What's important to the Halifax Mooseheads right now is they are headed back in the right direction.
They didn't play their tidiest game Saturday night at the Scotiabank Centre but were just good enough to beat the Bathurst Titan 4-3 in ovetime in front of 7,301 fans. The win short-circuits a two-game slide and helps them dig out of a stretch of losing seven of their previous eight.
"We're winning, then losing, so it's up and down the whole time," said Halifax winger Senna Peeters. "We're going on the road next week so it's a good time to win so we can go with a feeling like this. I hope we can just keep it going now."
In a young season that has already seen them go on a five-game winning streak as well as a five-game losing skid, finding stability is just as important to the Mooseheads as momentum at this stage. Hosting the last-place Titan was just what they needed as they seemed dangerously close to going into a tailspin. They also beat the Titan last weekend in Bathurst.
"Every game's been close with them," said Halifax winger Sonny Kabatay. "They just got (their first) win last night so they were probably feeling pretty good. But beating them tonight for us was a really good feeling.
"It's always nice to get a win when you're having a slump like that."
The Mooseheads scored two goals on their first three shots to settle themselves and carried a 3-1 lead into the third period to give them a sense of control. But the Titan cut it to 3-2 with 7:37 left to play and then tied it with 12.8 seconds left and their goalie on the bench for an extra skater.
Peeters scored in overtime to help Halifax avoid a disaster.
"I just came on the ice and I saw they were going for a change, and they had a long change, so I yelled at (Jason Horvath) to skate," Peeters said. "He went in and he got past the first D and took it to the net. The puck landed right on my stick and I just shot it and I think it went right above the goalie's pad.
"It was a hard game. At the start we dominated them but we gave them a bit of momentum and they took advantage of it. We got a little unlucky at the end but it was a good win in overtime."
Bo Groulx, Maxim Trepanier and Justin Barron were the other Mooseheads scorers and Remy Anglehart, Noah Delemont and Anderson MacDonald had the Titan goals. Groulx scored on a between-the-legs shot in close that drew a huge reaction from everyone in the rink.
"It was unreal," Peeters said. "It's only Bo and a couple other guys that can do something like that at this level, especially being on the PK. It was crazy. The bench jumped up and I think social media's going to be all over it."
Cole McLaren made 42 saves for Halifax and Tristan Berube stopped 27 shots for Bathurst.
"(Cole) was strong at the back end there," Kabatay said. "He didn't let in any weak ones. He played solid tonight and we needed that."
The win moves Halifax (9-10-1-0) back to within striking distance of .500, while Bathurst drops to 1-13-2-3.
The Mooseheads' next game is on Wednesday on the road against the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. It is the opener of a three-game road trip to Quebec.
"It's always fun on those trips, just the bus rides and being with the boys in the hotel," Peeters said. "Playing on the road is tough because you don't have your fans to support you but we feel good right now and hopefully we come back with three wins."
Notes: Cole Foston (knee), Jared McIsaac (shoulder), Walter Flower (undisclosed injury), Cameron Whynot (World Under-17 Hockey Challenge) and Gavin Hart (healthy scratch) did not play for Halifax.
