Five games in seven days highlights week 23

March 15, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


This week, the Manitoba Moose are in the midst of a seven-game road trip - their final road trip of the season. This week the Moose play five games in seven days through Hamilton, Albany, Toronto, Syracuse and Rochester. It is the first time this season that the Moose have faced five different opponents in one week.

Last week the Moose went 1-1-1 for the third consecutive week, versus the Cleveland Barons and Toronto Roadrunners. On Wednesday, Cleveland and Manitoba played to the first-ever 0-0 tie for both clubs. Manitoba rebounded to defeat the Barons 5-1 on Friday to wrap up a ten-game homestand with a record of 5-2-3. Toronto defeated the Moose at home 3-0 on Saturday.

UPCOMING OPPONENTS

Hamilton Bulldogs

Monday, March 15th 6:00 p.m. Copps Coliseum

The Bulldogs (34-20-10-4) lead the AHL's North Division by five points over the Syracuse Crunch...Hamilton is fifth overall in the entire AHL...The Bulldogs have only lost seven games at Copps Coliseum all season (21-7-5-3)...They enter the week with only four losses in their last 11 games...They have swept the season-series thus far with Manitoba with five wins...They have outscored the Moose 14-4 in three games at Copps Coliseum, including Manitoba's worst defeat of the season - 6-0 on Jan. 10/04...Hamilton's leading scorer - Jozef Balej - was dealt to the Hartford Wolfpack on Mar. 3 /04 as part of the trade that brought Alexei Kovalev to Montreal, Hamiltons' NHL affiliate...Tomas Plekanec now leads the Bulldogs with 16 goals and 50 points in 62 games, including three goals and four points vs. Manitoba...Eric Fichaud leads a talented trio of netminders with a 2.29 GAA and a .917 save percentage...J.F. Damphousse has a 2.40 GAA and a .910 save percentage while Olivier Michaud boasts a 2.44 GAA and a .905 save percentage...Gordie Dwyer leads the Bulldogs with 106 PIM...Jean-Phillipe Cote is team's leading +/- player at +22...Hamilton's power play sits eighth in the AHL at 16.0%, while its penalty killing is 11th at 86.4%...Former Moose Rene Vydareny will make his first appearance against Manitoba since being dealt to the Canadiens organization on Mar. 11/04 for forward Sylvain Blouin.

Albany River Rats

Tuesday, March 16th 6:00 p.m. Pepsi Arena

Albany enters the week last overall in the entire AHL (16-32-11-9), a point behind the Utah Grizzlies at 52 points...The River Rats are five games below .500 at home with a 10-15-5-4 record...They have only one win in their last 12 games, including a tie (2-2) and an overtime loss (3- 2) to the Moose at the Winnipeg Arena on Feb. 24 & 25/04...They have now lost a league-high seven in a row...Manitoba won the only meeting so far in Albany back on Dec. 17/03 (2-0)...The River Rats are led by forward Craig Darby who has 21 goals and 58 points in 65 games...Former Moose Steve Kariya is next with 11 goals and 37 points in 46 games, including three assists vs. Manitoba to lead Albany...Rob Skrlac leads the team with 135 PIM in only 30 games...Alex Brooks is the team's leading +/- player at +1 through 66 games...Ari Ahonen leads the team in goal a 2.92 GAA and a .904 save percentage in 40 appearances...Albany's power play is ranked 23rd in the AHL at 12.2%, while its penalty killing is also 23rd at 83.2%.

Toronto Roadrunners

Thursday, March 18th 6:00 p.m. Ricoh Coliseum

Toronto enters the week in a battle for third in the North Division (30-26-8-3), tied with Cleveland and Rochester with 71 points, all are nine ahead of the Moose...Former Moose netminder Tyler Moss stopped all 29 shots he faced to lead Toronto to a 3-0 win over the Moose last Saturday at Ricoh Coliseum, Toronto's fourth victory of the year over Manitoba in seven games and second shutout of the season...Toronto is 18-8-5-1 at the Ricoh Coliseum...The Roadrunners have lost only six of their last 20 games...Jamie Wright leads all Toronto scorers with 22 goals and 48 points, including a pair of goals Saturday vs. Manitoba to give him six points on the season against the Moose...Tony Salmelainen - who also scored Saturday - leads Toronto vs. Manitoba with four goals and eight points...Moss is Toronto's top goaltender with a 2.83 GAA and a .903 save percentage, however in five starts with the Roadrunners, he has two shutouts and a 2.37 GAA and .935 save percentage with a 3-2 record...Rocky Thompson leads the Roadrunners with 169 PIM in 57 games...Michael Heinrich is the team's leading +/- player at +13...The Roadrunners' power play is ranked 15th in the AHL at 14.9% while its penalty killing is 22nd at 83.3%.

