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Moose head into holidays with win

December 19, 2005 - American Hockey League (AHL) - Manitoba Moose News Release


With an 11 day break in the immediate Moose future, Manitoba looked to head into the holiday break on a winning note with a four-game homestand against Syracuse and San Antonio this week. The Moose bounced back from their loss to Wilkes-barre last Saturday with a 5-2 win on Tuesday against the Syracuse Crunch, but lost the second game of the series the next night, 7-4. Two days later, the Moose took on San Antonio in back to back games dropping the first to the Rampage 3-2 but rebounding the next night with a 1-0 shutout win.

Manitoba now takes their second best record in history into the holidays and will conclude 2005 with a two-game series against the Toronto Marlies on Dec. 29th and 31st.

UPCOMING OPPONENTS

Toronto Marlies

December 29th, 7:30PM

December 31st, 4:00PM

MTS Centre

The Moose conclude 2005 with two games against their North Division rivals, the Toronto Marlies. In the only prior meeting between the clubs this season Manitoba was able to come-from-behind to edge out the Marlies. Toronto sits fifth in the North, one point behind Rochester, with a 16-14-0-0 record. They are decent on the penalty kill with a 17.4% scoring rate but have struggled somewhat on the penalty kill boasting an 80.1% kill rate, ranking them 21st in the AHL. John Pohl leads the team in scoring with 17 goals, 15 assists for 32 points in 29 games with the club this season. Jean-Sebastien Aubin and Jean-Francois Racine continue to split the goaltending duties this season. Aubin has played in 18 games for the Marlies this season recording a 8-8- 1 record with a 3.05 GAA and a 0.900 save percentage in the process. Racine has similar numbers in 17 appearences this season, boasting a 8-8- 0 record with a 3.16 GAA and a 0.901 save percentage.

Rochester Americans

January 2nd, 2:00PM

January 3rd, 7:30PM

MTS Centre

The Moose start the new year with back to back games against the Rochester Americans on Jan. 2nd and 3rd at the MTS Centre. This will the be the fourth and fifth contests between the North Division rival's so far this season. The Moose dropped the first two contests losing both by the same 6-5 score. Rochester currently sits in third spot in the North trailing the first-place Moose by 10 points. The Amerks have posted a 16-13-0-1 record collecting 33 points in 30 games played this season. They remain first on the powerplay with a 23.5% scoring rate and seventh on the penalty kill with an 85.4% kill rate. Nathan Paetsch leads the team in scoring with only three goals but adds 24 assists for 27 points, playing in all 30 games for the club this season. Michael Leighton and Jean-Marc Pelletier have shared the majority of the goaltending duties for Rochester this season. Leighton has 17 games played with a 8-8-1 record, a 2.82 GAA and a 0.900 save percentage. Pelletier has appeared in ten games recording a 7- 3-0 record with a 3.88 GAA and a 0.872 save percentage.

MOOSE NOTES

Home for the Holidays: With Saturday night's game being the last before their holiday break, the Moose will have 11 days off before their next contest against the Toronto Marlies on Dec 29. The 11- day holiday break will be the longest span the Moose have had off over Christmas in their 10-year history. Previous to this year, the record for most time off was 10 days, which they enjoyed from Dec. 16/95 - Dec. 26/05 in the 1994-95 season.

Into the Break: After a 1-0 win over the visiting San Antonio Rampage on Saturday night, the Moose recorded their second best record heading into a holiday break in team history. The Moose had their most successful record before Christmas in the 1999-00 season when they went 20-14-4 for 44 points in 38 games. This season also tied for the second busiest start to a season with the Moose playing a total of 34 games before the break. The 1999-00 season also marked the busiest start with Manitoba playing 38 games before Dec. 25th.

Powerful Point-Man: After scoring two goals in Wednesday night's 7-4 loss to the Syracuse Crunch, Manitoba Moose defenceman Sven Butenschon now has 10 goals and 11 assists for 21 points in 30 games played. The towering Oakbank, Manitoba native leads all AHL defencemen in goals with 10 and sits tied for seventh in scoring with 21 points. Butenschon also leads the Moose and is tied for fifth in the league with eight of his 10 goals coming on the powerplay. Butenschon also tied an AHL career high with his two goal effort on Wednesday night at the MTS Centre.

Burrows Back on Top: After recording six points in four games this week, including a three-point effort on Tuesday night, Moose forward Alexandre Burrows regained the team lead in points. Burrows now has 11 goals and 18 assists for 29 points in 28 games this season. The Pincourt, PQ native had a six-game point streak come to an end last Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre and a three-game point streak end this Saturday against the Rampage. Burrows has now recorded 14 points in his last 11 games.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOMINEE

Jason Jaffray

4 GP, 1 G, 5 A, 6 PTS, 3 SHOTS, +2

Jason Jaffray played in all four games for the Manitoba Moose this week, finishing the week with a goal and five assists for six points. He also recorded three shots and was a +2. Jaffray now has three goals and 18 assists for 21 points. He is tied with Alex Burrows for the most assists on the Moose this season. He is currently sixth in team scoring.

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