The Euros are Coming!

So the Halifax Moosheheads selected to highly touted forward prospect in the CHL Import Draft Wednesday. The Import Draft is often filled with mystery as few people this side of the Atlantic know the players well and there are often questions whether the players are interested in coming over. Prior to the draft, many people had those questions of Halifax’s first pick Nikolaj Ehlers. Considered as possibly the top prospect to ever come out of Denmark, Ehlers had made the jump to the Swiss pro ranks as a 16 year old and signed a contract with HC Biel for the upcoming year. Some thought this indicated a preference to stay.

But Mooseheads GM, Cam Russell, did his due diligence as he was confident both we would be here for training camp. That confidence has been shown to be well founded according to his comments on a Danish Sports website and using the Google Translate tool:

I have for some time been in dialogue with Halifax and knew that I would be their first choice, says Nikolai Ehlers…

It increases my chances in the NHL draft choice next year. Now I get the chance to show that I can handle a long hard season. Moosehead has a strong team and a good organization, and I could not get to a better club.

Nikolaj Ehlers is joined to Halifax by a good friend from Switzerland, Timo Meier, who was draftet as No. 12

Another French publication had comments from Ehlers Swiss club that they would not obstruct Ehlers should he choose to play in North America:

“We knew Nikolaj would be drafted by a junior team in Canada, says sporting director Martin Steinegger HC Bienne. I do not know yet that he wants to give direction to his career, but if he decides to try his luck in North America, we can not even hold his contract.”

So unlike when the team drafted Martin Frk and had some difficult securing his release from his club team. it looks like there will be no such headaches with Ehlers or Meier. Welcome to Moose Country boys.

As for the Screaming Eagles and the Charlottetown Islanders, they added some talent as well.

Remparts and Mooseheads Set to Faceoff

UPDATED: SCHEDULE RELEASED

The Halifax Mooseheads and the Quebec Remparts will faceoff in what promises to be an exciting second round series (photo credit: Richard Lafortune)

It will be unofficial preview of the 2013 QMJHL finals. The Halifax Mooseheads will face the Quebec Remparts in the second round of the QMJHL playoffs. Both clubs are coming off first round sweeps and can brag about relatively young lineups that are pushing this season and will be expected to be even stronger next year.

Halifax dispated the Moncton Wildcats with relative ease. The only adversity faced by the club came in the final game of the series when they found themselves down by three early. But the youthfull Moose battlked back and ended up clinching the series in overtime. Strong indications fo a team learning what it takes to win in the playoffs.

Their second round opponent will offer a much stiffer test however. The Remparts similarly defeated their frst round opponent, the Drummondville Volitgeurs, fairly easily, only getting pushed to overtime in the final game.

Halifax ended the regular season with the edge in the head-to-head series 3-1. Each game was won by the hometeam which bodes well for the Remparts who are seeded fifth with 93 points while the Mooseheads finished sixth with 85.

It was an intense series thoughout the regular season and that intensity should be ratcheted up for the playoffs. The highlight, at least from a Halifax point of view, was a five goal game from Nathan MacKinnon in the December 3rd 6-4 victory.

Game #1: Friday, April 6th
Halifax vs Quebec @8pm
Colisee Pepsi

Game #2: Saturday, April 7th
Halifax vs Quebec @8pm
Colisee Pepsi

Game #3: Tuesday, April 10th
Quebec vs Halifax @7pm
Halifax Metro Centre

Game #4: Wednesday, April 11th
Quebec vs Halifax @ 7pm
Halifax Metro Centre

*Game #5: Friday, April 13th
Quebec vs Halifax @7pm
Halifax Metro Centre

*Game #6: Monday, April 16th
Halifax vs Quebec @8pm
Colisee Pepsi

*Game #7: Tuesday, April 17th
Halifax vs Quebec @8pm
Colisee Pepsi

*If necessary

I’d suggest you get your tickets early as they could go quickly. It should be a great series.

Team Atlantic Named for Under-17 Challenge

Nathan MacKinnon will be big a big part of a Christmas time tournament.

Christmas time in Canada has come to be a time of Junior Hockey. The World Junior Hockey Championship has come to be a holiday tradition, and rivals the NHL and Olympic hockey in terms of popularity when its on.

In the shadow of the World Juniors sits the World Under-17 Challenge. This year’s tournament kicks off December 29th (3 days after World Juniors) and finshes with the gold medal game on January 4th (day before World Juniors gold). Five regional teams from Canada compete against five international entries: Germany, Sweden, Czech Republic, Russian and the United States.

The Canadian teams are largely comprised of Major Junior rookies, top AAA Midget players, and a sprinkling of Junior A and Prep school talent.

Our neck of the wood is represented by Team Atlantic, with players from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Topping the list of for the Team Atlantic roster will be Halifax Moosehead Nathan MacKinnon, who had eight points in five games last year as underager. There is a slim chance that MacKinnon could be invited to play for Canada at the World Juniors, but recent comments from Kevin Prendergast indicate “it’s going to be tough” for MacKinnon to make the team this year.

MacKinnon Named POTG in Super Series Game 1

It was not a great performance for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League All-Stars, but one of its emerging stars made a strong impression on the National scene.

The Q outshot the Russian Select squad 42-12, but Sergey Kostenko managed to turn away them all including the handful of bona fide scoring chances.

Mooseheads Can’t Crack CHL Top 10

Winning is becoming commonplace for the Mooseheads. Can they keep the pace?

Despite a 9-1 month of October the Halifax Mooseheads were only able to garner on honourable mention in the Canadian Hockey League top ten.

The likely knock on Halifax’s current winning ways could be the fact that they haven’t faced the elite teams in the Q. Aside from the games against Saint John and Quebec, which they split, none of the other opponents have .500 records. Not even the West Division leading Val-d’Or Foreurs.

But hey, this young team is showing that they can win the games they should win. They have the nineth best winning percentage in the country, second best in the Q, but it’s not just all about stats. It’s hard to argue against taking out any of the current topten, so Halifax will have to show they can maintain the pace in order to crack the rankings.