Moose Denied by Marlies in 2-1 Loss

Published on February 15, 2011 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


WINNIPEG, MB - While the Manitoba Moose (29-18-1-5) entered Tuesday's game on top of the North Division, a pack of three teams sat within three points back of the leader. The fifth-place Toronto Marlies (26-22-0-7) are not one of those teams but are close to joining that pack, helped by a 2-1 win in Winnipeg on Tuesday night. The Marlies won their first game against the Moose this season backed by Ben Scrivens' 34-save effort in Toronto's net. The visitors protected a late one-goal lead to preserve a 2-1 victory in front of 6,128 at MTS Centre.

Josh Aspenlind is Manitoba's points leader in games against the Marlies this season with four assists in three games. He had two great opportunities to add a goal to that total early in the game when he and linemates, Stefan Schneider and Garth Murray, flew off the bench and nearly buried a pair of chances on Toronto goalie Ben Scrivens.

The Marlies did open the scoring shortly after that when Marlies centre Justin Hodgman cleaned up a rebound that squirted to the side of Eddie Lack's crease following a wrist shot from Toronto's Fabian Brunnstrom. Lack couldn't react quickly enough as Hodgman slid the puck in at 7:18 for an ealry 1-0 Marlies lead.

The Moose took a penalty less than a minute later, putting themselves at risk of going to two goals early on. Instead, Manitoba's top ranked PK unit provided an opposite result as Moose penalty killer Guillaume Desbiens fired a backhander by Scrivens at 9:45 to even up the score 1-1. Fellow penalty killers Mark Flood and Alexandre Bolduc also assisted on Manitoba's fifth shorthanded goal of the season.

Manitoba went to work on a late first period power play when Moose forward Shawn Weller was clipped by the stick of Marlies d-man Mike Brennan. The Marlies penalty kill, ranked second in the AHL behind Manitoba, nullified the penalty the two teams entered the first intermission knotted 1-1. The Moose outshot the Marlies 14-10 through 20 minutes.

Early in the second period, a puck squirted loose to rookie Jordan Schroeder in the left circle but his snapshot was blocked by Ben Scrivens sliding quickly across the crease. Aside from that clutch save, scoring chances were few and far between for the Moose. Meanwhile, the Marlies best opportunity of the second period came minutes later and didn't even turn out to be a shot on goal as a breakaway for Fabian Brunnstrom was foiled by the diving poke check of defenceman Mark Flood.

The third period started out mjore eventful the the entire second period. Eddie Lack made the first save on an early rush by the Marlies, but the shot off his facemask left the netminder stunned long enough for Matt Caruana to sweep in his fourth goal of the season at 3:31. The Marlies goal, assisted by newly acquired forward Aaron Voros and d-man Danny Richmond, gave Toronto their second one goal lead of the game.

Moose defenceman Kevin Connauton leads all rookie defencemen in the AHL with 10 goals and aimed to add to that total on Tuesday night. Hard forechecking by "The Rookie Line" of Cody Hodgson, Bill Sweatt, and Jordan Schroeder led to a wide open chance for Connauton that Marlies 'tender Ben Scrivens deflected away from the top corner. Then on his next shift, Connauton weaved his way into the Marlies end and had a low shot denied by the right pad of Scrivens. The latter was Connauton's fifth shot of the game.

Manitoba pulled Eddie Lack in favour of the extra attacker, but a couple of neutral zone turnovers ate away valuable time. The Marlies kept the hungry Moose at bay and maintained their 2-1 lead through the final seconds. The Moose outshot the Marlies 35-20 but the steady goaltedning of Ben Scrivens frustrated Manitoba's offence allowing only one goal. The Moose host the Marlies in the rematch on Wednesday night at MTS Centre at 7:30 p.m. CST. Brian Munz and Jim Toth bring you the action live on CJOB 68. Hear it live online at www.cjob.com.

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American Hockey League Stories from February 15, 2011


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