Some losses are easier to swallow than others, but Sunday’s 4-2 setback to the Bathurst Titan wasn’t one of them for the Halifax Mooseheads.
The Titan are one of the teams near the bottom of the QMJHL standings, where the Mooseheads are trying to move out of last place and into a playoff position. Making the loss especially hard for the Mooseheads to take was that they didn’t play their best in front of 5,448 fans at the Metro Centre and let two important points slip through their fingers.
"Bathurst is a team we should beat but we always have a hard time playing against them," said Mooseheads captain Tomas Knotek. "Today was just a frustrating game for us.
"We scored two goals on the power play but we didn’t play good five-on-five. We didn’t create a lot of chances and that’s why we didn’t score and that’s why we lost."
Less than 24 hours after playing the stacked Quebec Remparts hard in a 4-2 loss, the Mooseheads lost some of their edge on Sunday. They didn’t have the same intensity as the night before and it was their undoing in a game that seemed to set up well for a win.
"I think that’s our problem a little bit, we play good against good teams and not the same against bad teams," Knotek said. "I don’t want to say that Bathurst is not good but they’re obviously not as good as Quebec so we should play better against a team like that."
And also like the game against Quebec, the Mooseheads played catch-up all afternoon against the Titan and could never establish any momentum. The Titan led 1-0 after the first period, 3-2 after two periods and then put it away with a power-play goal in the third.
"It always seems we play better when we get the first goal," said Mooseheads forward Jessyko Bernard. "But we can’t let ourselves get down when the other team gets the first goal. We just have to keep working hard and trying to put pucks in the net.
"It just wasn’t our day today, I guess. We just didn’t seem to have that killer instinct like we had last night. That’s how we’re known around the league – as a hard-working team – and we weren’t for a full 60 (minutes) today."
Jonathan Lessard, Olivier Dame-Malka, Derek Famulare and Remi Blanchard were the Titan goal scorers and Travis Randell and Pascal Amyot answered for the Mooseheads. Nicholas Champion made 34 saves in the Bathust goal and Mathieu Corbeil stopped 28 shots for Halifax.
The loss leaves the Mooseheads (5-22-0-2) eight points out of a playoff spot.
"These are four-point games and we have to get the W’s when we have the chance," said Bernard. "Coming down towards Christmas now, we need to get those points. The season is (moving) quickly so any point is going to help us, even if it’s an OT loss."
The Mooseheads play their next game on Thursday when they host the Gatineau Olympiques.
Screaming Eagles 10, Voltigeurs 2 — At Sydney, Luke Adam (three goals, one assist), Nick MacNeil (two goals, two assists) and Francis Meilleur (two goals, two assists) all had four points as Cape Breton roughed up one of the league’s best teams.
Marc Bourgeois, Viktor Hertzberg and Taylor MacDougall rounded out the goal scoring for the Screaming Eagles and Olivier Roy stopped 25 shots.
Olivier Hotte and Marc-Olivier Vachon were the Drummondville goal scorers.
Oceanic 5, Juniors 4 (SO) — At Rimouski, Que., Gleason Fournier scored the deciding goal in the sixth round of the shootout.
Sea Dogs 6, Remparts 4 — At Saint John, N.B., Mike Hoffman notched a hat trick and Nicholas Petersen had two goals and two assists to help Saint John extend its winning streak to 17 games.
Tigres 5, Wildcats 3 — At Victoriaville, Que., the Tigres got back in the win column after having their nine-game streak snapped on Wednesday.
Notes — Defencemen Konrad Abeltshauser and Garrett Clarke did not play for Halifax because of knee injuries. Jordan Costello was a healthy scratch. ... Former Mooseheads forward Yuri Cheremetiev returned to the Metro Centre for the first time since being traded to the Titan last month. The 20-year-old has one goal and one assist in 11 games since the trade.
( wpalov@herald.ca)
’I don’t want to say that Bathurst is not good but they’re obviously not as good as Quebec so we should play better against a team like that.’
Tomas KnotekMooseheads captain
