A first win will have to wait until another day for the Halifax Mooseheads.
They came up just short in their QMJHL season opener, losing 4-3 to the Saint John Sea Dogs at TD Station in Saint John on Friday.
“We got some penalties early and our penalty killers did a great job but it was tough for us to get going five on five,” said Halifax head coach J.J. Daigneault. “I thought we dominated the second part of the first period. We had a lot of good offensive zone time of possession and some good shots on net so we got going in the later part of that period.
“Overall I saw some good things but at the end of the day, the turnovers (worked) against us. The third goal against was off a turnover and at the end of the second period we turned the puck over quite a bit so I don’t think we played the right way, but I still saw some good things.”
The Mooseheads had to chase the game for most of the night. They fell behind 1-0 in the first period and then trailed 3-1 heading into the third.
Halifax got it to 4-3 with more than 12 minutes left in the final period but couldn’t complete the comeback.
“Of course it’s not easy to play from behind but we came out in the third period and we got a goal to make it 3-2 and we had some momentum,” Daigneault said. “But we gave up the fourth goal as the result of a turnover and the guys battled back again.
“Some of the vets looked like they were maybe a little bit rusty but hopefully they’re going to get their legs underneath them and be better tomorrow.”
Nicholas Deakin-Poot, Ben Badalamenti, William Villeneuve and Dawson Stairs scored for the Sea Dogs and Marcel Barinka, Senna Peeters and Raphael Lavoie had the Halifax goals.
Alexis Gravel stopped 21 shots for Halifax and Zachary Bouthillier made 40 saves for Saint John.
“The first period the shots were 16-10 and we some very good (offensive) zone play,” Daigneault said. “From the scouting that we did, this is a team that really collapses low in the defensive zone so there’s an aspect of their game we were able to exploit and it’s probably why the shots were 43-25.
“We got a lot of shots but we didn’t have enough of a net-front presence to generate enough second chances and rebounds. It’s something we’ll have to get better at.”
The Mooseheads play the Charlottetown Islanders on the road on Saturday.
Eagles 3, Titan 1:
At Bathurst, veteran Egor Sokolov scored twice to give Cape Breton a win in their opener.
Liam Kidney had the Eagles’ other goal and Kyle Havlena added two assists. Shawn Element was the Bathurst scorer.
Kevin Mandolese turned aside 29 shots for Cape Breton and Tristan Berube made 36 saves.
The teams meet again Saturday afternoon in Bathurst.
Notes:
BO Groulx (Anaheim Ducks), Lucas Robinson (healthy scratch) and Jared McIsaac (shoulder injury) did not play for Halifax. ... The Mooseheads were ranked sixth in this week’s CHL Top 10.
