Dumont’s debut
Eagles fall to Mooseheads in Marc-André Dumont’s debut behind Eagles bench.
SYDNEY— The Halifax Mooseheads spoiled Marc-Andre Dumont’s debut at Centre 200 Tuesday night, but the new head coach and general manager of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles admitted he liked the way his team handled itself in a 5-3 loss to the top-ranked junior hockey team in the country.
“I think the guys showed a lot of goodwill out there tonight,” he said. “I felt they competed the whole game. There was a down period energy-wise during the second period, but we finished the period so strong that it kept us going for the third period.”
The Mooseheads outshot the Screaming Eagles 37-22 in a wideopen game that featured plenty of skating but not much hitting and only three minor penalties, and it was the Halifax’s team’s blue-chip frontline that was the difference in the game, despite the visitors falling behind early.
Cape Breton opened the scoring at 1:10 of the first period on a pretty goal from Michael Clarke, who dragged the puck around a Mooseheads defenseman before snapping a quick shot from the slot that beat Halifax goaltender Chris Clarke on the glove side.
The early goal seemed to give the Eagles confidence and it was an up-and-down game for the early part of the opening period, with some good chances for each side, until the talented Halifax forwards went to work, scoring three unanswered goals to head into the dressing room with a 3-1 lead.
Martin Frk opened the scoring for the Mooseheads by converting a nice pass from Jonathan Drouin to beat Eagles netminder Phillipe Trudeau between the pads at 8:58, and Darcy Ashley doubled the score at 16:52 when he pounced on a rebound in front of the net.
Trudeau had no chance on the third goal, a two-on-one converted by Matthew Boudreau just seconds after the Eagles had killed off Alexandre Lavoie’s holding penalty.
Inspired by their strong finish to the opening stanza, the Mooseheads poured it on in the early minutes of the second period, forcing the Eagles netminder to make a number of good stops, with Drouin just missing from the slot five minutes in, Nathan MacKinnon being foiled on a partial break a couple of minutes later and Boudreau just missing from right in front at about the halfway mark.
The Eagles, back on their heels, didn’t get a shot on goal until about the 10-minute mark, but began to work their way back into the play until they were eventually rewarded with a power play marker from Brett Malone at 18:48, when he was allowed to whack at the puck a couple of times before jamming it under the Halifax goaltender.
The Eagles came into the third period looking to draw even and managed to carry the play at times, but Stefan Fournier on a nice individual effort at 5:20 and Luca Ciampini at 11:05 on a rebound that Trudeau couldn’t control put the game away for the Mooseheads.
Eagles forward Kyle Farell outraced a Moosehead defenceman to a loose puck to score a nice goal at 14:42, but that was as close as the Eagles were able get.
Mooseheads forward Nathan MacKinnon, off to Calgary after a pair of weekend games in Bathurst and Saint John to attend a training camp for Canada’s world junior team, liked the challenge of playing against the Mooseheads’ provincial rival.
“I think every player needs to adapt to what kind of game is being played every night, and if it’s a skating game or a physical game, you have to play that way. Tonight it was a skating game and I thought the boys did a good job.”
Dumont isn’t at all discouraged by the loss. In fact, he liked what he saw in his first game behind the bench. “I think that we’re a big team and we can be physical,” he said. “And I also think that we can definitely bring the puck to the net and we had a few guys bear down and bring it to the net.
“That’s the type of hockey we want to show the fans.”