Logan MacMillan got the best of his scrappy, hard-working former team on Saturday night in his return to the Metro Centre.
The former Halifax Mooseheads star suited up for the Rimouski Oceanic and collected a pair of assists to power the Memorial Cup hosts to a well-earned 4-2 victory before a noisy crowd of 7,581.
“It was fun … It made it a lot better, us coming out on top,” said MacMillan, who sports his familiar No. 11 with Rimouski. “I thought it would be really weird, but I just went to the bench, watched the seats crowd up a little … It was similar to how it was on the other side.”
MacMillan assisted on Sebastien Piche’s opening goal just 89 seconds in as the Oceanic beat Mooseheads goaltender Mark Yetman on two of their first three shots. He also grabbed a helper on Patrick Delisle-Houde’s game-winning marker at 17:20 of the second period.
The 19-year-old Anaheim Ducks first-rounder has four goals and 10 assists in 14 games with the Oceanic. He joined the team in December after being traded for Guillaume Pelletier and draft picks.
MacMillan had missed three games with a Charley horse. He said the injury had “some moments” but he had no intention of missing an opportunity to suit up at the Metro Centre one last time.
“I marked this one on my schedule a while ago,” he said.
The Mooseheads, desperately seeking their first three-game winning streak of the season, put in a gutsy effort start to finish. Penalties sank them in the end, as Delisle-Houde’s winner came on the power play. So did Jordan Caron’s insurance goal at 10:45 of the third, while Halifax played the final 2:44 shorthanded.
“It wasn’t a bad game, we played well,” said Mooseheads rookie Gabriel Desjardins, who had a goal and was the second star. “I feel like everybody played well and the coach was satisfied. When you lose a game, you cannot smile, but altogether it was a good game.”
Jessyko Bernard had Halifax’s other goal and Yetman bounced back from a sluggish start to finish with 28 saves.
The Mooseheads, four points out of a playoff spot, return to action on Tuesday against the Bathurst Titan at 7 p.m.
