Bent roughs up Malatesta with questionable hit in Game 2 of Halifax-Moncton series

It’s not all cheery for the Halifax Mooseheads, surprise leaders in their second round series with the favoured Moncton Wildcats.

Mooseheads forward Kelly Bent, he of the rough and tumble variety, made his mark known in the first period of game 2, getting tangled up with Wildcat blueliner Zach Malatesta.

Malatesta went to hit Bent at the Wildcats blueline, but Bent stood him up and they got entangled, leaving Bent with a hand free to handle Malatesta, take his head and appear to drive it squarely into the glass.

You can watch the hit on the video below. Bent received two minutes for roughing on the play.

Bent has been suspended twice in 2015, once in February for his role in a brawl against the Sherbrooke Phoenix, and once in March for his penalties in a game against the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. Both suspensions were two-gamers.

Bent had 160 penalty minutes in the regular season, enough for third in the QMJHL, and he has 18 minutes in penalties so far in the post-season. The Mooseheads are his hometown team, but his fourth team in four QMJHL seasons, having spent time with the P.E.I. Rocket, the Gatineau Olympiques and the Saint John Sea Dogs. He was acquired in an off-season trade with Saint John last summer.

The Mooseheads have had disciplinary issues so far in the playoffs, mostly on two one-game suspensions to another tough customer, forward Brandon Vuic, one for “being the aggressor” and one for checking from behind. League’s leading playoff scorer Nikolaj Ehlers was also fined $1,000 for abuse of officials. All of those suspensions coming from Halifax’s marathon seven game series against the Shawinigan Cataractes.

Malatesta did not appear to be injured on the play. The Wildcats ultimately lost game 2 6-3, pairing that with a 7-3 loss in game 1 to fall 0-for-2 in the series.

Bent hit one of few things that hasn’t gone right for Mooseheads

In Buzzing the Net’s second round preview, we did mention how Bent could have an impact on the series, but this is probably not the way head coach Dominique Ducharme drew it up.

However, most other things have, including separating big forwardsEhlers and Timo Meier from defensive matchups.

Ducharme has his big forwards playing not in lines but in duos, separating his talented forwards throughout the lineup. It benefitted big for forwards like Philippe Gadoury, with four points in game 1 with a big help from Ehlers, and Vincent Watt and Maxime Fortier in game 2, who each scored twice along with Meier’s two goals.

The Mooseheads was also able to get big body defenceman Austyn Hardie on Moncton star Conor Garland for most of the first two games.

Garland has had three assists in two games, and he has a point in every game in the QMJHL playoffs so far, but he hasn’t had more than two points in a game yet.

Moncton’s scoring depth has completely dried up. Of their six goals this series, only two haven’t had the help of Garland or Barbashev.

Not only that, the defensive coverage has left Alex Dubeau out to dry, as Moosehead forwards are having easy paths to the net and easy times getting open. A lot of that credit deservedly goes to Ehlers, who has drawn defenders his way only to deftly pass out of a double or a triple team.

In the case of Dubeau, he has been outdueled by his counterpart in net, Halifax goalie Eric Brassard. Brassard has 74 saves on 80 shots through two games, while Dubeau has 50-in-63.

Game 3 of the series goes Tuesday night at Scotiabank Centre. All three other series resume Tuesday night.