After a game where the Moncton Wildcats put on a show for their own fans (a 7-3 win, with the Cats Barbashev having 4Gs and 2As), Nikolaj Ehlers—the Mooseheads dashing dane—put on a show of his own, which could have been his last as a Moose.
The Mooseheads set the tone after puck drop, controlling the play and making passes that you’d expect from the CPU to make on superstar mode in NHL15. I haven’t seen many of the new Terminator: Genesys trailers, but I hear it stars the Mooseheads.
Brandon Vuic opened the floodgates by chipping a puck between two Moncton defenders before scoring a backhand beauty. Just like I would do if I was playing… NHL. You know when you're in the zone and you ride that video game wave? That was the Mooseheads last night. The top line continued their dominance with Ehlers having 2Gs and 2As (31 points in the playoffs), Danny Moniyhan with three assists and Meier with a goal and assist, every time they were on the ice, they looked dangerous. Dangerous like some T-1000s. The rest of the Mooseheads looked like T-800s, taking the fight to Moncton like the police station shootout.
After the first period I was preparing to start reporting to Skynet. It was 4-0, the game was in the bag. Mission accomplished, machines.
Knowing what the bleak future holds (because lets face it, Moncton looks a hell of a lot like the scorched Earth you’d expect after judgment day) the Wildcats decided to hell with this, we'll send these robots back from whence they came and started their resistance. Sensing the Mooseheads’ programming had selected “power drive” the Cats made adjustments. Kyle Reese Bronson Beaton (great name) got them on the board followed by another Moncton goal before the end of the second, with the Mooseheads Machines holding a three goal lead.
Having the most dangerous lead in hockey, the Mooseheads kept it in the danger zone. They tried to make the same sort of plays they were attempting successfully in the first half of the game, with mixed results this time. The Cats were wise to their tricks of sending someone back in time up the ice for a long pass and mounted their comeback. That patented Moncton quick counter-attack started to click as they managed to “claw” their way back into the game badly outshooting Halifax and making it 7-5, but that's as close as they would get.
Maybe it was all one long con by the Mooseheads. Building a huge lead only to see it evaporate in the later stages of the game. It’s certainly not ideal to lose a huge lead like that, but at the end of the day they still won. The team looked great on a whole (minus the second half of the game where they took the foot off the gas and let the Wildcats back in the game) and I don’t think you want to completely embarrass them before the game shifts back to Moncton. That shit is called bulletin board material, you don’t need to give them extra incentive to win.
Game 7 is set for Tuesday night at 7PM in Moncton. I, for one, will welcome Skynet and the headlines that say “MONCTON DESTROYED, MACHINES WIN”.
