Even a basement-dwelling opponent wasn’t enough to kick-start the Halifax Mooseheads’ secondary scoring.
The last-place Mooseheads lost for the 14th time in their first 15 games yesterday, wrapping up a three-game road trip to Quebec with a 3-1 setback to the Baie-Comeau Drakkar.
Halifax converted on just one of nine power-play chances and was unable to score on a pair of five-on-three opportunities, again struggling to find offence beyond the red-hot top line of Gerrad Grant, Tomas Knotek and Travis Randell.
Grant extended his scoring streak to 10 games with the game’s opening goal, giving his line 10 of the Mooseheads’ 12 tallies over the past five games. Defenceman Garrett Clarke is the only other player to find the net in that stretch.
“You’re not going to win a lot of hockey games when one line is doing all your scoring or you’re relying on a 16-year-old defenceman to do it for you,” Mooseheads head coach and general manager Cam Russell said afterward.
Russell declined an invitation to name names regarding who he expects to step up behind his big guns, but the stats tell you that 20-year-olds Yuri Cheremetiev (one point in seven games) and Linden Bahm (one point in five games) could offer more given their veteran status. Gabriel Desjardins, although only 16, has just one point in his past 10 games, and 18-year-old Jessyko Bernard has just one point in seven games.
“There are guys who aren’t producing and they’re here to do that,” Russell said. “Look at a guy like Randell. We didn’t draft him to be a goal-scorer, we drafted him as a character player. Yet he’s leading us in scoring because he’s working hard. We have guys here to score who need to dig a little deeper.”
Knotek saw his 10-game scoring streak snapped. Goaltender Mathieu Corbeil made 21 saves.
The Mooseheads, 1-14-1, also fell 6-4 on Friday to the Chicoutimi Sagueneens and have lost seven straight. They are six points behind the second-to-last Drakkar (4-9-1).
