PRE-GAME: Saint John Sea Dogs vs Halifax Mooseheads

Game Day
Saint John Sea Dogs vs Halifax Mooseheads
Tonight, December 18, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Halifax Metro Centre

Visiting Team: Saint John Sea Dogs
Record: 30-6-1-0 (1st in Atlantic Division)
Last Game: 4-2 loss vs Halifax last night
Leading Scorer: Nicholas Petersen: 29-21-20-41
Notes: Saint John lost to the last place Halifax Mooseheads last night to pick up their second straight loss. It is only the second time Saint John has lost two straight games. They lost 6-1 to the PEI Rocket and 5-2 to Victoriaville in October… Steven Anthony, a Halifax native, has four goals in four games against the Mooseheads this season. He struggled last night and caused the Mooseheads’ two-on-one that turned into Halifax’s fourth goal... “Hangover” is the word being used to describe last night’s game. Saint John had won 22 straight games until they fell 7-3 in Moncton last Sunday… sit atop the Atlantic division with a 16 point lead over Moncton for first… one of only three teams not in double digits in the loses category… ranked second in the CHL Top 10 this week for a fifth straight week… Gabriel Bourret was a healthy scratch last night and could play today in place of Benjamin Lecomte. Olivier Ouellet will be the other scratch… the last time Saint John was in Halifax, the ice was pink and Marc-Antoine Gelinas picked up a 4-0 shutout… have the league’s best road record at 15-3-1-0 and are 9-1-0-0 in their last 10 road games… Stanislav Galiev was named the Sea Dogs’ RDS Top Rookie of the first half yesterday. He leads all rookies in scoring.

Home Team: Halifax Mooseheads
Record: 8-25-1-2 (6th in Atlantic Division)
Last Game: 4-2 Win at Saint John last night
Leading Scorer: Tomas Knotek: 34-17-15-32
Notes: The Mooseheads have no NHL draft picks… had lost three straight games before last night’s win in Saint John… played a perfect road game last night. The Moose had a 2-0 lead after the first period… Mathieu Corbeil was the biggest factor in the Mooseheads win last night. He stood on his head all night and stopped 33 of 35 shots. He is 8-19-0 this season… Halifax had won only one road game before last night. There only other road win came on October 3rd in Val-d’Or… Jamie Bishop had an assist on the winning goal last evening. He is a St. Stephen native and a call up of the Saint John Vito’s… … Knotek will not play tonight or the next six games because he will be playing for team Czech Republic at the World Juniors… “I’ve been too scared to look (to find out how many games he’ll miss),” said Mooseheads head coach Cam Russell to Metro. “You’re losing your captain, you’re losing your best player on a team that hasn’t generated a lot of scoring. It’s a big hole.”… German rookie Konrad Abeltshauser is playing for Germany at the Pool B world junior hockey championship in France… defenseman Garrett Clarke (healthy) and defenseman Steve Gillard (bruised quad) were the other scratches last night… there are two former Sea Dogs on the Mooseheads roster. Defenseman Pascal Amyot has been involved in trade rumors. He had a goal last night in the first period. He was traded to Halifax last year in exchange for the Mooseheads’ Euro pick, a pick used to draft Stanislav Galiev… the other former Dog is Matthew Stoddard. He joined the Moose as a free agent this past summer. In 28 games he has one goal and four assists. He had two penalty minutes last night.

Saint John vs Halifax:
This Season (GP-W-L-OTL-SOL-PTS):
4-3-1-0-0-6
Home: 3-2-1-0-0-4
Road: 1-1-0-0-0-2
Goals For: 15
Goals Against: 7

Last Season (GP-W-L-OTL-SOL-PTS):
8-5-3-0-0-10
Home: 4-2-2-0-0-4
Road: 4-3-1-0-0-6
Goals For: 32
Goals Against: 28

All-Time-Not including this season (GP-W-L-OTL-SOL-PTS):
26-11-13-1-1-24
Home: 13-6-6-1-0-13
Road: 13-5-7-0-1-11
Goals For: 86
Goals Against: 103

Station Nation Facts:

• In July 1976, Halifax was uniquely honoured by the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Philip who participated in the ground-breaking ceremony of the Halifax Metro Centre. In the opening year, 1978, Halifax Metro Centre featured its very first concert, Gordon Lightfoot. That concert was followed by CIAU Basketball Championship. Within that first year the Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks faced off in NHL Exhibition games and became the permanent home of what is now the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo.
• The Metro Centre is also home of the Halifax Rainmen of the Premier Basketball League.
• John Moore, voice of the Mooseheads on News 95.7, always has some good post-game content on his website at www.sportsandmoore.com. He has lots of video’s posted on his site.
• The team’s notables over the years include: Jean-Sébastien Giguère, Alex Tanguay, Ladislav Nagy, Ramzi Abid, Bobby Smith and Jakub Voracek.

Important Info:
Venue: Halifax Metro Centre
Capacity: 10,595
Area Guide Info: http://www.qmjhlarenaguide.com/mooseheads.htm

Saint John Media: Radio- News 88.9 FM (www.news889.com)
Live Video Streaming: www.qmjhl.mytelus.com
Post-Game Coverage: Telegraph-Journal, Chronicle Herald, Metro Halifax, www.stationnation.blogspot.com
Post-Game Highlights: www.sportsandmoore.com

Twitter: Station Nation will be tweeting all game tonight. Follow us @station_nation.