Mooseheads come up short on the road in Victoriaville

Halifax continued the first Quebec road trip of the season on Saturday in Victoriaville after an ugly 8-1 loss to the Shawinigan Cataractes on Friday night.

The Mooseheads appeared to take an early lead with Carlos Handel firing a puck past Gabriel D’Aigle. The play was subject to a review and was shortly disallowed after Braedon MacPhee made some contact with D’Aigle.

Victoriaville captain Maël Lavigne opened the scoring at 9:05 into the first period, forcing Mattis Rousseau out of position and burying a pass from Justin Larose into the empty Moosehead net.

Halifax tied the game three minutes later when Braedon MacPhee buried Jan Sprynar’s feed from the corner boards for his fourth goal of the season 12:10 into the first period, redeeming his contact with the Victoriaville goaltender that caused Handel’s goal to be disallowed earlier in the period.

Justin LaRose struck on the powerplay with 44 seconds left in the first period, assisted by Maël Lavigne and Eliott Simard, giving Victoriaville the lead heading into the first intermission.

Victoriaville controlled most of the second period, keeping the Mooseheads shotless for the first 14 minutes of the frame. The Herd had several scoring chances in the last 5 minutes, including a MacPhee wrap-around at the end of the period. Both goaltenders stood their ground as the second period ended still 2-1 for Victoriaville.

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Olivier Houde sped down the right-wing side and fired a laser past Rousseau just 0:54 into the final period of play, Eliott Simard earning his second assist of the evening.

Moosehead’s forward Patrick McNab scored his first QMJHL goal in the third period, knocking a bouncing puck past D’Aigle and into the Victoriaville net. Antoine Fontaine and Lincoln Waugh assisted the rookie McNab on his first goal.

The Herd pulled Rousseau with 90 seconds to go in the game. Justin Gendron only took a moment to drive his way up the ice, passing Handel and putting the puck in the empty Moosehead net. Jack Martin responded right after, keeping the Mooseheads’ deficit at one.

Rousseau was pulled again to give the Herd an extra attacker. Still, time was not an ally to the Mooseheads, with a last-second goal opportunity ending with the buzzer as the Victoriaville Tigres took game one of the two-game season series 4-3.

With the loss, the Moose fell to 7-5-2, while the Tigres improved to 4-7-2.

Victoriaville claimed all three stars. Justin LaRose earned the first star, Olivier Houde captured the second star, and Goaltender Gabriel D’Aigle received the third star.

The Mooseheads will return on Sunday, Oct. 27th, to finish their Quebec road trip as they take on the Sherbrooke Phoenix at the Palais des Sports Léopold-Drolet.

The puck drops at 4 p.m., and you can hear all the action on 95.7 NewsRadio with Garreth MacDonald.