Division.

The road trip will finish up on Sunday afternoon at 4pm in Quebec City against the defending Memorial Cup Champion Remparts. The next home game for the Mooseheads is scheduled for Wednesday, February 28th against the Cape Breton Eagles. Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.ca.

Check out the Halifax Mooseheads Statistics



Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League Stories from February 23, 2024


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Halifax Mooseheads Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central