Mooseheads ‘thrilled’ with strong attendance after World Juniors

After Halifax’s Scotiabank Centre was packed to the rafters with junior hockey fans during last month’s World Junior Hockey Championship tournament, local supporters aren’t ready to stop cheering just yet.

Fans have been filling seats for Mooseheads games in higher than average numbers.

“The crowds have been tremendous,” said Mooseheads team president Brian Urquhart. “Halifax is a great junior hockey fanbase, and this week was just more evidence of that.”

The team welcomed more than 32,000 fans to its first four games since returning to home ice on Jan. 8.

An average 8,141 fans attended each game this past week, an increase of 17 per cent compared to normal crowd sizes over the franchise’s first 24 seasons before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The rise in ticket sales is also a 16 per cent spike from crowd sizes before the World Junior tournament.

Urquhart said added fan interest stemming from the success of the World Junior tournament — which saw Canada win gold after defeating Czechia 3-2 in overtime — and a winning Mooseheads team has been putting fans in seats in numbers rarely seen in the team’s history.

“It is really impressive, in the last week for us to get the numbers we have had considering there were 20 World Junior games here over a two-week period. We are thrilled.”

As of Jan. 17, the Mooseheads sit with a 28-7-4-1 record that places them atop the Maritime Division standings and in second place in the entire Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Already equipped with the league’s top point-getter, Jordan Dumais, the team added two major ingredients to their winning recipe in veteran forwards Alexandre Doucet from Val-d’Or and Josh Lawrence from Blainville-Boisbriand before December’s trade deadline.

The two newest additions currently sit in the top five in league scoring alongside teammate Dumais.

Lawrence, 20, is playing in his fifth QMJHL season and knows a thing or two about winning, after his Saint John Sea Dogs team was crowned Memorial Cup champion last season.

“I was obviously really excited to get traded to Halifax,” Lawrence said. “We focus on each game individually, but with that in mind, we still think of the future. We want to go for a deep playoff run so we gotta be ready to go for that.”

The Mooseheads averaged 8,686 fans per game during the 2012-2013 Memorial Cup winning season, the highest in the team’s history.

On Thursday, the team will hit the ice at the Scotiabank Centre once again to take on the Shawinigan Cataractes and look to capture their 17th straight regulation win, tying a franchise record.

Urquhart said the Mooseheads have a hockey operations team that is committed to winning on all fronts. “Their job is to put the best product they can on the ice and we have a team off the ice that makes sure those players have fans to play in front of.”