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Moose Split Texas Road Tour

December 8, 2008 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


The Manitoba Moose split their Texas tour in week nine recording two victories over the Houston Aeros and two losses at the hands of the San Antonio Rampage. For the first time ever, Manitoba swept a four-game season series against the Aeros earning wins on Oct. 24 (3-1 W), Oct. 25 (5-3 W), Dec. 2 (5-3 W), and Dec. 4 (4-3 SOW). The Moose and Rampage split their season series with both clubs earning four points each.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008: Manitoba 5, Houston 3

The Moose scored four goals in the third period for a 5-3 come-from-behind victory over the hometown Houston Aeros last night at the Toyota Center. Jason Krog scored one while rookies Mario Bliznak and Mark Derlago netted two each to earn the club's third victory over the Texas team this season. Karl Goehring recorded his sixth win by blocking 25 shots.

Thursday, December 4, 2008: Manitoba 3, Houston 2 (SO)

In the first and only morning face-off of the regular season, the Manitoba Moose swept their four-game series against the hometown Houston Aeros with a 3-2 shootout victory at the Toyota Center. In the last regular season meeting between both clubs, Karl Goehring stopped 14 shots for his second consecutive win while Moose winger Michael Grabner scored the clinching goal on the ninth shootout shot.

Friday, December 5, 2008: Manitoba 3, San Antonio 4

An early three-goal deficit proved to be too much for the Moose to overcome Friday night, as the club dropped a 4-3 decision to the Rampage in San Antonio. Mark Cullen, Michael Grabner and Jason Krog scored goals for Manitoba, while Jonathan Boutin blocked 34 of 38 shots in his Moose debut.

Sunday, December 7, 2008: Manitoba 0, San Antonio 1

The San Antonio Rampage defeated the Manitoba Moose 1-0 Sunday night, splitting the four-game season series between both clubs. San Antonio's Brett MacLean scored the game's lone goal, while Karl Goehring blocked 29 of 30 attempts. With the loss, Manitoba split their Texas road trip and will carry a two-game skid into Friday's home game vs. Grand Rapids.

Moose Notes

NOTES ON NOVEMBER: By dropping a 4-3 decision to Iowa on November 29th, Manitoba closed out the month of November with a 9-2-0-0 (.818) record and 18 of 22 possible points. This is the best November record the franchise has had to date. Last season, the Moose earned 13 of 22 (.591) possible points in the 11th month. Since joining the AHL in 2001-02, the Moose have never finished below .500 in the month of November.

DECEMBER DETAILS: With three more games then November, the Moose have 14 match-ups scheduled for the 12th month of the year, which started on Dec. 2nd in Houston and will end with a New Year's Eve game vs. Chicago at the MTS Centre. In 2006-07, Manitoba played a franchise-record 17 games in the month of December, going 8-5-2-2 (.588) to tie the club record for most December wins and post the third-best December win percentage in seven AHL seasons. Manitoba's best-ever December was in 2004-05 when the team went 6-3-1-0 for a .650 win percentage, and the club's worst year-ending performance was in 2001-02, when the team earned 17 of 32 points to finish .531. Again, like in November, the Moose have never finished below .500 in the last month of the year.

QUARTERLY REPORT: At the conclusion of Tuesday night's 5-3 victory over Houston, the Moose played one quarter of their 2008-09 regular season. After 20 games played, the Moose hold a 16-4-0-0 record and 32 points. This is the club's best-ever start in seven AHL seasons. Manitoba's second-best performance after 20 games was in 1998-99, when the team went 14-3-3 for 31 points and the worst opening quarter was in 2003-04 when the Moose went 6-10-3-1 for 16 of 40 potential points (.400).

Upcoming Opponent

The Moose are back in white this weekend as they host the Grand Rapids Griffins for the first time this season. Last season, the Moose held a 16-18-4-5 overall record against the Griffins (10-9-2-1 at the MTS Centre).

Player of the Week Nominee

Karl Goehring

Karl Goehring is this week's Moose nominee for AHL Player of the Week...He appeared in three of Manitoba's four games this week and finished the week 2-1-0-0... On Tuesday, Goehring stopped 26 of 29 shots as Manitoba roared back with four goals in the third period to down Houston 5-3... Then on Thursday, in his season-high fifth consecutive start, he stopped 14 of 16 shots including three of four in the shootout in Manitoba's 3-2 shootout win... His only blemish came in his best performance of the week when he made 29 saves on 30 shots by got no support from his teammates in a 1-0 defeat to San Antonio... In total, Goehring made 69 saves on the week for a goals against average of 1.96 and a save percentage of .920.

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American Hockey League Stories from December 8, 2008


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