Mooseheads' momentum stalls in loss to Sea Dogs

We should probably be talking about the Halifax Mooseheads being on a two-game winning streak right now.
They did everything they were supposed to do to win Saturday's game at the Scotiabank Centre but wound up losing 4-3 to the Saint John Sea Dogs. It would've made for a rewarding weekend after snapping a five-game losing skid with a road win over the Bathurst Titan on Friday.
"We're losing a lot of games right now, which is not good, but we felt like we were about to get some momentum going," said Halifax winger Senna Peeters. "To be honest, I thought everyone played good on our team and everyone worked hard and wanted to win. But you need luck for that and we didn't have that today."
Despite playing some of their best defensive hockey of the season, the Mooseheads had to watch the Sea Dogs score three times on their first eight shots to take a 3-0 lead. Even after the Mooseheads clawed their way back to tie it in the third period, the Sea Dogs benefitted from a bounce at their own blue line to score shorthanded and take the lead back for good.
"It's never fun to lose at home, first of all," Peeters said. "But it's also that it was unlucky that makes it not fun right now. I think we played a good game but nothing worked out for us."
The biggest indicator of the kind of night it was could be seen on the shot clock. Alexis Gravel faced 14 shots for Halifax an Zachary Bouthillier saw 37 for Saint John.
"We all went out and put our bodies on the line to try to get that win but sometimes it just doesn't come," said Halifax defenceman Lucas Robinson. "We had to work for everything we got and it seemed like they would score on everything. It just didn't work out for us."
And it was a challenging night to begin with for the Halifax defence. Walter Flower hurt himself in Friday's game so he joined injured teammates Jared McIsaac and Brendan Tomilson on the sidelines, while Cameron Whynot is still away at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge. 
Veterans Jason Horvath, Patty Kyte and Justin Barron had to log huge minutes, as did Robinson, who has only dressed for half of Halifax's games so far this season. Keegan Hunt and Zachary Byard dressed as callups and played occasionally. It was Hunt's third career QMJHL game and Byard's first.
"I played more in these two games than I have all year so that was good," Robinson said. "You get more into the game the more minutes you get. I just tried to keep my feet moving and make good plays."
Ben Badalamenti, Matt Gould, Julian Vander Voet and William Villenueve scored for the Sea Dogs and Peeters, Raphael Lavoie and Maxim Trepanier had the Mooseheads goals.
The loss drops Halifax's record to 8-9-1-0 and Saint John improves to 6-11-1-0. Half of the Sea Dogs' wins have come against the Mooseheads.
"I really don't know what it is about them," Peeters said. "They have a good goalie. Bouthillier always plays well against us. But sometimes you have luck and sometimes you don't. That seems to be how it goes every time against them."
The Mooseheads' next game is at home on Friday against the Drummondville Voltigeurs.
"We've been practising hard and everyone is feeling confident on the team," Peeters said. "We feel like we're getting better and we just have to make sure we start winning some games here."
Notes: Cole Foston (knee), and Cole Stewart (day to day) also did not play for Halifax. Mooseheads assistant coach Sylvain Favreau and goalie coach Joey Perricone are also at the World Under-17 Challenge.