Mooseheads suffer lopsided loss in Chicoutimi

The Mooseheads continued its final Quebec road trip of the season on Friday night with an 8-3 blowout loss to the Chicoutimi Saguenéens at the Centre Georges-Vézina.

The teams traded early goals. Shawn Carrier bounced the puck off the back boards, finding Quinn Kennedy in front of the Chicoutimi, who buried it past Jacob Brochu just over a minute into the game. The Saguenéens responded two minutes later, as Alonso Gosselin sent a shot from the left-wing circle past Nicolas Cirka.

Halifax reclaimed its lead 5:20 into the first after Liam Kilfoil sent a pass to Antoine Fontaine, who snapped the puck past Brochu. Still, again, Chicoutimi quickly responded as Christophe Berthelot retied the game.

Caylen Blake dropped the gloves with Alonso Gosselin for his first QMJHL scrap. Officials separated the players, who were handed matching game misconducts.

The Saguenéens scored two more to end the first period as Alex Huang and Émile Guité gave Chicoutimi the 4-2 lead.

Liam Kilfoil cashed in his 17th goal of the season two minutes into the second period, taking advantage of an awkward bounce of the net, beating Brochu in the slot and knocking the Sags lead to one on the powerplay.

Chicoutimi dominated the remainder of the second period, tallying up three unanswered goals. Korney Korneyev started off the action for the Sags; his goal was subject to a short review but was allowed. Jonathan Prud’homme added to the Mooseheads’ deficit with seven minutes remaining in the second, and Berthelot ended the frame, tipping Huang’s shot into the Halifax net, giving Chicoutimi a 7-3 lead.

After Berthelot’s goal, Jacob Steinman entered the game in relief for Cirka.

In the third, the Sags continued its scoring prowess. Nathan Lecompte found the back of the net at 11:23 of the final frame to close out the contest, giving Chicoutimi the win.

With the loss, the Herd fell to 15-25-7 while the Sags improved to 25-12-9.

The Mooseheads now head to Quebec City to end its road trip at the Centre Vidéotron on Saturday, Feb 1, to take on the Quebec Ramparts. Puck drop is at 5 p.m., and you can catch all the action here on 95.7 NewsRadio.