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Moose Finish Regular Season as Ninth Seed

April 7, 2003 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


Last week, the Moose finished their regular season schedule with a split against the St. John's Maple Leafs and lost to the AHL-leading Hamilton Bulldogs. They started the week with a 4-2 loss to St. John's on Wed. and rebounded for a 3-2 overtime win on Fri. On Saturday, Hamilton defeated them 5-3. The Moose finished the regular season as the ninth seed in the Eastern Conference with 84 points (37-33-8-2). Manitoba will now face the Portland Pirates on the road in the best-of-three qualifying series starting on Thursday.

Last week: Wednesday, Apr. 2 - Manitoba 2 vs. St. John's 4: The home side scored the opening goal. Former Moose Brad Leeb potted his career-high 34th goal. Ryan Ready tied the score with his 24th of the season. He now has set a pro career-high for goals in a season and leads the team in this category. After one, the score was tied at one. In the second, the hosts erupted for three unanswered markers. Former Moose Josh Holden and Doug Doull with Allan Rourke increased the Baby Leafs lead to three. The Moose rallied for a late period tally from Jason Goulet. This was his first goal as a Moose. After two, St. John's 4-2. In the third, Manitoba outshot the Leafs 12-8 but could not get any closer. Tyler Bouck earned third star for his one assist.

Friday, Apr. 4 - Manitoba 3 vs. St. John's 2 (OT): In the first, Manitoba were flying and jumped all over the home side. They outshot the Leafs 18-5 and were rewarded when Zenith Komarniski notched his 15th of the season. After one, the Moose 1-0. In the second, the visitors struck again as rugged winger John Craighead scored his fifth. Manitoba led 35-12 in shots after two periods. The hosts awoke and rallied for two goals by former Moose players. Josh Holden scored early while Brad Leeb blasted his career-high 35th to tie the game with eight seconds left. The score was deadlocked at two but Newfoundland native Jason King rifled a shot past Mikael Tellqvist at the 58 second mark of overtime and secured the valuable two points for the Moose with his overtime winner. Manitoba and St. John's ended the season series tied at four games a piece.

Saturday, Apr. 5 - Manitoba 3 vs. Hamilton 5: Rookie Jason King started the scoring by notching his 19th of the season. Moose leading scorer Brandon Reid and Tyler Bouck assisted on the play. At the end of the period, the Bulldogs struck for a power play goal and it was tied at one. Manitoba regained the lead when rookie Nathan Smith notched his ninth on the power play. King and Bouck added the assists. The home side scored twice to take their first lead. After two, Hamilton 3-2. The hosts continued to score and received a shorthanded marker from Jarret Stoll and a marker from Benoit Gratton. The Moose finished the scoring as King potted his second of the game and become the second Moose player to score 20 goals this season. King tied for the second most goals by a Moose rookie in a single season (Alex Korolyuk, 1996-97). Manitoba set a new franchise for the least goals against with 228.

Up Next: Manitoba (37-33-8-2) vs. Portland (33-28-13-6)- GAME ONE: Thur., Apr. 10 & GAME TWO: Fri., Apr. 11 - 6:05 p.m.; GAME THREE (if necessary): Sun. Apr. 13 - 5:05 p.m.

T.V.: none Radio: CJOB - 5:35 p.m. on Thur. and Fri.; if necessary, 4:35 p.m. on Sun.

Pirates Watch: The Moose and the Pirates split their season series at 1-1-2 (Moose 2-2T on Oct. 20, 5-2L on Nov. 1, 2-1W on Mar. 14 and 2-2T on Mar. 16). The Pirates finished the season as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference with 85 points. In the final week of the regular season, the Pirates went 1-2-1. They lost 4-1 at Manchester on Wed., won 2-1 at Providence on Fri., tied 1-1 against Worcester on Sat. and lost 3-2 to Saint John on Sun. Portland had a 19-12-6-3 home record this season. Peter Ferraro (22g, 41a) led the club with 63 points. He tied with Colin Forbes and Glen Metropolit among active Pirates with 22 goals and led the team with 41 assists. Josef Boumedienne was seventh among AHL defencemen with 47 points. Goaltender Ratislav Stana has a 2.17 Avg. and .933 Save Pct., good for second best in the league. Netminder Maxime Ouellet had the team-lead with 22 wins and seventh best among AHL goalies with 2.40 Avg. Ouellet was tied for the league lead with seven shutouts and had the third best Save Pct. at .929 during the season. The Pirates have the ninth best PP with 17.2% (62g/361a). They have the fourth best penalty kill at 86.6% (57g/424a). Portland has the AHL's fourth lowest goals against with 2.44 (80gp/195g).