Syracuse Crunch

Friday, March 19th 6:30 p.m. War Memorial at Oncenter

The Crunch enter the week sitting in second in the North Division (31-19-10-5), five points back of firstplace Hamilton...Syracuse is 17-7-6-3 at home this year and is unbeaten in their last five games (4-0-1) and have won four in a row entering the week...The season-series between the two is split at 1-1-1 with Syracuse winning their last meeting 1-0 on Mar. 6/04 thanks to 50 saves from goaltender Pascal LeClaire...Donald MacLean is the leading scorer for the Crunch with 21 goals and 55 points in 65 games...Brad Moran is the leading scorer vs. Manitoba with two goals and four points...While LeClaire leads with 36 appearances and 18 wins, Karl Goehring has a 2.37 GAA and a .920 save percentage...Brandon Sugden leads with 248 PIM in 51 games...Former Moose Zenith Komarniski leads the team at +14 and has one goal and 20 points since heading to Syracuse in a deal for Sean Pronger on Oct. 30/03...The Crunch power play is ranked fifth in the AHL at 17.1% while its penalty killing unit is 16th at 85.4%.

Rochester Americans

Sunday, March 21st 5:05 p.m. Blue Cross Arena

Rochester (29-24-9-4) enters the week tied with Toronto and Cleveland for third in the North Division with 70 points...The Amerks are 21-11-3-0 at the Rochester War Memorial this season and have only three losses in their last 12 games...The Moose hold the series edge this season on Rochester at 3-2 with the Moose winning the last meeting in Rochester 4- 1 on Feb. 6/04...Norm Milley is the Amerks' leading scorer vs. Manitoba with four goals and five points...Domenic Pittis leads the team overall with 15 goals and 69 points in 61 games...Rookie Ryan Miller is Rochester's top netminder with a 21-21-6 record in 49 appearances and four shutouts with a 2.24 GAA and a .924 save percentage...He has a 2-2 record vs. Manitoba with a 2.45 GAA and a .916 save percentage...Sean McMorrow leads the team with 220 PIM...Rick Mrozik and Steve Lindgren lead the team at +6...Rochester's power play is the best in the AHL at 17.8% while their penalty killing unit is fifth at 88.1%...Former Moose captain Brian Chapman has four goals and nine points in 61 games this season with Rochester.

MOOSE NOTES

With the re-assignment of forward Brandon Nolan to the Columbia Inferno of the ECHL on Thursday, the Moose have set their AHL Clear Day Roster of 22 players. There are no inresidence players this season, and the team will carry forward with seven veterans, one more than the league maximum per game of six.

Wednesday's 0-0 tie with the Cleveland Barons was the first time in franchise history that a game has ended in a 0-0 draw. The Moose have played to a 0-0 tie after regulation once before, but on Jan. 17/01, the Grand Rapids Griffins defeated the Moose 1-0 in a shootout in the old International Hockey League. It was also the first time in Moose franchise history the team had been shutout in back-to-back games.

Alex Auld stopped all 21 shots he faced to record his third shutout of the season. The game also marks Auld's seventh shutout of his Moose career. That moves him past Tyler Moss and into first on the all-time franchise list for most shutouts in a career.

With Miroslav Zalesak's power play goal at 15:48 of the first period on Friday night, Manitoba's streak of 29 straight penalty kills came to an end. It was the first power play goal allowed by the Moose in over nine games - a franchise record. The previous record was five set on three different occasions.

The National Hockey League Trade Deadline last Tuesday brought about a number of changes to the Manitoba Moose line-up. The Moose lost defencemen Martin Grenier and Rene Vydareny, along with forward Ryan Ready. Joining the Moose organization following trades are fowards Sylvain Blouin and Sergei Varlamov.

Saturday's game marked the 11th straight start for goaltender Alex Auld. In that span, he has a record of 4-3-3 with a no decision. That is the most consecutive starts for Auld in his pro career. However, that is not the most consecutive starts by a Moose goalie this season as Tyler Moss made 17 consecutive starts from Dec. 6-Jan. 7/04.

On Friday night, Brandon Reid collected two goals and an assist for three points in the 5-1 victory. It marked the 10th time Reid has recorded more than one point in a game. Manitoba's record in those 10 games is 7-1-2.

MOOSE LEADERBOARD

GAMES PLAYED - 67 Jimmy Roy

GOALS - 20 Fedor Fedorov

ASSISTS - 29 Brandon Reid

POINTS - 46 Brandon Reid

PENALTY MINUTES - 164 Jimmy Roy

POWER-PLAY GOALS - 9 Fedor Fedorov

SHORTHANDED GOALS - 4 Pat Kavanagh

GAME-WINNING GOALS - 5 Pat Kavanagh

SHOTS ON GOAL - 151 Ryan Ready

BEST PLUS/MINUS - +6 Sean Pronger, Martin Grenier



American Hockey League Stories from March 15, 2004


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