Moose Ready to Finish Five-Game Road Trip

March 3, 2003 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


Last week, the Moose extended their season-high unbeaten streak to five games before losing to the Hamilton Bulldogs on Sunday. Manitoba started the week with a 2-1 win over St. John's to finish their homestand with a 3-2-1 record. They defeated the Saint John Flames 4-2 on Friday before ending the week in Hamilton. This week, Manitoba completes the road trip with a match against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Providence Bruins and then finish in Saint John. The Moose remain in second spot in the Canadian Division with 63 points and are battling for a high playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Last week: Tuesday, Feb. 25 - St. John's 1 vs. Manitoba 2: The Moose defeated the St. John's Maple Leafs by a 2-1 score in front of another large crowd of 9,297. In the second, Herbert Vasiljevs scored his ninth of the season and pushed his point streak to four games. Ryan Ready and Jaroslav Obsut assisted on the play. Ready blasted a quick pass from Vasiljevs on the power play and the Moose led 2-0 heading in the third. This was Ready's 18th and 10th on the PP this season. He now has a pro career-high three game goal streak. In the third, Brad Boyes ended the shutout bid of Tyler Moss but that was as close as the Baby Leafs would come as the hosts defeated them 2-1.

Friday, Feb. 28 - Manitoba 4 vs. Saint John 2: In the first, the Moose started the scoring when rookie Nathan Smith notched his fourth of the season. Herbert Vasiljevs and Ryan Ready assisted on the play and both players had their point streak pushed to five games. Chris Nielsen fired his first goal as a Moose when he scored shorthanded. This was the team's 11th shorthanded marker of the season. After one, Manitoba led 2-0. In the second, the home side battled back with two unanswered goals. Both goals were scored on the power play within a minute. Heading into the third, the score was 2-2. The Moose regained the lead when Jaroslav Obsut potted his fourth. The visitors secured the 4-2 win when Mikko Jokela fired home a one-timer for his second as a Moose. This was fifth consecutive game that Manitoba scored at least one PPG in a game.

Sunday, Mar. 2 - Manitoba 0 vs. Hamilton 1: The only scoring was done in the first period. Marc-Andre Bergeron fired his seventh of the season for the eventual game-winner. This was a power play goal and only the third time in eight matches that the Moose had surrendered a man-advantage marker. After one, the home side led 1-0. In the final frame, Manitoba stormed the Bulldogs net but could notch the equalizer. The Moose outshot the hosts 12-4 in the third but Hamilton prevailed in the 1-0 win. This snapped Manitoba's five-game unbeaten streak and also the five-game point streaks of forwards Ryan Ready and Herbert Vasiljevs. Moose goalie Alex Auld earned second star for his 31 save performance in the losing effort.

Up Next: Manitoba (28-29-7-0) vs. Bridgeport (31-21-9-3) - Wed., Mar. 5 - 6:05 p.m.

T.V.: none Radio: CJOB - 5:35 p.m.

Sound Tigers Watch: Bridgeport lost all three games last week. They were on the short-end of a 5-4 result on Fri. to Hershey and 5-3 decisions against Albany on the weekend. The Sound Tigers hold the top spot in the East Division with 74 points, good for a third place in the Eastern Conference. This will be the fourth and final third meeting of the season between the two squads with the Moose leading 3-0 (Moose 4-0W on Dec. 6, 4-0W on Dec. 28 and 4-2W on Dec. 31). Bridgeport are 17-8-3-2 at home. The club is led by Trent Hunter (24g, 27a) with 51 points. Hunter has the league's third most shots at 209. Eric Manlow leads the team with 30 assists. Netminder Stephen Valiquette leads the team among active goalies with ten wins and a 2.75 Avg. Jeff Hamilton is tied for second among rookies with six game-winning goals. Brandon Smith (8g, 26a) is 12th among AHL defencemen with 34 points. Bridgeport hold the third best penalty kill at 87.0% (41g/315a). They have the league's fifth best goals against per game at 2.55 (64gp/163g).

Up Next: Manitoba (28-29-7-0) vs. Providence (39-14-7-3)- Fri., Mar. 7 - 6:05 p.m. CT

T.V.: none Radio: CJOB - 5:35 p.m.