Moose Notes:

- Manitoba captured their 13th win in the last 22 games on Friday. Since Feb. 19, the Moose have captured 30 out of 44 points (13-5-2-2) to finish the regular season. The Moose also scored their fifth overtime win of the season on Fri. and have gained 20 out of possible 30 points while playing in the overtime session this season.

- The Moose set a new franchise record for lowest goals against in a season at 228 (the old record was 230, 2000-01). Manitoba recorded 37 wins in the season to tie for the fifth highest mark in franchise history. They finished with 84 points, two behind the total set last season.

- Forward Jason King rifled his 18th of the season for the game-winner against St. John's on Friday and notched two goals versus Hamilton on Saturday. He moved into a second place tie among Moose rookies for goals in a single season (Alex Korolyuk, 1996-97). King also moved past Brandon Reid for the second most points by a Moose rookie in a season with 40 points (20g, 20a).

- Speedy winger Brandon Reid returned from his six-game stint with Vancouver and was selected third star in his first game back on Friday. He added two assists on Sat. To finish as the Moose leading scorer with 54 points (18g, 36a). Reid tied his goal total set in his pro rookie season last year and shattered his career-high in assists and points. In his two-year Moose career, he has recorded 91 points (36g, 55a) in 133 AHL games.

- Forward Ryan Ready notched his 24th goal of the season on Wed. to set a new pro career-high for goals in a single season. Ready is only one goal shy of tying for tenth place for all-time Moose goals (48, Rusty Fitzgerald - 1999-01). Ready was the second Moose with 50+ points this season and reached the 50 point plateau for the second consecutive season.

- Forward Tyler Bouck had one assist and two shots for third star selection on Wed. He added two assists on Sat. Bouck finished with pro career-highs in goals (10), assists (28) and points (38). He was tied for sixth in team scoring. Bouck is currently on a two-game point streak.

- Justin Kurtz finished the season as the top defencemen in scoring with 39 points (11g, 28a). On Saturday, he added an assist for his 100th assist in a Moose uniform. He is the sixth Moose player to break that barrier. In his five year career with Manitoba, Kurtz has recorded 136 points (36a, 100a) in 296 AHL games.

- Pat Kavanagh notched an assist on Wednesday and broke the 30 point barrier for the third time in his pro career. Kavanagh (15g, 15a) was ninth among active Moose in team scoring.

- Goaltender Tyler Moss played in his 42nd game of the season on Fri. He finished tied for seventh in career games played by a Moose goalie (Manny Legace, 1999-00). Moss had 21 wins to end the season and has the sixth most wins in a single season by a Moose goalie.

- Rookie Nathan Smith had a goal on Sat. against Hamilton to finish his first pro season with nine goals and eight assists in 53 games.

- The Moose completed the season with five players with 15+ goals. Ready led with 24 goals and followed by King (20), Reid (18), Kavanagh (15) and Zenith Komarniski (15).

- John Craighead led with 109 PIM.

- Bouck led the team among active Moose with a +8 rating and Nolan Baumgartner finished with a +15.

- Ready finished with 11 power play goals to lead the team and has 20 PPG in the last two seasons.

- Reid was the team leader with four game-winning goals and 36 assists.

- Kavanagh led with three shorthanded markers.

- Bouck finished with the most games played by a Moose at 76.

- The Moose record for the 2002-03 season was 37-33-8-2. Last year the squad finished 39-33-4-4. In previous years, the franchise held records of: 39-31-12 (2000-01), 37-31-14 (1999-00), 47-21-14 (1998-99), 39-36-7 (1997-98), 32-40-10 (1996-97). NOTE: There are only 80 games played in the 2001-02, 2002-03 season, whereas the Moose played 82 games in the previous five seasons.

- The team's penalty kill ranked 23rd with 81.4% (72g/388a).

- Manitoba ranked 14th in power play with 16.8% (75g/447a).



American Hockey League Stories from April 7, 2003


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