Dumais makes team history

Mooseheads to open playoffs against Cape Breton Eagles

It was a historic day of franchise records and firsts for the Halifax Mooseheads on Saturday.

Jordan Dumais set a new team mark for most points in a single season and also became the first Halifax player ever to win the QMJHL scoring title. He had four assists in a 10-5 win over the Charlottetown Islanders in front of 8,764 fans at the Scotiabank Centre to finish the 2022-23 campaign with 140 points in 64 games.

Ramzi Abid held the record since the 1999-2000 season when he had 137 points in 59 games in a Halifax uniform. He also had 21 points in 13 games for the Bathurst Titan that season to give him a total of 158.

"It's really easy to cheer for that guy," Mooseheads centre Josh Lawrence said. "He's a great guy and he works really hard so he deserves everything that's come his way so far. He's just a really special player."

Dumais' total was the highest in the Quebec league since Alexander Radulov produced 152 points in 2005-06. He also had company at the top of the Q scoring ladder, with linemates Josh Lawrence (119 points) and Alexandre Doucet (115) finishing second and third. It's the first time in team history a Mooseheads trio has done that.

"Any time you can get three of the top scorers in the league on the same team, and not really playing with each other too much, it really speaks to the depth we have and the kind of offensive punch we can bring," Lawrence said. "In saying that, we'll probably enjoy it for tonight and then get ready for playoffs."

The win and other results around the league confirms the Mooseheads will play the Cape Breton Eagles in the first round. Game 1 is in Halifax on Friday night.

"It's nice to play in the regular season, but at the end of the day, it comes down to the playoffs," Lawrence said. "You don't want to look too far ahead. We've got four games guaranteed and we're not ready to go home yet so we really want to keep playing as long as we can."

Lawrence was the first star in the game with three goals and three assists. He finished the year with 50 goals to join Doucet (58) and Dumais (54) on that plateau. The Mooseheads hadn't had a player with 50 or more since Jason King scored 63 in 2001-02 and the last time a QMJHL team had three 50-goal scorers was in 1993-94 when the Shawinigan Cataractes did it.

"I wasn't really thinking about that," Lawrence said. "I was just trying to play and get ready for playoffs but I think it's something I'll look back on after the season and be pretty happy about. And seeing the way the guys were happy for me was pretty special."

Zachary L'heureux found the net twice to improve his season total to 21 goals and give the Mooseheads eight players with 20 or more. Seven of those players had 25 or more. The others in the group are Markus Vidicek (32), Mathieu Cataford (31), Evan Boucher (28) and Attilio Biasca (25).

"If you look at other teams that have won before or NHL teams that have won the Stanley Cup, it's by committee and not just one or two players scoring," Lawrence said. "We want to be playing our best hockey going into the playoffs and we had a pretty good game tonight. There were some turnovers but overall we're headed in the right direction at the right time."

Doucet scored his leaguebest 10th shorthanded goal and Boucher, Vidicek, Brody Fournier and Owen Phillips were the other scorers for the Mooseheads. Michael Horth, with two, Marcus Kearsey, Kiefer Lyons and Keiran Gallant had the goals for the Islanders.

Brady James finished with 31 saves for Halifax and Dixon Grimes and Jakob Robillard combined to stop 20 shots for Charlottetown.

From a team perspective, the win was the Mooseheads' 50th of the season and they clinched second place overall. Their 50-11-4-3 record and 107 points were the secondbest in team history. The 2012-13 team went 58-6-3-1 with 120 points on its way to the franchise's first and only President Cup and Memorial Cup titles.

"Finishing second in the league means a lot to us but now everybody starts at zero for the playoffs," Doucet said. "Now we've got to get 16 wins (for a league championship)."

Notes: Cam Whynot, Jake Todd and Liam Welsh didn't play for Halifax . ... The Eagles fell 9-2 to the Moncton Wildcats in their final game of the season.