Eagles defeat Mooseheads 5-3 in Sydney

Round one of this weekend's rivalry doubleheader went to the Cape Breton Eagles.
They dropped the Halifax Mooseheads 5-3 in front of 3,357 fans at Sydney's Centre 200 on Friday in the opener of a home-and-home between the Nova Scotia teams. The back-to-back games are part of a league-wide series featuring the most heated matchups. The Mooseheads and Eagles play again in Halifax on Saturday.
"When you come up short like that and you don't pick up the two points, there's nothing to be satisfied about," said Halifax head coach J.J. Daigneault. "I thought we had a good start. We dictated, we played with pace and at one point the shots were 9-1 for us but then we started to turn pucks over. When you do that against a team like these guys that like to counter-attack with speed and feed off your mistakes, you're bound to give up goals."
The Eagles took control of the game in the back half of the opening period, scoring the first two goals. They led 3-1 after 40 minutes before Zack Jones and Raphael Laovie made it a tie game early in the third period with two quick goals for the Mooseheads. 
But Derek Gentile put the Eagles back in front for good on a breakaway a few minutes later and Shaun Miller added some insurance late in the third.
"I thought the guys showed good character coming back and tying the game 3-3," Daigneault said. "Late in the third, if we had managed the puck better we would have come out with at least one point. It was just mistakes. We turned the puck over just inside their blue line and they countered. It's just not the way to play against these guys."
Ryan Francis and Ivan Ivan also scored for the Eagles and Patty Kyte had the other Mooseheads goal. 
William Grimard made 38 saves for Cape Breton and Alexis Gravel stopped 27 shots for Halifax.
This was the Mooseheads' first look at the Eagles, who are among the QMJHL leaders at 9-3-0-0. The Mooseheads are now 7-5-0-0.
"I really enjoyed the matchup," Daigneault said. "They're a good team and they have a good top line with (Shawn) Boudrias, Sokolov and Francis. It was a good game."
Notes: Maxim Trepanier (lower body), Jared McIsaac (shoulder), Cole Foston (knee) and Lucas Robinson (healthy scratch) did not play for Halifax. ... Mooseheads defenceman Jason Horvath took an aggressor penalty late in the third period, which carries an automatic one-game suspension.