Groulx, Trepanier drive Mooseheads win over Eagles

The big guns delivered in a rivalry game for the Halifax Mooseheads on Friday.
Bo Groulx had a hat trick and Maxim Trepanier scored twice in a 6-5 win over the Cape Breton Eagles at the Scotiabank Centre.
"This was probably my best game as a Moosehead, honestly," Groulx said. "It was my first career hat trick (and it was) in front of the best fans in the CHL so I couldn't ask for a better moment."
Linemate Raphael Lavoie also had two assists and Trepanier extended his points streak to 14 games (23 points) and Groulx stretched his to 13 games (24 points). Lavoie joked that he had the best seat in the house to watch Groulx and Trepanier fill the net.
"They scored some big goals and it was pretty funny when they both had two goals, wondering who was going to get their hat trick," Lavoie kidded.
"We always have good games against Cape Breton and it was a back-and-forth one tonight. It was pretty fun to watch and it was a fun one to play too."
It might have also been the last-ever home game for both Groulx and Lavoie, as well as defenceman Jared McIsaac. They are all headed to the Canadian world junior team tryouts next week, and if they make the final roster they will be at the tournament until the first week of January. There's a real possibility they will be traded before they return.
The Mooseheads honoured Groulx before the game with a photo recognizing him for gettiung his 200th career point last week. His hat trick pushed him past Nikolaj Ehlers into seventh place on the all-time list with 206 points.
"(Right before) the national anthem I got a standing ovation for my 200th point so just playing in front of those fans means a lot," said the Halifax captain. "It gives me energy every single night I play in front of them. I think it was a good way to give them my first career hat trick."
The Mooseheads also had to get by without their entire second line. Marcel Barinka and Senna Peeters are at international tournaments and Samuel Dube is injured.
"We've got a lot of important pieces that are gone so we had to step up and that's what we did," Lavoie said.
Jeff Burridge had the other Mooseheads goal and Egor Sokolov, with two, Brooklyn Kalmikov, Shawn Boudrias and Felix Lafrance scored for the Eagles. 
Alexis Gravel made 34 saves for Halifax, including a couple of circus stops that stalled the Eagles at key points. William Grimard and Kevin Mandolese combined to stop 34 shots for Cape Breton. Grimard got the start but was replaced by Mandolese after the Mooseheads' fifth goal early in the third period.
"I think the first two periods we played very well, especially defensively," Groulx said. "We were making simple plays and that worked out for us. We had a lot of speed in the neutral zone so that gave us a lot of space in the offensive zone. I thought we were very good at doing that.
"A little bit in the third period we slowed down defensively but Gravel was huge for us in net so we have to give him a lot of credit."
The Mooseheads (14-12-2-1) are now just three points behind the Eagles (16-11-1-1) in the overall standings.  The teams meet again in Sydney on Saturday.