Moose on wrong end of three close divisional games

Published on January 9, 2006 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


The Moose headed East this week playing three games in three nights against North Division rivals. Friday night in Toronto the Moose fought hard to send the game into overtime but couldn't hold the Marlies off as Tyler Beechey scored just 40 seconds into the extra frame. The Moose lost another one-goal game to Hamilton the next night and finished the week with their third OT loss of the season on Sunday in Cleveland.

Manitoba now has a well-deserved four-days of rest before facing off with the Philadelphia Phantoms in back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday at the MTS Centre.

UPCOMING OPPONENTS

Philadelphia Phantoms

January 13th & 14th, 7:30PM

MTS Centre

The Moose take on the 2005 Calder Cup champion Philadelphia Phantoms in the second and third of four meetings between the clubs this year. In the only prior meeting this season, Jozef Balej netted the winning goal in a 3-1 Moose victory. The Phantoms are currently sixth in the East Division with a 15-21-0-3 record, for 33 points in 39 games. Their powerplay has struggled this season scoring only 10.7% of the time and leaving them at the bottom of the league (27th). Philadelphia's penalty kill has done much better, stopping opponents 84.0% of the time good enough for 8th in the AHL. Pat Kavanagh leads the team in scoring with 12 goals, 11 assists for 23 points in 37 games played. Martin Houle has logged the majority of the minutes between the pipes for the Phantoms playing in 16 games. He owns a 6-9-1 record with a 2.25 GAA and 0.917 save percentage.

Hamilton Bulldogs

January 20th & 21st 7:30PM

MTS Centre

The Moose continue their four-game homestand with back-to-back games against the Hamilton Bulldogs. Manitoba is 2-1 this season in three games with the Bulldogs with Hamilton edging out the Moose 3-2 in their last meeting on Jan 07/06. Hamilton have won three straight but are still seventh in the North Division with a 16-23- 0-2 record, gathering 34 points in 41 games. The Bulldogs are 14th on the powerplay with a 17.1% scoring rate and 27th on the penalty kill with a 78.7% kill rate. Corey Locke leads the way in scoring with 11 goals and 16 assists for 27 points in 41 games played. Yann Danis has been the go to goalkeeper of late for the Bulldogs, winning his last three games and sporting a 10-7-1 record in 18 games played. Danis also sits with a 2.48 GAA and a 0.915 save percentage.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOMINEE

Jesse Schultz

5 GP, 4 G, 3 A, 7 PTS, 9 SHOTS, EVEN

Jesse Schultz played in all five games for the Moose this week, recording four goals and three assists for seven points. He also finished with nine total shots and was even on the +/- ranking for the week. He scored his second goal in seven games to break a dry spell in Tuesday's 3-1 loss to Rochester, before exploding for six points in three games on the weekend. He is currently riding a four-game points streak and is the team-leader now in goals (20) and points (33).

MOOSE NOTES

Schultz Hits the 20 Mark: After recording his 18th and 19th goals Friday night in Toronto, Moose forward Jesse Schultz netted his 20th goal of the season in Manitoba's 3-2 loss to Hamilton on Saturday night. Schultz is the first Moose to hit 20 goals this season and has added 13 assists to lead the herd in points with 33. In his third year with the Moose, Schultz has recorded four goals in his last three games and sits tied for fourth in the AHL in goals. The Strasbourg, Saskatchewan native also carries a fourgame point streak into Friday's game with Philadelphia at the MTS Centre.

Coming Away with a Point: After both Toronto and Cleveland recorded overtime goals less than one minute into the extra frame, the Moose marked their second & third overtime losses of the season and their 30th & 31st OT losses since switching to an overtime format in 2001-02. Manitoba's first overtime loss of this season came in a 6-5 loss in Rochester on Nov. 11/05. The Moose have one overtime win on the season when Ryan Bayda scored 1:10 into OT to defeat the Toronto Marlies 3-2 on Dec. 29/05.

String of One Goal Games: With all three weekend games decided by one goal, two in overtime, the Moose have now had eight of their last nine games decided by one goal. In those nine games the Moose boast a 4-3-2-0 record including three 1-0 shutout wins. This streak is similar to a span of games between Nov. 6th - 25th when the Moose had eight of nine games decided by a single goal recording a 2-4-1-2 record during that time.

A Royal Return for King: Playing in his first game in over ten months, Moose forward Jason King showed that he hasn't lost his scoring touch netting two goals in Manitoba's 5-4 overtime loss to Cleveland on Sunday night. King jumped right into the action scoring twice on his four shots and adding four penalty minutes. Last season, King sat fourth on the Moose in scoring with 26 goals and 27 assists for 53 points in 59 games before suffering a season ending concussion on Mar. 5/05 against Rochester.

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American Hockey League Stories from January 9, 2006


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