Admirals and Moose thrill fans

Published on November 30, 2004 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


Two of the top teams in the Western Conference, the Manitoba Moose and Milwaukee Admirals played two close games with each team coming away with a win. On Saturday, the Moose scored with 12 seconds left in the third to the game at 1-1 before Ryan Kesler potted the overtime winner with 1.6 seconds remaining in overtime. On Sunday, the Moose rallied back from a 3-0 deficit to tie the game at 3-3 in the second period but Milwaukee scored with just over a minute to play in the third to win 4-3.

The Moose continue their eight-game homestand this upcoming week with games Tuesday and Thursday against Cincinnati. Binghamton then visits Saturday and Sunday for a pair.

UPCOMING OPPONENTS

Cincinnati Mighty Ducks
Tuesday, November 30 7:30 p.m. MTS Centrebr> Thursday, December 2 7:30 p.m.br> Radio: CJOB 68

The Moose meet the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks for two weekday match-ups this Tuesday and Thursday... Cincinnati is currently in sixth place in the West Division... The Moose swept a pair of games in Cincinnati back in mid- November winning 4-2 Nov. 12 and winning 2-1 on Nov. 13... The Ducks are struggling with only one win in their last five games and only two wins in their last 13 games... Joffrey Lupul leads the way offensively with 14 points (4g, 10a) in 20 games... Michael Holmqvist and Stanislav Chistov each have a share of the team goal scoring lead with six apiece... Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov has seen most of the action between the pipes for the Ducks. In 13 games, he has a 5-6-1 record with a 2.84 GAA and .899 save percentage.

Binghamton Senators

Saturday, December 4 7:30 p.m. MTS Centre
Sunday, December 5 2:00 p.m.
Radio: CJOB 68

The Moose face the Binghamton Senators for the second and third this season in a pair of weekend games at the MTS Centre... Manitoba defeated the Senators 5-3 in Binghamton back on Oct. 30... The B-Sens at the start of the week sit third in the East Division with 24 points... Each of their last two games has gone into overtime, splitting a weekend home-and-home series with Rochester... After a slow start, Jason Spezza has emerged as the offensive leader of the club. In 21 games, Spezza has 29 points (9g, 20a) and leads the team with a +7 rating... Denis Hamel is the team's leading goal scorer with 14 goals... The goaltending duties have been split between Ray Emery and Billy Thompson. Emery has a 5-6-2 record with a 2.79 goals-against average and .903 save percentage. Thompson is 5-3-0 with a 3.06 GAA and .895 save percentage.

MOOSE NOTES

Still Starting Strong: With a record of 12-6-0-2 after 20 games, the Manitoba Moose are off to their third-best start in Manitoba franchise history at the quarterseason pole. Back in 1998-99, the Moose jumped out to a 14-3-3 start after 20 games, while in 2001-02, they also began the season 13-5-2. The worst record the Moose ever had at the quarter-point of the season was just last season - 2003-04 - when the Moose won three games in a row just prior to the 20-game mark in order to establish a record of just 6-10-3-1.

The Power Play's the "Baum": So far this season, Moose defenceman Nolan Baumgartner is the team's leading goalscorer amongst defencemen with five markers. All five of those goals have come on the power play. That leaves him in the AHL lead for powerplay goals by a defenceman. He is now tied for fourth in leaguescoring amongst rearguards with five goals and 16 points.

Power Play Potency: Overall, the Moose have now climbed to second in the American Hockey League in power play efficiency. After 20 games, the Moose have 23 goals in 108 opportunities which gives them a power play percentage of 21.3, even after going oh-for-seven in Saturday's 2-1 overtime win over Milwaukee. The Moose are second overall in power play efficiency on the road at 24.3%. At home however, they are 15th at 15.8%.

You Who Scores First...: The Moose are proving this season the first-goal of the game is not always the most important goal, but rather the last goal. So far through 20 games, the Moose have allowed the first goal 11 times. However, they have only lost four out of those 11 times. In fact, Sunday's 4-3 defeat to the Admirals was the first time the Moose have lost a game this season when entering the third period tied. They are now 3-1-0-1. It was also only the second loss for the Moose when involved in a one-goal game (5-2-0-1).

Goren's Going: Moose forward Lee Goren collected three assists on the weekend to extend his team-high points streak to six games. However, his four-game goal-scoring streak did come to an end on Saturday night. Goren has collected points in every game since Nov. 12/04. In that time, he has four goals and five assists for nine points. Goren's next goal will be the 100th of his pro career.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOMINEE

Ryan Kesler

2 GP, 2 G, 0 A, 2 PTS, +1, 6 PIM, 7 Shots

The Player of the Week nominee for the Manitoba Moose is centre Ryan Kesler. He scored two key goals on Saturday night, tying the game up with 12 seconds left in the third period and then scoring the game winner with 1.6 seconds remaining in overtime. He was also a strong defensive presence for the Moose for both games, given the task of shutting down Milwaukee's top line. Kesler is tied for fourth in Moose scoring this season with eight goals and eight assists for 16 points. He ranks second on the team in plus/minus with +10. Kesler is tied with Lee Goren with three game-winning goals.

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



American Hockey League Stories from November 30, 2004


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central