Moose pull out gutsy effort to win third in three days

October 31, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


Two third period goals sparked a come-from-behind victory for the Manitoba Moose as they defeated the Hamilton Bulldogs 2-1 to complete their five-game road trip with four wins and one loss.

The first real scoring opportunity of the game came from recent Bulldogs signee Jason Ward. Ward broke in on Flaherty along the right side and fired a shot that Flaherty directed into the corner.

The Moose had a great chance of their own several minutes later while on the powerplay as Kevin Bieksa sent a cross-ice pass over to Peter Sarno. Sarno one-timed it but Hamilton netminder Dan Ellis made a great glove stop on the play.

As the first period was winding down, Flaherty was forced to come up big on a scoring chance by Gavin Morgan. After the opening period of play, the game remained scoreless with Manitoba holding a 12-9 shot advantage.

It was Hamilton that struck with the first goal of the game with just over six minutes to play in the second period. Michael Lambert fired a shot from just inside the blueline that Flaherty kicked out. However, he was unable to get a handle on the rebound before Chris Higgins kicked it over to Marc-Andre Thinel. Thinel was left with a wide-open cage and made no mistake in putting it in the back of the net.

Alexandre Burrows and Steve Ott got into an altercation at the 17:43 mark as both were sent off for roughing. Just as they exited from the penalty box in the period's dying seconds the two parties finished what they started and dropped the gloves. Burrows got the better of Ott in the fight.

After two periods of play, the Moose were trailing 1-0 and after being outshot in the middle frame 15-6, trailed on the shot clock 24-18.

It didn't take the Moose long to get back in the game. 20 seconds into the first period, a Ryan Kesler shot from the side boards was tipped by Hamilton's Dan Focht and fooled Ellis enough to slip past the goal line.

Ellis redeemed himself several minutes later on a big stop off Kevin Bieksa. Bieksa walked in from the point and backhanded it on net but was denied.

The Moose continued to come at the Bulldogs in the third period and eventually would score the winning goal. Nolan Baumgartner passed the puck off the boards to Kesler, who flipped it over to Goren. Goren beat Ellis low short side from the centre of the right faceoff circle.

NOTES: The win was Manitoba's first during the regular season in Hamilton since Justin Kurtz scored an overtime winner on February 1, 2003. All last season, the Moose only defeated Hamilton once in eight tries and were outscored 35-14 in the process... Jimmy Roy was the veteran scratch for the Moose and remains three games shy of 500 with Manitoba... Wade Brookbank (concussion) also missed the game...



American Hockey League Stories from October 31, 2004


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