Mar 25 Juniors Take Game 1 Over Mooseheads 5-3

The Montreal Juniors won game 1 of their best of 7 series against the Halifax Mooseheads last night at the Verdun Auditorium.

The 5-3 score made it seem a lot closer than it actually was. The Mooseheads scored first, but the juniors answered with 5 goals of their own until they got into penalty trouble, where a couple of 5 on 3’s allowed the Mooseheads to score 2 more goals late in the game.

Montreal was without the services of trade deadline catch, Viktor Hertzberg, suffering symptoms of a third concussion in a year. Forward Philippe Fontaine was also on the IR. The Juniors, however, showed their depth, getting goals from  Charles Landry, Nicolas Chouinard, Philippe Lefebvre, Louis Leblanc and Louis-Marc Aubry en route to the win. Trevor Parkes was held goal-less, but 16 of his team leading 33 goals have been scored on the road, so Juniors fans should not expect him to be held without a goal for too long.

With a Canadiens/Bruins game on the same night, attendance at the Verdun Auditorium was sparse with only 1412 fans in attendance. The Juniors had the opportunity to choose Friday and Sunday games instead of Thursday and Friday, but opted for the latter in order to accommodate for rest during the long bus ride to Halifax after game 2.

Let’s hope that fans who missed out so far will have more playoff games to watch at the V. speaking of which, game 2 goes tonight at 7:05

Read on for the official Juniors game recap:

The Montreal Juniors beat the Halifax Mooseheads 5 to 3 to take game one of this best-of-seven series.

Halifax started the game off on the right foot, with Matthew Boudreau giving his team the first goal of the game. However, the Juniors came back in force with five unanswered goals. Charles Landry, Nicolas Chouinard, Philippe Lefebvre, Louis Leblanc and Louis-Marc Aubry all found the back of the net for their first markers of the playoffs.

Late in the third period, the Mooseheads attempted a comeback, Konrad Abeltshauser scoring two quick goals, but it was too little, too late.

Between the pipes, Halifax goaltender Frédéric Piché turned away 25 of the 30 shots he faced, while Anthony Terenzio stopped the 10 pucks fired his way in relief duty. In Montreal’s goal crease, Jean-François Bérubé stopped 15 of 18 shots. Nicolas Chouinard (MTL), Jérémy Gouchie (MTL) and Charles Landry (MTL) were respectively named first, second and third star of the game.

Game two between these two teams will take place tomorrow night, March 25th, at 7:05pm at the Verdun Auditorium.

Tags: Charles Landry \ Halifax Mooseheads \ LHJMQ \ Louis Leblanc \ Louis-Marc Aubry \ Montreal juniors \ Nicolas Chouinard \ Philippe Lefebvre \ playoffs \ QMJHL \ Verdun Auditorium