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Moose Get Four of Eight Points on the Road

October 20, 2003 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


The Manitoba Moose saw a bit of everything on their first road trip of the 2003-04 regular season. After an opening weekend split with the St. John's Maple Leafs, Manitoba headed out on a four-game trip that included stops in Milwaukee, Chicago, and then a return visit to St. John's to once again face the Baby Leafs. The Moose left with a .500 record and returned home still at the same level, thanks to a win, a loss, a tie, and overtime loss. As a result, Manitoba enters the week second in the North Division, one point back of the Syracuse Crunch and a point up on the Rochester Americans.

This week, the Moose return home for four games in seven days at the Winnipeg Arena, including a twogame series with the Hamilton Bulldogs, now the sole AHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens, and a first-ever two game series with the Binghamton Senators, the AHL affiliate of the Ottawa Senators.

Last Week

Wednesday, October 15/03 – Manitoba 1 @ Milwaukee 1 (OT): The Manitoba Moose and Milwaukee Admirals skated to a 1-1 tie Wednesday night on the strength of a 36-save effort by goaltender Tyler Moss and Fedor Fedorov's fourth goal of the season for Manitoba. The opening period featured no scoring but several of the best chances of the game. Moss shone as Milwaukee outshot the Moose 11-10 in the period. The Moose also had three power play chances in the opening frame, including a five-minute major and game misconduct to Scottie Upshall for high sticking Moose rookie Ryan Kesler. Manitoba struck first in the second period, as Nathan Smith passed the puck over to Fedorov on the right side, who made a shoulder fake and wristed it into the top corner to extend his season-long scoring streak to three games. From there, Moss held off the Admirals, making a series of outstanding saves. But the lead wouldn't last, as halfway through the third period, a Martin Grenier pass was picked off by Darren Haydar who centred to rookie Timofei Shishkanov who scored his first professional goal. In the dying seconds of the final period, Chris St. Croix was called for high sticking on Shishkanov, but Manitoba was able to kill off the shorthanded situation through overtime. 3 Stars: 1.Tyler Moss; 2.Greg Classen; 3.Brian Finley.

Thursday, October 16/03 Manitoba 3 @ Chicago 4 (OTL): This night, the Manitoba Moose would fall 4-3 to the Chicago Wolves on an overtime power play goal by Simon Gamache. The Moose got off to a great start however as Martin Grenier scored right off a face-off 1:46 into the opening frame. But late in the period, the Wolves responded with a pair of goals, at 13:44 by Simon Gamache and 16:39 by Bill Lindsay respectively. The Wolves dominated the second period only to be thwarted by the strong play of goaltender Alex Auld who kept the Moose in the game with 37 saves overall. Eric Healey scored the only goal of the middle frame on a breakaway with 1:48 to go. In the third, the Moose battled back. Jimmy Roy scored a goal, assisted by Jaroslav Obsut and Fedor Fedorov who extended his season-long point streak to four games. With just over three minutes to go in the game, Chris St. Croix scored his first goal as a Moose and first AHL goal since the 1999-00 season to tie the game up. In overtime, Fedorov hauled down a Wolves player and headed out on a breakaway but the play was whistled down as the Russian was assessed a two-minute penalty. Gamache scored his second of the game on the ensuing power play to hand Manitoba its first overtime loss of the season. 3 Stars: 1.Simon Gamache; 2.Jimmy Roy; 3.Zdenek Blatny.

Saturday, October 18/03 Manitoba 1 @ St. John's 3: The Moose fell below .500 with a 3-1 Saturday night loss to the St. John's Maple Leafs. The two sides picked up right where they left off the weekend before in terms of animosity. The opening period featured three separate fights, as Martin Grenier and Mike Brown renewed acquaintances, Jimmy Roy and Kris Newbury danced, and Ryan Ready exchanged blows with Jay Harrison. For the first time this season against the Moose, the opposition got on the board first as the Leafs scored 16:14 into the first period when Pierre Hedin scored his first North American professional goal on the power play with Zenith Komarniski in the box. The Baby Leafs doubled their lead in the opening two minutes of the second period when Aaron Gavey scored, also on the power play. Near the end of the middle frame, Brad Leeb intercepted a Moose pass and scored to increase St. John's lead to 3-0. In the third period, the Moose stormed Sebastien Centomo in the Leafs' net, outshooting St. John's in the final frame 14-2 but the only goal they could muster was by Fedor Fedorov, who again increased his season-long point-scoring streak to five games. Justin Morrison and Nathan Smith registered the assists. Manitoba had 35 shots on goal throughout the game as Centomo played a strong game. Tyler Moss stopped 24 of 27 shots. 3 Stars:1.Sebastien Centomo ;2.Pierre Hedin;3.Brad Leeb.