Bruins Watch: Providence is 7-2-0-1 in their last 10 matches heading into this week's action. They split a road series with St. John's last week. The P-Bruins sit atop the North Division with 88 points and have the second seed in the Eastern Conference. They have a sparkling 24-3-4-1 home record. Manitoba lost the first-ever meeting between the two teams on Feb. 9 (4-2L). The team is led by Matt Herr (29g, 33a) with 62 points, good for seventh in the AHL. Andy Hilbert (31g, 28a) leads the league in goals and with Keith Aucoin (19g, 40a) are tied for tenth in AHL scoring with 59 points. Herr is tied for third in the league with 13 PPG and leads the AHL with 11 game-winners. Martin Samuelsson is third with a shooting percentage of 21.4% (22g/103s). Goalie Andrew Raycroft is 14th in the AHL with a 2.57 Avg. and has the second most wins in the AHL at 21. They have the league's second best goals for per game at 3.51 (63gp/221g). Providence holds the league's eighth most shots for per game at 31.97 (63gp/2014s).

Up Next: Manitoba (28-29-7-0) vs. Saint John (23-32-5-1) - Sat., Mar. 8 - 5:00 p.m.

T.V.: none Radio: CJOB - 4:35 p.m.

Flames Watch: Last week, Saint John lost to Manitoba 4-2 on Friday and tied and beat Portland in a two game series. The Flames are battling for a playoff spot with 52 points. This is the eighth and last meeting between the two clubs with the Moose leading 4-3. The squad is led by Jason Morgan (11g, 30a) with 41 points. Matthew Lombardi has the team lead with 18 goals. Goaltender Levente Szuper leads the team with a 2.60 Avg. (tied for 18th in the AHL) and 12 wins. Saint John hold the league's most shots for per game at 35.80 (61gp/2184s) and have allowed the fifth least amount of shots per game at 27.98 (61gp/1707s). They host Hamilton on Wed. and Fri. before playing the Moose.

Moose Notes:

- The Moose five-game unbeaten streak (4-0-1) was the longest streak of the season. The last time Manitoba went on a longer streak was from Oct. 18-Nov. 17/00 when they set a franchise-record ten game unbeaten streak. The franchise has accomplished a five-game unbeaten streak four previous times with the previous one occurring from Nov. 27- Dec. 8/99. With the win in Saint John, Manitoba reached the .500 mark for the first time since Feb. 5.

- Forwards Herbert Vasiljevs had a point streak of five games (02/19-28) in which he scored three goals and six assists. Vasiljevs had not established a point streak this long since playing in Orlando during the 2000-01 campaign (12/29/00-01/11/01). His career-high point streak is 11 games set in the '98-99 season.

- Ryan Ready notched his team-leading 18th goal of the season and an assist to earn third star honours on Tuesday against St. John's. Ready had a career-high goal streak of three games (02/21-25). The goal was Ready's 10th on the power play and he has now moved past his PPG total of nine set last season. He has 19 PPG as a Moose which is tied for fifth highest in franchise history (Greg Pankewicz, 1996-1998). Ready also had a five-game point streak end on Sunday.

- Rookie Nathan Smith scored the opening goal and was a +2 rating for first star honours in the 4-2 road win against Saint John on Friday. This was the second time this season that he was selected as first star in a match and Smith now sits with four goals and five assists in 36 games.

- Goaltender Tyler Moss was named first star on Tuesday and then was recalled by Vancouver on Wednesday. Netminder Patrick Couture was signed to a pro tryout contract. Couture played 35 games with the Columbia Inferno (ECHL) and has a record of 24-10-0, led the ECHL with a 2.43 Avg. and four shutouts.

- The Moose finished the homestand with a crowd of 9,297 on Tuesday against St. John's. This has now increased the average this season at Moose games to 6,642.

- Netminder Alex Auld stopped his personal three-game losing streak with a 34 save performance against Saint John. This was his first win since Feb. 1. He earned his 15th win of the season. This was his 26th victory in his Moose career which moves him into third place in franchise history only six wins behind Johan Hedberg.

- Jaroslav Obsut had the game-winner on Friday. Two of his four goals this season have been game-winners.

- Moose leading scorer Brandon Reid was recalled by Vancouver and made his NHL debut on Sat. versus Montreal. He played 8:45 of ice time and registered his first-ever NHL point with an assist in the 1-1 tie.

- Pat Kavanagh was called-up by Vancouver on Sun. This will be his first stint with the Canucks this season.

- John Craighead leads with 96 PIM.

- Nolan Baumgartner leads the team with a +8 rating.

- The team's penalty kill ranks 24th with 80.9% (62g/325a).

- Manitoba ranks 14th in power play with 16.2% (61g/377a).



American Hockey League Stories from March 3, 2003


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