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Red-hot Mooseheads get rough in second game in a row

The Halifax Mooseheads are turning into the Broad Street Bullies.

After a brawl in Tuesday’s 8-3 loss to the Moncton Wildcats on Tuesday, the Moose bounced back with four straight goals in a 4-1 win over the Sherbrooke Phoenix Thursday, in a game that was defined by two fighting conga lines in the third period.

As we see in the video above (stick tap to John Moore, Mooseheads broadcaster and owner of sportsandmoore.com), we have a lovely tilt between Halifax’s Brandon Vuic and Sherbrooke’s Owen Bennington that earned both players staged fight misconducts and early showers.

The video jumps to 14:15 of the third period, where Moosehead blueliner Jean-Sébastien Taillefer and Phoenix winger Tim Weiser trade blows, both earning roughing and fighting penalties.

Next we join the action at 16:23, where the same two lines are on their next shift, and all hell breaks loose. Everyone picks a partner and squares off, with Halifax’s Ryan Falkenham and Kelly Bent and Sherbrooke’s Jérémy Roy getting the worst out of it. Since the rough stuff was in the final five minutes of the game, all fighters earned additional game misconducts for instigating fights and could be subject to league discipline.

Tuesday in Moncton, Wildcats forward Conor Garland spawned fisticuffs with a cross-check to a Mooseheads players into the open bench door, giving Wildcats forwards Lane Cormier and Will Bower fighting majors and Mooseheads forward Samuel Leblanc and blueliner Taylor Ford fighting penalties. Austyn Hardie and Bronson Beaton traded blows later on, with Hardie taking the decision, while Connor Moynihan later sucker-punched Cormier in the jaw with a bare fist when the latter wouldn’t drop the gloves late in the third.

The Mooseheads are hot, going 8-2 in their last ten, sitting in fourth in the Maritimes Division with a 25-22-3-1 record.

Having shipped out veterans at the trading period, they don’t have much to play for this season, so players are playing for jobs for future years. Eric Brassard, the goaltender they acquired for Zach Fucale, is out indefinitely, leaving them with rookie Kevin Resop to handle the lion’s share of starts. They have been gritty and hard-hitting to make up for the lack of talent, and they wear teams down in the trenches.

The Mooseheads take on the Acadie-Bathurst Titan Saturday in Halifax.