Mooseheads down Cape Breton in overtime

A two-goal effort from overager Samuel Rousseau helped propel the Halifax Mooseheads to a 3-2 shootout win over the Cape Breton Eagles as the Herd celebrated their graduating players to a crowd of 9000 at the Scotiabank Centre in their final regular-season home game.

After a scoreless opening frame, the Mooseheads lost a major piece as Shawn Carrier was ejected from the game at 0:51 of the second period for a checking to the head major after a hit on Lewis Gendron against the boards.

The Mooseheads opened the scoring at 3:06 on the powerplay after Rousseau tipped a shot from Owen Phillips through the pads of Connor Towle and into the Cape Breton goal. Lucas Romeo tipped a shot from Brady Flynn past Owen Bresson with just eight seconds left in the period to tie the contest at one heading into the final frame.

In the third, the Eagles took the lead at 8:04 as Hugo Charron found Aiden McCullough on a spinning pass and McCullough made no mistake, burying the puck past Bresson. But Halifax responded at 11:20 as Rousseau retied the contest, finding himself on a breakaway after a breakout pass from Brenden Espenell. Towle made the initial save before Rousseau knocked his own rebound into the Cape Breton net, forcing overtime.

After a scoreless overtime, the shootout was required and Liam Kilfoil beat Towle before Bresson stopped Raoul Boilard to secure the win for the Mooseheads.

With the win, Halifax improves to 26-27-3-3 on the season.

Rousseau was awarded first star with a pair of goals. Fellow overager Connor MacPherson earned second star while Towle was named third star making 36 saves for the Eagles.

The Mooseheads are back in action Sunday, March 8, as they travel to Cape Breton for the final instalment of the battle of Nova Scotia, as they take on the Eagles at Centre 200.

Puck drop is set for 3 p.m. Live coverage is available on 95.7 NewsRadio with Garreth MacDonald.