October 31st, 2009
MacDougall scores twice as Eagles drop Herd
SYDNEY — Taylor MacDougall said it was important for he and his teammates to show the fans at Centre 200 how the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles can really play on home ice.
The home side did just that Friday, posting a 4-1 win over the Halifax Mooseheads in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League play. MacDougall struck with two goals in the victory to hand the visitors their 11th-straight loss and post Cape Breton’s third-straight win.
“We have great fans and they deserve to see us win,” said MacDougall. “It was a big point to make tonight to try and get the ‘W’, but even bigger was to bring the same effort home as we do on the road. “I think we need to continue to build on tonight’s effort for a big matchup on Sunday.”
Halifax opened the scoring in the first period after Linden Bahm tipped home a point shot past Olivier Roy. The Mooseheads outshot the Eagles by a 16-8 advantage in the first and 31-29 overall, but Cape Breton would take the rest of the ink on the scoresheet.
Luke Adam tipped a point shot past Halifax’s Joel Grondin, followed by MacDougall for his first of the game on the power play, yet another tipped shot at the goal mouth.
Nick MacNeil with a laser beam from the slot in the second period and MacDougall with his second of the game on the power play in the third, rounded out the attack.
“It’s kind of tough, I think we have a good excuse when we come back at 6 a.m. Thursday, it takes more than a day to recuperate from those long trips,” said Eagles head coach and general manager Mario Durocher. “I don’t think we played an exceptional game, just enough to win.
“The first period, they really outskated us, but the second, we got the puck deeper and were able to get some forechecking goals. Hopefully, we’ll be OK for Sunday.”
Roy, who put in a strong performance in goal including a nice breakaway save on Carl Gélinas in the second, improved to 7-6-0 after making 30 saves. His counterpart, Grondin, did his best to give the struggling Mooseheads a chance in the game, but fell to 0-7-0 after deflecting 25 shots.
The Eagles, who improved to 11-6-1-2 on the season, moved one point behind the Moncton Wildcats for second in the Atlantic Division.
They continue their four-game road stand Sunday when they host the Quebec Remparts at 4 p.m.
NOTES: Al Murray, head scout for Hockey Canada, was at the game and met with Durocher after the contest. Durocher said Murray was scouting both Roy and Adam for the national junior team and there was also some discussion about defenceman Morgan Ellis as well as a future Hockey Canada prospect…The team received their H1N1 flu shots after the game, something Durocher felt was important since the team spends so much in close quarters on the road, which can make it easy to spread.
tjcolello@cbpost.com
