The Mooseheads will get a rare Friday night off thanks to the postponement of tonight's contest with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.
Halifax was set to take on the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's worst team tonight at 7 p.m. at the Scotiabank Centre but due to poor weather conditions in New Brunswick, the Titan were unable to make the trek to the Nova Scotia capital.
The Mooseheads, who are riding a four-game winning streak into the weekend, would have had a great opportunity to make it five in a row. Halifax is a perfect 7-0 this season against the defending Memorial Cup champions.
The game will now be played on Monday.
The Herd picked up their fourth straight victory on Wednesday night on home ice at the Scotiabank Centre when they handed the Charlottetown Islanders a 4-1 defeat.
Raphael Lavoie opened the scoring for Halifax, directing a pass from the corner toward Mooseheads captain Antoine Morand in front of the net. The puck deflected in off of Islanders netminder Matt Welsh to put Halifax up 1-0.
Rookie Samuel Dube potted his first career QMJHL goal less than a minute later, banging in a rebound at the side of the Charlottetown net to give his team a 2-0 lead.
Joel Bishop added a pair of goals for the Mooseheads, including an empty-netter, while Alex Gravel (26-10-1-1, .912 SV%, 2.65 GAA) made 25 saves between the pipes to pick up his 26th win of the season.
The Mooseheads were able to grind out the victory, their sixth of the 2018-19 campaign over the Islanders, despite dealing with a new injury and a suspension that kept two regulars out of the lineup.
This lead to Sonny Kabatay being called up from the Nova Scotia Major Midget Hockey League while Gavin Hart was summoned from the Maritime Jr. A Hockey League's Truro Bearcats.
Rookie Cole Stewart, who was hurt in Saturday's 4-2 win over Moncton, was out of the lineup on Wednesday while Ben Higgins served an automatic one-game suspension for an aggressor penalty assessed in that same game.
Stewart joins forwards Maxim Trepanier, Ostap Safin, and defensemen Jocktan Chainey and Jake Ryczek on the shelf.
The team is also currently without rookie Marcel Barinka who is in Sochi, Russia this week competing for his native Czech Republic at the under-18 Five Nations Cup.
Higgins will be back in the Mooseheads lineup for Saturday's game against Cape Breton.
HALIFAX (37-11-2-1) vs CAPE BRETON (31-15-1-4), Saturday at 7 p.m. on NEWS 95.7
The Mooseheads are 5-2-0-1 against the Eagles in this season's Battle of Nova Scotia. Saturday's match-up marks the final meeting of the regular season between the provincial rivals.
Cape Breton handed Halifax a 3-0 shutout loss the last time these two teams faced off at Centre 200 on Jan. 11.
Egor Sokolov, Shawn Boudrias and Shaun Miller scored for the Eagles while Kevin Mandolese (22-9-1-3, .898 SV%, 2.73 GAA) made 37 saves in goal to pick up the shutout.
Cape Breton has dropped two straight games in shootouts on home ice, falling 3-2 to Victoriaville last Saturday and 3-2 to Drummondville on Wednesday.
The Eagles, led by leading scorer and Sydney native Mitchell Balmas (33-28-61 in 47 GP), are second in the Maritimes Division and 10 points back of the Mooseheads.
The puck drops at 7 p.m. live from the Scotiabank Centre on NEWS 95.7.
Don't forget to stick around after the game for the East Side Mario's Post-Game Show.
