Moose lose divisional battle to Crunch, 2-1

March 24, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


The Manitoba Moose dropped a 2-1 North Division battle to the Syracuse Crunch in front of 6809 fans at the MTS Centre on Tuesday night. Manitoba's record against the Crunch dropped to 1-2-0-0 heading into tomorrow's final regular season matchup between the clubs. Dusty Collins scored Manitoba's lone goal, while Cory Schneider stopped 26 shots for only his seventh regulation loss this season.

The North Division rival got underway with a dispute between tough guy Tommy Maxwell and Crunch winger Kevin Harvey. After several solid blows, both guilty parties were handed five-minute fighting majors.

At 2:34, Syracuse received the first powerplay of the game when Zack FitzGerald was penalized for roughing. The visitors only fired one shot on Cory Schneider before play returned to even-strength.

Near the midway point of the period, FitzGerald added an interference penalty to his record to give the Crunch their second man-advantage. Syracuse was able to bring their shot count to seven during the two-minutes, but couldn't notch the opening goal.

Manitoba's powerplay unit made their debut at 10:46 when Nick St. Pierre was called out for hooking. Key saves by Kevin Lelande ensured that all five of Manitoba's powerplay attempts remained out of the net.

A mere minute into the second period the Moose broke their goose-egg. Dusty Collins danced around the defence and slipped the puck through Lelande's five-hole for a 1-0 lead.

The Crunch earned the equalizer at 11:03 when Maksim Mayorov wired the puck over Schneider's glove to knot the game at one.

At 9:52 of the final frame, Mayorov broke the tie with his second goal of the night. Nikita Filatov passed the puck across Schneider's net and Mayorov snapped it in for a 2-1 tally in favour of the Crunch.

Even though the Moose were leading in the shot department they couldn't translate their shot lead into a goal lead and lost their second game to the Crunch, 2-1.

LOOKING AHEAD

The Moose close-out their four game regular season series against the Syracuse Crunch tomorrow night at the MTS Centre.

NEXT GAME

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - 7:30 p.m. @ MTS Centre

(7:05pm on CJOB Radio with Brian Munz & Chris Neilson)



American Hockey League Stories from March 24, 2009


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