Moose Charge Late For 3-1 Win Over IceHogs

Published on November 19, 2010 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


Getting shut out at home can definitely bruise the ego of a hockey team. Consider the Moose welted coming off a second shutout at MTS Centre this season. In front of 14,134 fans at MTS Centre, Manitoba's largest crowd since the 2009 Calder Cup Finals, the Moose bounced back with a 3-1 win powered by two third period goals by Jordan Schroeder.

For a team starved for offence in last night's game, an early power play was exactly what the doctor ordered for the Manitoba Moose. 2:02 into the first period Sergei Shirokov swivelled with the puck in the offensive corner until he was cross checked from behind by Rockford's Brian Connelly drawing a two minute minor. The Moose controlled the puck in Rockford's end through most of the man advantage but had man chances blocked, managing just one shot on IceHogs goalie Hannu Toivonen.

While the offence continued to struggle, credit Manitoba's defence for not allowing a shot by Rockford until nearly nine minutes into the first period. At that point Rob Klinkhammer crossed the Moose blue line and sent a prayer toward Tyler Weiman that he handled easily.

Hard forechecking by Moose rookies Stefan Schneider and Kevin Clark caused a turnover that then turned into a drawn tripping call as IceHogs Ryan Stanton upended Clark with five minutes to go in the first period. Manitoba's second power play of the game ended much the way the first did.

After twenty minutes of play the Moose outshot the IceHogs 16-4 but were unable to find the net behind Toivonen for the fourth period in a row.

Manitoba's defence had been able to keep Rockford's chances minimal but Weiman came up when called upon. Lee Sweatt took a high sticking penalty 0:38 in and midway through the man advantage, Rockford's Igor Makarov was sprung on a breakaway with Weiman shutting the door on a backhand attempt.

At the 10:30 mark following a flurry of chances by the Moose that Toivonen handled with difficulty, the IceHogs called a timeout to rest their players on the ice who were denied a line change because of an icing call. The Moose continued to pour it on until a shot bounced to the side of Toivonen's crease that the Rockford goalie froze for a faceoff, saving his teammates who had been stranded in their own zone for nearly three full minutes.

Recognizing his team's frustration and fatigue, Manitoba coach Claude Noel used his own timeout with 4:57 remaining in the second period hoping for the turning point in a scoreless game. The remaining minutes of the period saw a number of chances for the Moose but not yet a goal. The Moose built on their shot lead, finishing the second period with a 31-13 lead.

The drought had to end at sometime for the Moose. What better time for that to happen than on a power play. With Rockford defenceman Ivan Vishnevskiy in the penalty box for hooking the Moose worked the puck across the points on their power play finding Jordan Schroeder wide open at the top of the right circle. Schroeder leaned into a slap shot and blew his second goal of the season by Toivonen to ended their scoreless streak at 7:02 of the third period. The assists on Manitoba's first goal in six periods went Jeff Tambellini and Lee Sweatt.

Schroeder broke the streak with a rocket of a shot and scored the second goal of the game on persistence. After taking a pass from Mario Bliznak while cutting to the net and being denied by Toivonen, the puck slid to the other side of the net where Schroeder poked it in after doing a tight lap around the back of the Rockford net. His second goal of the game was scored with seven minutes left to play in the third.

Rockford knew they had a serious hole to climb out of and pulled Toivonen with two full minutes left to play. That strategy lasted about seven seconds as Bliznak snatched the puck away in the neutral zone and passed to Jeff Tambellini, who streaked down the left wing wall and buried his fifth goal of the season into the empty net.

The Moose gave Rockford hope with two very quick penalties to Evan Oberg and Travis Ramsey after Tambellini's empty net goal. With the major advantage, the IceHogs Kyle Beach wired home a wrist shot over Tyler Weiman's right shoulder for his team's only goal with 0:55 left to play.

Four goals were scored in the third with the Moose avenging a shutout loss on Thursday night with a 3-1 win over the IceHogs on Friday. Tyler Weiman stopped 22 of 23 IceHogs shots and Jordan Schroeder recorded the game winning goal. The 14,134 fans that took in the victory marked the eighth highest attendance in Manitoba Moose history.

The Moose play one week from tonight in Abbotsford, renewing their North Division rivalry with the Heat for games on Nov. 26 & 27. Game time for both matchups with the Heat are 9:00 p.m. CST.

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American Hockey League Stories from November 19, 2010


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