Young Herd reaping rewards of hard-work
By: Henry Whitfield
Photo Credit: Richard Lafortune
The Halifax Mooseheads have finally found a rhythm knocking off Baie-Comeau Drakkar, PEI Rockets and Drummondville over their last four games, barely losing a close decision to the Moncton Wildcats.
Unfortunately for the Herd that momentum will be hard to keep going, tonight they welcome the top team in the country to the Metro Center. The Saint John Sea Dogs have been head and shoulders above every team this season, currently on an eight game winning streak and fresh off an 11 – 2 dismantling of the Wildcats.
The Sea Dogs also boast an abundance of talent with Jonathan Huberdeau, Zach Phillips and Michael Kirkpatrick leading the way with a combined 212 points between them so far this season.
Meanwhile, the disappointing Mooseheads are warming up and finally showing signs of life in a season full of more downs than ups.
Captain Travis Randall and veteran Gerard Grant have started to show up, complimenting the always hard working Charles Bety to give this young Herd leadership and direction.
Terenzio has been strong in net for the Moose
The goaltending combination of Anthony Terenzio and Piche have given the Mooseheads a chance to win games, making big saves when it counts and making up for defensive mistakes that are common in a young team.
A very young defensive core has also found its game, The big surprise has been young German Konrad Abeltshauser, who has found his slap-shot and is showing his true potential over the last dozen games. The always consistent Steve Gillard continues to impress and even Sawyer Hannay has started to pick up his game.
Highly touted Martin Frk has cooled off a bit, but Carl Gelinas has refound his scoring touch and Summerside, PEI native Darcy Ashley has become a fan favourite with his exciting play and goal scoring ability.
Gelinas has found his scoring touch, netting twice against the Volts
It has been the overall teamwork and hard skating that has led to the Herd’s recent success, finding it’s legs in the third period which has been non-existant all season. Usually a team ready to roll over in the third, this team has been battling for a full sixty minutes and working for points.
However, if the Moose are to have any chance at all against the highflying Sea Dogs then it will come down to staying out of the penalty box and staying focused for a full sixty minutes.
Sound simple?
Probably not.
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Henry is a contributor to Sportstream.ca and part of the Bill McLean Sports Show on 88.1 CKDU every Tuesday Mornings at 11. You can follow him on twitter at HenryWhitfield, where he live tweets his thoughts during each Mooseheads games.
