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Moose Doubled Up By Monsters 6-3

April 21, 2011 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


Every playoff series has a major turning point, or in some cases a tipping point. Game 4 would be one or the other for the Manitoba Moose (1-3) as they trailed the Lake Erie Monsters (3-1) in their first round series and needed a win to avoid facing elimination. A major penalty in the first period resulted in a two-goal deficit for the Moose that they failed to recover from. Lake Erie's John Grahame made 36 saves while forward Justin Mercier led the way for the visiting team by scoring a shorthanded game winning goal. Manitoba dropped Game 4 to Lake Erie by a score of 6-3 in front of 7,874 at MTS Centre.

Early in the first period, defenceman Nolan Baumgartner took the legs out from under Lake Erie's Matthew Ford in the Moose zone. The play didn't go unnoticed by the back official Andy Thiessen and Manitoba was assessed the first penalty of the game at 3:44. The Monsters power play caused havoc around Tyler Weiman's crease but the Moose goalie kept Lake Erie off the board.

On Thursday, Manitoba missed one-third of the energy line that had propelled them to their only win in the series during Game 2. Forward Rick Rypien did not dress in Game 4 because of an upper body injury. Fellow bruising winger Aaron Volpatti tried to make up for his linemate's absence and delivered a devastating hit to Lake Erie defenceman Ray Macias at 11:51 of the period. The hit was heavily penalized and Volpatti was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for charging.

It only took 1:20 for the Monsters to avenge the hit as forwards Ben Walter and Justin Mercier poked away at a loose rebound until a swing by Walter finally found the net behind Weiman. The Monsters took the 1-0 lead with 3:20 remaining in their extended power play.

The pain continued for the Moose on the extended shorthanded situation. This time with a dagger coming from Luke Walker. Walker sliced through Manitoba's defence without the puck, then was fed a pass by Mark Olver before sliding the puck between Weiman's pads at 16:29. When the first period expired, the Moose trailed 2-0 off of a pair of Lake Erie power play goals.

Hometown boy Kevin Clark put the Moose on the board at 3:08 of the second period when he whacked a bouncing puck through a scrum of players in Lake Erie's crease. Freshly inserted into Manitoba's line-up, Clark's second AHL playoff goal closed Lake Erie's lead to 2-1 early in the middle frame.

That two goal lead re-appeared after Tyler Weiman could not trap a high wrist shot by the Monsters Justin Mercier during a Lake Erie power play. With Manitoba's Guillaume Desbiens in the box for high-sticking, Mercier scored his second goal of the series at 7:56.

For a special teams encore Justin Mercier scored one minute later while killing a penalty. Manitoba went to the power play shortly after Lake Erie's third goal only to surrender another to Mercier at 9:00. With that, the Moose inserted their regular season MVP into the game replacing goalie Tyler Weiman with Eddie Lack.

Jason Jaffray entered Game 4 as the all-time leading playoff scorer for the Moose with 22 goals in the Calder Cup Playoffs. Number 23 could have been one of his nicest as Jaffray scored at 17:45 of the second period by wiring a wrist shot from teh slot to the top corner of the Lake Erie net. With Jaffray's late goal, the Moose entered the second intermission trailing by two goals with 20 minutes remaining.

Kevin Clark snuck onto the ice early for a shift alongside Marco Rosa and Jason Jaffray. The result was Clark's second goal of the game after he took a centering feed from Jaffray, then batted away until burying it past John Grahame at 13:56 of the third period. His second goal brought the Moose to within one goal with 6:04 left to play.

Manitoba showed a knack for late game heroics in Game 2 and hoped for a repeat on Thursday. It helped when Lake Erie's Jonas Holos took an interference penalty with 2:46 remaining.

The Moose were denied on the last minuate man advantage and Lake Erie's Matthew Ford capped off Game 4 by outskating the last Moose d-man in an empty net race for the puck. Following a desperation timeout by the home team, the Monsters scored a second empty net goal making it a 6-3 final in Game 4.

The Moose now trail the Monsters 3-1 in the North Division Semi-Final and must win on Friday, Apr. 22 at MTS Centre to stay alive. Game time is 7:30 p.m. CT with Brian Munz and Jim Toth calling the action live on CJOB 68. Hear it live online at www.cjob.com.

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