Moose break Hartford on Valentine's Day

February 14, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


Even though the buzz was surrounded around the debut of Sean Avery, the Manitoba Moose stole the show by earning a 4-1 victory over the Hartford Wolf Pack. The victory capped off the four-game regular season series between the clubs, allowing Manitoba to finish 3-1-0-0 vs. Hartford. Dusty Collins, Alexandre Bolduc, Jason Krog and Guillaume Desbiens scored for Manitoba, while Karl Goehring had a nearly flawless night stopping 26 shots in his first start in eight games. Manitoba currently resides in the AHL's top spot with 79 points.

It only took four seconds for a fight to erupt between Alexandre Bolduc and Dale Weise in the final game between the two clubs this regular season. After both players landed a few punches they headed to their respective penalty boxes to serve five-minute fighting majors.

The Moose drew first blood at 3:29, when Dusty Collins' innocent looking shot sailed passed Miika Wiikman for a 1-0 lead.

At 17:50 Nolan Baumgartner was penalized for hooking, putting the Wolf Pack on their first powerplay of the game. Even though Hartford was able to bring their shot count to 10 with the extra attacker, they couldn't break Karl Goehring and the Moose held onto their one-goal lead heading into the second period.

Back-to-back-to-back Hartford penalties put the Moose on the powerplay in the early half of the middle frame. The Wolf Pack killed-off the first two man-advantages but Manitoba connected on the third. With help from Raymond Sawada and Shaun Heshka, Alexandre Bolduc wired the puck into the net, his 10th of the season, to extend the visitors lead, 2-0.

At 17:34, the Moose benefited from their fifth powerplay of the night when Brian Fahey was called-out for unsportsmanlike conduct. With a shorthanded Wolf Pack surge, lead by Avery, the Moose spent too much time on defense to net a third goal.

The Wolf Pack broke their goose-egg a mere 3:58 into the final frame. Brian Fahey took a slap shot from the point and Dale Weise caught the deflection and redirected the puck into the net, 2-1.

With only one goal separating the two clubs', the tempo of play increased and Hartford was spending a lot more time on the offense trying to knot the game. Pierre-Cedric Labrie's holding penalty at 6:24 put the Wolf Pack on their second powerplay, but strong penalty killing ensured the home team would go zero-for-two on the man-advantage allowing the visitors to maintain their one-goal lead.

With 1:20 left in the contest, Jason Krog stole the puck off of a defense fumble and snapped it through Wiikman's five-hole, 3-1.

Opting to pull Wiikman for an extra-attacker, Hartford's net was left wide open for Guillaume Desbiens to confirm the win with an empty-netter, 4-1.



American Hockey League Stories from February 14, 2009


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