DOGS DAILY: Moose Coming To Town

The Halifax Mooseheads and Saint John Sea Dogs find themselves at opposite ends of rebuilds.

While Saint John’s maturing roster has had a strong season and sit third overall in the QMJHL standings, the young Mooseheads are in the early stages of a rebuild and appear destined for the league’s draft lottery. The two teams meet tomorrow night at Harbour Station and again on Saturday in Halifax.

The Mooseheads have a record of 18-34-6-1 for 43 points on the year. With just nine games left on their schedule, they find themselves five points behind the 16^th-place Blainville-Boisbriand Armada who own the league’s final playoff spot. The Armada have also played two fewer games than Halifax.

While it’s possible the Mooseheads could catch the Armada – losers of five straight – they'd probably be, in the long run, better off entering the lottery for the league’s first overall pick. The Baie-Comeau Drakkar sit dead last in the league and will miss the playoffs.

Tomorrow’s game also marks the first time Bokondji Imama and Kelly Bent have been eligible to play against each other since The Incident. So that could be… interesting.

In other news…

• Saturday’s game in Halifax will be the final Saint John-Halifax meeting of the year. The Sea Dogs are 4-2-0-0 against the Mooseheads this season.
• Tomorrow’s game kicks off a busy stretch of games for the Sea Dogs with less than a month left in the regular season. Between tomorrow and March 19, the Dogs will play 12 games.
• Daniel Del Paggio, a UNBSJ student, has been named Saint John’s nominee for the Marcel-Robert Trophy as the QMJHL’s Scholastic Player of the Year.
• The Screaming Eagles are beginning a very tough road trip tonight in Gatineau. They’ll visit Rouyn-Noranda on Friday and Val-d’Or on Saturday.
• The Sea Dogs were, yet again, an honourable mention in the CHL Top 10 rankings.
• Former Sea Dogs forward Stephen MacAulay, a third-year forward with the University Cup hosting Saint Mary’s Huskies, was named a second team AUS all-star today.

Photo: Marc Henwood/Station Nation