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Moose Extend Winning Streak to Eight Games

March 20, 2008 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


WINNIPEG, MB. - Buoyed by Drew MacIntyre's 32 saves and Jannik Hansen's four points, the Manitoba Moose rose above the San Antonio Rampage 4-2 Thursday night. The win swept the club's home series vs. the Rampage and extended Manitoba's winning streak to eight games, only two games shy of the franchise record.

For the first time since taking ill earlier this month, all-star netminder MacIntyre made the start for the Moose, directly opposite Rampage goalie Josh Tordjman. After both goalies faced two shots each, San Antonio's Adam Keefe took a high-sticking penalty and Manitoba benefited from the game's first powerplay. The team was unable to register a shot, however, and both clubs continued to battle for the opening goal.

The Rampage rallied in the minutes following the infraction, firing three more shots on MacIntyre and keeping the Moose from making offensive progress. Though the home team cleared the puck near the nine-minute mark, San Antonio carried play back into the Manitoba zone. While rushing up the right wing, Joey Tenute snapped a quick shot through MacIntyre's legs and into the back of the net to give the Rampage the first lead of the game.

Four minutes later, the Moose got their equalizer. After Hansen deftly avoided a check from Brendan Bell and poked the puck out towards the slot, birthday boy Brad Moran caught the pass and fired past Tordjman to make it a 1-1 game through to the end of the first.

3:31 into the second period, Manitoba's Mike Brown pummeled Curtis Fraser near the visitor's penalty box, resulting in fighting majors to both players. Before the game reached its halfway point, San Antonio broke the 20-shot mark, more than doubling-up the Moose.

The Rampage dominated the play through the latter half of the middle frame, and although the visitors climbed up to 25 shots, the Moose were the ones to tally the go-ahead goal. After a short struggle for the puck near the Moose bench, Moran directed a perfect pass to Hansen just as he arrived at the top of the crease. The Danish forward snapped the puck over Tordjman, giving the Moose their first lead of the game to close out the second period.

Although Manitoba was unable to extend their lead on two early third period powerplays, the third man-advantage provided the two-goal cushion. With his stick stuck in the mesh, Tordjman was stick-less for nearly 30 seconds of the five-on-four. As the play moved away from his crease, he reached around to grab the stick and had just repositioned in the net when Moose defenceman Maxime Fortunus surprised him from the top of the slot to put Manitoba up 3-1.

Nearly mirroring what happened late in Wednesday night's game, the Rampage narrowed the gap to one goal with just over five minutes left on the clock. As Mike Keane served a holding penalty, former Moose Bryan Helmer fired from the top of the near face-off circle to notch a powerplay goal and set the score at 3-2.

A late Moose penalty put the club on the penalty kill for much of the final three minutes, and although San Antonio racked up 34 shots to Manitoba's 21, Brown added an empty-netter to wrap the 4-2 victory. The win was Manitoba's eighth in a row, putting the club two wins shy of tying their franchise record heading into a four-game road trip.

LOOKING AHEAD: The Moose will look to extend their road winning streak next Tuesday night in Lake Erie, the start of a four game road trip for Manitoba.

NEXT GAME: TUESDAY, MAR. 25 (QUICKEN LOANS ARENA - CLEVELAND, OH.)

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