Sunday, October 19/03 Manitoba 4 @ St. John's 1: Jaroslav Obsut and Brandon Reid each scored a pair of goals and Alex Auld made 34 saves as the Manitoba Moose salvaged a series split over the St. John's Maple Leafs by winning 4-1 Sunday afternoon. The Moose came out flying in the first period eager to avenge a loss the night before, peppering a season-high 19 shots at Leafs netminder Sebastien Centomo. The club found itself in a hole at the start of the opening frame as a trio of penalties at the 3:45 mark to Fedor Fedorov had the Moose on the penalty kill early. The Moose showed their resolve, however, and managed to kill off all three penalties. Manitoba was rewarded with a power play of their own, and capitalized. Obsut blasted a shot from the point to get the Moose on the board first 12:43 in. Nathan Smith, with an assist in his fourth straight game, and Justin Morrison got the helpers. Manitoba continued to press and carried momentum from a late Leafs penalty by Jay Harrison by scoring a goal with 0.1 seconds to go in the period. Brandon Reid, assisted by Martin Grenier and Kirill Koltsov, got the marker. The Moose carried the play in the second period and Auld stood tall when needed. Obsut managed to score his second of the night with 59 seconds to go in the middle frame. The two-goal performance is the best by Jaroslav Obsut in his professional career. In the third period, the Leafs pressed to get back into the game and managed a goal with 10:10 to go by Pierre Hedin. The Leafs then came close to drawing even, with some outstanding chances off the sticks of Josh Holden and Kyle Wellwood, but Auld made several spectacular saves to preserve the two-goal cushion. Brandon Reid then registered his second goal of the night with an empty-netter, assisted by Ryan Ready.

This Week

Wednesday, Oct. 22 & Friday, Oct. 24/03 Hamilton (1-3-0-1) @ Manitoba (2-2-1-1) – The Hamilton Bulldogs will make their first visit to the Arena since the two teams met in last season's seven-game Eastern Conference Semi-Final which saw the Moose erase a three-games-to-one series deficit only to lose the decisive Game 7 in Hamilton. However, things have changed in Hamilton as the Bulldogs no longer have a split affiliation with Montreal and Edmonton, but are the sole AHL affiliate of the Canadiens. The Bulldogs entered the week with only a single win as well as an overtime loss. As a result, they sit in sixth in the North Division, but two points out of third. Last year's leading scorer Jason Ward is currently with the Canadiens, but Benoit Gratton has returned and is leading the ‘Dogs this season with four goals and five points in five games, along with Tomas Plekanec who has two goals and three assists. Former Moose Eric Fichaud is once again one of Hamilton's top tenders. He boasts a goals against average of 3.60 in just over three games, while J.F. Damphousse has a 3.00 GAA in two games. The Moose and Bulldogs have played 20 games in their history. Manitoba's record in that time is 7-11-1-1.

Sunday, October 26/03 Binghamton (5-1-0-0) @ Manitoba (2-2-1-1) – The Senators will make their first-ever visit to the Winnipeg Arena on Saturday. They are the AHL's best team with only one loss in six games entering the week. The Sens have scored the most goals in the league so far with 10, led by then league's leading goal-scorer Denis Hamel who has six, including two game-winning goals. Josh Langfeld is second in team-scoring with three goals and five points. At the other end, Ray Emery is the league's leading goalie with a 1.39 GAA in five games, four of them have been wins.

Moose Notes

- Entering the week, forward Fedor Fedorov is still the league's leading scorer with 10 points (5G,5A). He had his career-long five-game point streak ended Sunday afternoon in St. John's. His five goals are second most in the league, as is his five assists. He is also tied for the league-lead in power play goals with three.

- Jaroslav Obsut (2G,3A) has climbed into fourth in scoring amongst defenceman in the AHL. He trails Kirill Koltsov by a point. Sunday's two-goal performance in St. John's was the most in one game for the Slovakian native. He also leads the league in penalty minutes with 28. He was assessed 26 PIM in the second period on Saturday in St. John's. His five penalties tied for the most penalties in one period in franchise history (Marc Laforge, 10/22/97 vs.LB).

- Moose forward Nathan Smith is currently enjoying a career-high four-game points streak with four assists this season.

- Moose defenceman Martin Grenier leads the AHL in major penalties with three. The 6'5", 250 lb. rearguard has 23 PIM in total. He scored his first goal as a Moose Thursday night in Chicago.

- As a team, the Moose have recorded the most assists of any team in the league with 34, as well as the most PIM with 183. They have also taken the most minor penalties of any team in the AHL with 49.

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