Mooseheads come up short in rematch with Islanders

The patchwork Halifax Mooseheads couldn't perform another miracle on Friday night.
Two days after beating the Charlottetown Islanders on the road with a depleted lineup, the Mooseheads lost 5-0 in the rematch in front of 7,189 fans at the Scotiabank Centre.
"We're missing a lot of our top guns at things like world juniors, and congrats to them for making it, but we played a really good road game Wednesday night and then tonight they just dominated us," said Halifax defenceman Patty Kyte. "I feel like we weren't ready for them."
To their credit, the short-staffed Mooseheads put in a committed effort but the Islanders just wore them down. They led 1-0 after 20 minutes and 4-0 after two periods before wrapping it up in the third.
"It's a young group we have here," Kyte said. "We have a lot of first-year players and some of us are trying to step up and lead the best we can and stay positive when things aren't going well. They're a great group of young guys and they're fun to be around. They're all working hard."
Unavailable either because of injuries or international tournament commitments were Bo Groulx, Raphael Lavoie, Jared McIsaac, Justin Barron, Marcel Barinka, Senna Peeters and Jordan McKenna. To make matters worse, top forward Maxim Trepanier did not return for the third period because of an upper body injury.
The remaining players and a handful of call-ups did well to go back and forth with the Islanders but couldn't generate the offence they needed to get a second straight win.
Liam Peyton scored twice for the Islanders and Cole Edwards, Brett Budgell and Kevin Gursoy had one each.
Matthew Welsh made 21 saves for Charlottetown for his 13th career shutout and Alexis Gravel stopped 27 shots for Halifax. The game was the 200th of Welsh's QMJHL career. He is the 14th goalie in league history to hit that milestone.
"Give credit to Welsh, he played really well too," Kyte said. "It was his 200th (game) so good for him. But we just couldn't find the back of the net and close the game a bit. They played well."
Trepanier had his 16-game points streak snapped. He had 13 goals and 13 assists during that stretch, which ended on Friday the 13th.
The Mooseheads (15-14-2-1) wrap up the first half of the season on the road against the Saint John Sea Dogs on Saturday. Their first game after the Christmas break is Dec. 28 at home against the Cape Breton Eagles.
"The break's always nice," Kyte said. "You can spend time with family and friends and rest up your body. Tomorrow against Saint John we're going to go all out and hopefully get one more win before the break."
Kyle Petten, Landon Miron and Bryan Laureigh played a second game as call-ups for the Mooseheads.
Wildcats 4, Eagles 0: In Moncton, Charles-Antoine Lavallee made 23 saves to earn the shutout.
Gavin Watt, Mika Cyr, Zachary L'Heureux and Philippe Daoust had the Moncton goals. Kevin Mandolese stopped 30 shots for Cape Breton.