A former captain of the Halifax Mooseheads junior hockey team has been charged with breaking into an ex-girlfriend’s residence.
Ryan Falkenham, 24, was arrested Tuesday after RCMP responded to a call from a home on Peggys Cove Road in Glen Haven.
Falkenham was arraigned in Halifax provincial court later in the day on a charge of break and enter with intent to commit an indictable offence.
The Crown consented to the Halifax man’s release on a $500 bail order with one surety, his mother.
Judge Amy Sakalauskas ordered Falkenham to have no contact with the alleged victim, except through a lawyer, and to stay away from the woman’s residence and place of employment or education.
Falkenham is also prohibited from possessing any firearms.
The case will return to court in April, after Falkenham has had time to retain a lawyer. The young man was represented by duty counsel Tuesday.
Falkenham was selected by the hometown Mooseheads in the fifth round of the 2011 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft after playing midget hockey with the Halifax Taylar Made Titans. He was also a member of Team Nova Scotia at the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax, carrying the province's flag for the opening ceremonies.
The unheralded winger went on to spend four seasons with the Mooseheads, becoming a team leader before a chronic hip condition ended his playing career prematurely at the age of 19.
He was a member of the squad that won the QMJHL and Memorial Cup championships in 2013, earning an assist on Nathan MacKinnon’s empty-net goal that clinched a 6-4 victory over the Portland Winterhawks in the national final.
Falkenham was named an alternate captain with the Mooseheads the following season and was the team’s captain for the 2014-15 campaign.
He was an assistant coach with the QMJHL’s Drummondville Voltigeurs for two years before returning home to Halifax, where he served as an assistant coach with the Dalhousie University Tigers men’s hockey team this season.
Sources in the justice system said Wednesday that Falkenham could be eligible for referral to the province’s Restorative Justice Program, which would allow him to accept responsibility for his alleged actions but avoid a criminal conviction.
