Sea Dogs Face Mooseheads This Weekend

He’s expected to be a top two pick in this year’s NHL Draft. He’s on the cover of The Hockey News. And tomorrow night, Nathan MacKinnon and the rest of the Halifax Mooseheads will take to the ice at Harbour Station to battle the Saint John Sea Dogs.

The two teams - both off to 4-1-0-0 starts - have not yet this year. They will face each other tomorrow at 7:30pm and then on Saturday will faceoff at the Halifax Metro Centre. The two were scheduled to meet twice during the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League pre-season but both games were cancelled due to several Mooseheads being hit by the flu.

Halifax will ice nearly a full lineup tomorrow. They will be without Stefan Fournier who received an automatic one-game suspension for being the instigator of a fight in the final five minutes of Tuesday’s game against Bathurst. Fournier has two goals and three assists in five games this season.

The Mooseheads certainly have the firepower to win without Fournier in the lineup. The team still has MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin – two of the top prospects for the upcoming draft – to go along with the likes of Martin Frk, Matthew Boudreau, and Konrad Abeltshauser.

The third part of Halifax’s “big three” of draft eligible players is goaltender Zach Fucale. He’ll likely square off against Sebastien Auger tomorrow night. The Saint John netminder is off to a sensational start, currently possessing a 1.78 goals against average to go with a 0.944 save percentage.

Saint John has dominated the Mooseheads over the past few seasons. From Metro Halifax:

The numbers are downright ugly: Saint John has won 25 of the past 27 head-to-head matchups, out-scoring Halifax 134-60 with an average margin of victory of 5-2.

Despite the lopsidedness over the past few seasons, there have still been some entertaining games and moments. Hopefully tomorrow’s contest proves to be just that.

Photo: Marc Henwood/Station Nation