2018-10-19

Sometimes the bounces go your way and sometimes they don’t. Unfortunately for the Mooseheads it was the latter that was the case on Friday night in Victoriaville. The Herd has scoring chances galore and made it close with a late goal from Xavier Parent but Tigres goalie Tristan Cote-Cazenave was the difference in helping his team to a 4-3 win over the visiting Mooseheads.

BOX SCORE

Halifax fired 41 shots on goal with Cote-Cazenave stopping 32 of 35. He left briefly in the third period with what appeared to be a leg cramp but was able to return and withstood some late pressure from the Moose. Fabio saved all six shots fired his way in 4:41 of relief. The Mooseheads dominated the final period, outshooting their opponents 20-6 and did everything but find the equalizer with several players being robbed of great scoring opportunities.

Parent’s power play goal came with just 1:28 left in regulation as Alex Gravel was on the bench in favour of a two-man advantage. BO Groulx was set up behind the goal line and spotted Parent in the slot who fired it in for his fourth goal of the season. Raphael Lavoie also earned an assist on the play.

The Mooseheads were playing catch-up for most of the night as the Tigres jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead on a pair of power play goals less than three minutes apart from Mathieu Sevigny and Sean Larochelle. Halifax fought back in the middle period when a Jared McIsaac shot hit a body in front and trickled into the net to make it 2-1. Later in the second period it was Samuel Asselin scoring for the seventh time this season when he took a feed from Parent in front of Cote-Cazenave and banged it in. That tied the score 2-2 heading to the third period.

Puck control was almost all Mooseheads in the final 20 minutes but despite the immense pressure in the offensive zone it was Victoriaville that had the bounces go their way. Alex Gravel allowed goals to Egor Serdyuk and Mikhail Abramov that the goalie would probably like to have back and it was a 4-2 game and an uphill battle for the Herd.

Marcel Barinka had his second straight two-point game with a pair of assists. The rookie has five points in his last four games. Justin Barron, BO Groulx, Xavier Parent and Raphael Lavoie all earned assists in the defeat. Both teams went 2-for-4 on the power play while the Moose won 44 of the 68 face offs.

The loss snaps a four game winning streak and drops the Mooseheads record to 9-3 with two more weekend road games to go. Halifax will visit Sherbrooke on Saturday afternoon at 5pm and Drummondville on Sunday at 4pm. The Tigres improve to 6-4-0-1 on the season.

The Mooseheads home opener is set for Saturday, October 27th at 7pm versus Cape Breton. Individual tickets to all 34 Halifax Mooseheads home games are on sale now for the General Public at the Ticket Atlantic Box Office, select Superstore outlets, TicketAtlantic.com, the Official Mooseheads Shop in Scotia Square Mall or by phone 902-451-1221.