Moose Up 2-0; Caps Advance To Final

Stephen MacAulay had a Gordie Howe Hat Trick on Saturday night as he helped the Halifax Mooseheads take a 2-0 series lead in the President Cup Final with a 4-3 victory over the Baie-Comeau Drakkar.

MacAulay opened the scoring at 11:49 of the first period. Konrad Abeltshauser, Stefan Fournier, and Matthew Boudreau also scored for Halifax. Goaltender Zach Fucale, who had a shutout in Friday’s Game 1, made 28 saves in the win.

Baie-Comeau had goals from Valentin Zykov, Carl Gelinas, and Petr Straka. Two of their three goals came in the final two minutes of the game. Philippe Cadorette allowed four goals on 20 shots in 40 minutes of action. Francis Desrosiers made seven saves in relief.

One of the big stories so far in this series has been the Drakkar’s power play woes. They were 0-for-6 on Saturday night at the Metro Centre.

As for MacAulay, tonight’s goal ties his career high of six in the playoffs. He also had three shots, one hit, a +1 rating, and a fight against Alec Jon Banville.

MacAulay took home the fur coat tonight. Big game for Bird. #leadership
— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) May 5, 2013

50/50 winner took home over $30,000. Ridiculous.

The series now shifts to Baie-Comeau where the atmosphere is going to be unreal. Halifax puts their perfect 14-0 playoff record on the line on Tuesday night in Game 3.

Elsewhere…

• Former Sea Dog Danny Chiasson setup JP Harvey’s goal at 3:55 of overtime to give the Summerside Western Capitals a 1-0 victory over the Cornwall Colts at the Fred Page Cup. Summerside moves on to play the host Truro Bearcats in tomorrow’s championship game.
• Summerside defenseman and former Sea Dog Jason Seed was named to the Fred Page Cup tournament all-star team today.
• Zack Phillips’ season is over. The Houston Aeros lost 7-0 to Tomas Jurco and the Grand Rapids Griffins tonight in AHL playoff action. The Griffins won the best-of-five first-round series 3-2. Jurco had no points in the game. The Griffins move on to play the Toronto Marlies in the Western Conference semi-final.
• The Leafs.