ROUYN-NORANDA, Que. — The Halifax Mooseheads are four wins away from completing their dominating Quebec Major Junior Hockey League season.
The Mooseheads advanced to the President Cup final Thursday after outslugging the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies 9-6 to sweep the semifinal series.
Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin and Martin Frk each scored twice for Halifax, which finished the season atop the league with 120 points, 27 more than the second-place Baie-Comeau Drakkar.
The Mooseheads now await the winner of the Drakkar’s series with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. That series is tied at two with Game 5 set for Friday.
Konrad Abeltshauser, Stefan Fournier and Brent Andrews also scored for Halifax, which surged past the Huskies with four goals in the third period.
Gabriel Desjardins’ hat trick led Rouyn-Noranda, which also got goals from Dillon Fournier, Marcus Power and Maxime St-Cyr. Right-winger Sven Andrighetto chipped in with four assists.
Halifax goaltender Zachary Fucale was on the hook for all six goals against but still finished with 30 saves.
Alexandre Belanger had a rough night at the other end of the ice. Belanger allowed eight goals on 25 shots for the Huskies. He was replaced by Philippe Gingras in the third, only to watch Gingras give up a goal on five shots.
The game’s tone was set from the start with three goals scored in just over a minute.
Desjardins gave Rouyn-Noranda a 1-0 lead just 35 seconds into the game, but Frk tied the score only seven seconds later. A goal by Andrews at 1:07 put Halifax ahead 2-1 for the rest of the period.
Each team scored three goals in the second, with Stefan Fournier’s goal at 16:15 putting the Mooseheads up 5-4.
MacKinnon opened the third with a goal 46 seconds into the period and added his second on the power play less than a minute later, and Halifax never looked back.