Tuesday, April 5, 2005 | By Philip Croucher, Halifax Daily News

No one even reached the 70-point plateau.

But heading into the post-season, the Halifax Mooseheads sport an offence that has good depth and plenty of weapons.

"We haven't really counted on one or two guys to completely carry the offensive load. We've had a lot of guys chip in at different times, which will be good, hopefully, in the playoffs," said Mooseheads forward Daniel Sparre.

"One guy could be having a bad game or a couple of bad games, and other guys will be able to pick up the slack."

Sparre was the team's top-pointgetter during the regular season. The 20-year-old winger had 35 goals and 33 assists in 62 games. Rane Carnegie came second with 32 goals and 32 assists in 68 games, followed by Francois-Pierre Guenette. The 20-year-old centre had 21 goals and 38 assists in 70 games.

Overall, Halifax's offence finished fifth in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with 242 goals. The high-flying Rimouski Oceanic were tops at 333 goals.

The Mooseheads also had 10 players finish with at least 10 goals, and 15 with double-digit point totals.

"Most of our guys have fair numbers, not great numbers, but fair numbers, and (the offence) could come from any of our four lines," said Mooseheads general manager Marcel Patenaude. "That's a huge thing, and we're happy about it. We have a lot of depth offensively.

"We didn't push to have marquee players because of (our) situation of having very good forwards. We never pushed, saying 'we have to have marquee scoring players.'

"We always wanted to be a team-first orientated team."

Line chemistry is a big part of an effective offence and the Mooseheads generated more of that in the second half under head coach Al MacAdam. The most consistent line was Guenette, Marc-Andre Bernier and Frederik Cabana, who should remain intact for the playoffs.

Also, Carnegie, Petr Vrana and Jan Steber seemed to work well together as the season closed, as did Sparre and David Brine.

"The guys like getting used to each other and I think we have four lines that can play," said Guenette, a Vancouver Canucks draft choice whose line combined for 83 points in the second half (33 goals, 50 assists).

"The fourth line - guys are in and out - but I think we have three constant lines that can play with anyone in the league."

With little room to move in the playoffs, Halifax's offence can't rely on just skill and chemistry to score goals. It also needs to work hard and avoid getting too fancy.

"We have pretty good balance, and for that reason we're probably dangerous," said MacAdam, whose team also gets offence from its defence, with three blueliners having 20-or-more points.

"But those guys who think they're scorers have to up their game. The playoffs is all about upping your game."