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Moose Down Aeros 2-1 In The Shootout Round

March 11, 2011 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


The Manitoba Moose (36-23-1-5) are celebrating 15 seasons playing in Winnipeg and each of those seasons, in both the International and American Hockey Leagues, have included regular season battles with the Houston Aeros (37-25-1-5). In their 15th season of battling the Aeros, the Moose took two wins in their season series into the Toyota Center on Friday night. Manitoba shutout Houston in their last meeting and came close to matching that feat until Eddie Lack was beaten with a third period power play goal. That wasn't enough for the hometown team in front of 7,633 Aeros fans as the visiting Moose took a 2-1 shootout decision on goals by Manitoba's Joel Perrault and Jordan Schroeder.

Deep into a road trip, one upside for the Moose is that they started Friday night as healthy as they've been in quite some time. Captain Nolan Baumgartner dressed for the first time after missing the last 14 games with an injury. Joel Perrault also rejoined the team on the current road trip and forward Victor Oreskovich returned to the line up after being re-assigned by the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.

No penalties in the early going kept the teams five aside for nearly 15 minutes. Many of the game's early highlights involved major collisions. Manitoba's Alexandre Bolduc laid out an Aeros winger on the back check just a few minutes into the game. Then a couple shifts later, Oreskovich was stood up by Houston defenceman Casey Wellman.

Moose centre Mario Bliznak cleanly won the faceoff late in the first period, and as the text book says, he went to the net. His instincts paid off because point man Yann Sauve wasted no time putting it on net. Then when Shawn Weller's rebound attempt was stopped by the Aeros Mat t Hackett, Bliznak was in perfect position to clean up the rest at 14:46 for the first goal of the game.

The first period was played almost entirely at even strength but the special teams were put to work in the second. First, Manitoba's PK unit killed off an early hooking minor to Sergei Shirokov. Then the Moose failed to score on a pair of power plays before the game's halfway point.

With five minutes left in the middle frame, Houston's Joe DiSalvatore skated away from Eddie Lack's crease shaking his head because the Moose goaltender swiped a shot out of the air with his glove hand after DiSalvatore took a few whacks at the loose puck. Lack somehow kept the puck out preserving his team's one goal lead.

The frustration began to show on Houston's part with Aeros centre Carson MacMillan singling out Victor Oreskovich from a net scrum and dropping the gloves with the bigger Moose forward. The fight at 16:56 was fairly even with only MacMillan losing his lid.

The first power play of the third period came at 8:22 when Mario Bliznak tripped up a Houston d-man. While on the man advantage, the Aeros set up in an umbrella to try and set up a clear point shot. Aeros players Robbie Earl, Nate Prosser, and Jarod Palmer played catch with the puck until Rosser one-timed a dish by Earl that threaded through a crowd and past Lack for Houston's first goal at 9:38 of the third period.

Aeros defenceman and Manitoba native Drew Bagnall served up a chance for the Moose to regain their one goal lead when he was booked for slashing at 13:35, but Manitoba's last place road power play spoiled their fourth chance of the game.

The first three periods expired with both teams locked at 1-1. The Moose outshot the Aeros 37-31 through 60 minutes with Eddie Lack and Matt Hackett collectively allowed two goals on 68 shots.

The overtime period, while busy, produced no goals sending the Moose and Aeros to the shootout round. Houston's first shooter Patrick O'Sullivan started the shootout with a slick pivoting deke that ended with the puck under the cross bar behind Lack. That was Houston's only goal on five attempts with Lack stopping four more supporting goals by Joel Perrault and Jordan Schroeder.

The Moose take in more of Texas with a game in San Antonio on Saturday night. Brian Munz brings you the action as the Moose visit the Rampage at 7:00 p.m. CST. Hear it live on CJOB 68, online at www.cjob.com.

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