Saturday, May 7, 2005 | By Philip Croucher, Halifax Daily News

RIMOUSKI, QUE. - The Halifax Mooseheads are coming home down 2-0.

Zbynek Hrdel's goal midway through the third period was the winner as the Rimouski Oceanic edged the Mooseheads 7-5 in a wildy entertaining Game 2 of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League final played last night before an enthusiastic gathering of 5,062 at the Rimouski Coliseum.

On the winning goal, which broke a 5-5 tie at the 10:56 mark, Mooseheads forward Daniel Sparre coughed up the puck in the defensive zone, which led to the puck coming out to a wide-open Hrdel, who roofed the perfect shot over the shoulder of Mooseheads goaltender Jeremy Duchesne.

With the win, the Oceanic now lead the best-of-seven series 2-0, with Games 3 and 4 at the sold-out Halifax Metro Centre on Monday and Tuesday night.

"It was a different game tonight. Bad bounce, there's nothing you can do about it," said Mooseheads defenceman Jimmy Sharrow. "You can't think about it. You just have to think about the next game."

For the second game in a row, the Mooseheads trailed after the first period, but instead of 5-0 like in the opener, it was a more manageable 2-1 this time around.

Mark Tobin and Cole Harbour's Sidney Crosby scored midway through the period to put Rimouski up early, but the Mooseheads responded with a huge marker at the 14:34 mark to take back some of the momentum.

Franklin MacDonald let go a shot from the point, that made its way to Justin Saulnier at the side of the goal, and the Dartmouth forward beat Rimouski goaltender Cedrick Desjardins with his first of the playoffs.

Very wild

In the second, things turned very wild, as the teams combined for seven goals, with Halifax outscoring Rimouski 4-3 to tie the game at five.

After Alexandre Picard and Rane Carnegie scored early to put the Mooseheads ahead 3-2, the Oceanic rolled off three goals in a span of 4:30 to take a two-goal lead.

But in the second half of the period, Petr Vrana scored his eighth and ninth of the playoffs to tie the game, with his latter goal coming on a harmless looking shot from the sideboards that beat a puzzled looking Desjardins.

In the third, after Hrdel's goal, the Mooseheads had several good chances to the tie the game.

With four minutes left, Francois-Pierre Guenette broke through the defence, but let go a shot that hit the side of the net.

Then two minutes later, the puck came to a streaking Frederik Cabana, who fired the puck into the chest of Desjardins.

Empty-net goal

The Mooseheads pulled Duchesne for the extra attacker with about a minute left, but Dany Roussin put things away with an empty net goal with 11.9 seconds left.

"Obviously, they're a good hockey team. When they have a one goal lead, they know how to keep it," said Sharrow, who had a pair of assists. "We were pressing, we just couldn't get the bounce."

Despite the loss, the Mooseheads remain upbeat as the series now switches to the Metro Centre.

"Anything can happen in anybody's rink," Sharrow said. "Hopefully when we go back home we'll have better chances and better opportunities."