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Moose Suffer through Week of Highs and Lows

December 15, 2003 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


After a schedule which saw the Manitoba Moose play six games at the Winnipeg Arena over 21 days, the Moose began the grind of six games in eight days last week, with all of those games coming on the road. The grueling stretch began with Manitoba putting forward arguably their best effort of the season in a 3-0 shutout of the Binghamton Senators last Wednesday night. Two nights later, the Moose won their first game of the season when the opposition scored first, a two-goal comeback to take and lead and then beat the Syracuse Crunch 5-4 in overtime. However, the next day, the Cleveland Barons handed the Moose one of their worst losses of the season by a 7-2 score and then the Hamilton Bulldogs doubled up Manitoba 4-2 just a day after that. In the end, the Moose finished the week 2-2-0-0 while playing one of their best games of the year as well as one of their worst. As a result, the Moose remained in sixth place, a point up on the Toronto Roadrunners and two points back of the Crunch in the North Division.

This week, Manitoba will finish up the road trip by heading back to the Cleveland to face the Barons on Tuesday night, before wrapping things up Wednesday night with their first-ever to Albany to play the league's worst team in the River Rats. Then the Moose return home for a weekend series against the Grand Rapids Griffins who stand atop the West Division with the third-best record in the American Hockey League at 16-8-4-0.

Last Week (2-2-0)

Wednesday, December 10/03 – Manitoba 3 @ Binghamton 0: The Moose played likely their most complete road game last Wednesday night in handing the Binghamton Senators a 3-0 shutout defeat. Tyler Moss won his third game of the year by stopping all 34 shots he faced for the first shutout by a Moose goalie this season. Offensive support came from defenceman Jaroslav Obsut who opened the scoring at the 15:19 mark of the first with a quick shot from the slot over Billy Thompson. Brandon Nolan and Ryan Ready drew assists. In the middle frame, Manitoba opened a three-goal cushion when Brandon Reid converted a Fedor Fedorov feed for his seventh of the season two minutes into the second. Then Nolan Baumgartner came in off the point to put home the Sean Pronger pass for his second of the year eight minutes later. The B-Sens fired 12 shots at Moss in the final frame, but couldn't beat him. Thompson stopped 26 shots in taking the loss. Manitoba stayed in seventh in the North Division though despite the win.

Friday, December 12/03 – Manitoba 5 @ Syracuse 4 (OTW): After shutting out the Binghamton Senators two nights earlier, the Moose engaged in one of their highest-scoring affairs of the season Friday, and came away with their second win in a row to start this six-game road trip, 5-4 in overtime over the Syracuse Crunch. The Crunch actually jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a first period goal by Mark Hartigan and then a second period marker from Aaron Johnson past Tyler Moss. However, the Moose then exploded with their most productive period of the season, scoring three straight to take the lead. Ryan Ready's shorthanded goal was sandwiched between a pair of Fedor Fedorov power play goals as the Moose went two-for-seven with the man-advantage on the night. Fedorov now has 11 goals on the season to lead the Moose, while Ready now has four. The Crunch drew even though when Joe Motzko beat Moss on the set-up by Hartigan, but only :40 later, Mikko Jokela's third of the year from Brandon Reid and Fedorov put the Moose back on top with their fourth goal of the middle frame. Reid would finish the night with two assists, as did defenceman Kirill Koltsov. The Moose hung on to the one-goal lead as Moss stopped seven shots in the third period, but with 1:03 left, Don McLean's second point of the night sent it to overtime. Brad Moran also had two assists for Syracuse. However, just 1:54 into the extra-frame, Nolan Baumgartner beat Pascal LeClaire for the winner. LeClaire stopped 24 shots in defeat, while Moss blocked 18 for his fourth win of the season. The win moved the Moose back into sixth in the North, a point up on Toronto, with a 10-12-3-1 mark.

Saturday, December 13, 2003 – Manitoba 2 @ Cleveland 7 - After beginning this six-game road trip with a pair of wins, the Moose came crashing back down to earth on Saturday afternoon with a 7-2 loss at the hands of the Clevland Barons. The Barons moved four points ahead of the Moose into fourth in the North Division with the win. It was a huge day for the line of Miroslav Zalesak, Marcel Goc, and Lynn Loyns. Zalesak scored three goals and two assists, while Goc and Loyns collected four points each. The Moose only trailed 3-2 entering the third, but Cleveland exploded for four in the final frame as Brad Boyes, Ryane Clowe, and Patrick Rismiller also collected two points each. Jimmy Roy and Jaroslav Obsut scored for Manitoba who had their three-game road winning streak ended. