Unlike last season, games between the Halifax Mooseheads and Saint John Sea Dogs aren't mismatches anymore.
The steadily improving Sea Dogs are a step better than they were a year ago and the Mooseheads don't have the depth from when they hosted the Memorial Cup in May. With the gap between them all but eliminated, games this year should all be toss-ups, like Thursday's 6-5 Halifax win in front of 5,866 fans at the Scotiabank Centre.
"They were a young team last year, and they still are, but they've definitely improved a lot," said Halifax defenceman Walter Flower. "We worked hard for that one and it was a good character win tonight."
After the teams played to a 2-2 tie in the first period, the Sea Dogs pulled ahead 4-3 in the second before the Mooseheads scored three times in the third to turn it around 6-4 for them. A Saint John power-play goal with 1:27 left made it 6-5 and then Halifax scrambled in the final seconds to run out the clock.
"It's just good to win at home, first of all," said Halifax forward Senna Peeters. "Every player on the team worked hard today. All of us in the locker room really wanted to win this game and I think you saw that on the ice. It feels really good now to start the weekend off."
No team ever led by more than two goals and the back and forth was pretty even all game. This was a stark turnaround from last season when the rebuilding Sea Dogs were in over their heads in most games against the Mooseheads.
"We finally have (most of our) team here now," Peeters said. "(BO Groulx) is back to our team and he helps us a lot. Everyone is doing a great job and we just want to keep it going like that.
"We know we have to be prepared for every game. The season just started but we are seeing that every game is hard."
In the end, the Mooseheads did a better job rising to the occasion at the right time. They turned it up in the back half of the game, outshooting the Sea Dogs 24-13 in the final two periods.
"We relied on some key guys up front," Flower said. "They got some big goals in the third period. We knew we had to score and it was definitely good that we came together in the end."
Peeters and Maxim Trepanier, with two each, Flower and Justin Barron had the Mooseheads goals. Ben Badalamenti scored two for the Sea Dogs and Jeremie Poirier, Joshua Roy and Charlie DesRoches had one each.
Cole McLaren stopped 18 shots for Halifax and Zachary Bouthillier made 29 saves for Saint John.
"Whenever you face adversity and you come out on top, it makes it special and brings the boys that much closer," Flower said. "We're eight games in now and I think we're starting to gel a lot more. We have a lot of new guys - 10 rookies - so it took some time to get to know each other but now I think we're starting to come along."
The win improves the Mooseheads to 4-4-0-0 and the Sea Dogs fall to 3-5-0-0. As early as it is in the season, points are already precious in the highly competitive Maritimes Division.
"You've got Moncton, Cape (Breton), Saint John and Charlottetown; those are all tough teams to play," Flower said. "It's going to be a battle all season."
The Mooseheads travel to Moncton on Friday to face the Wildcats. Moncton just welcomed back top players Jeremy McKenna and Axel Andersson so it will be a tough test.
"They have a good team and we're playing them at home so we know it's going to be a hard game," Peeters said. "I think if we play the way we did today, we should do well."
Notes: Jared McIsaac (shoulder), Alexis Gravel (foot), Cole Foston (knee), Lucas Robinson (healthy scratch) and Said Abi-Faycal (healthy scratch) did not play for Halifax.
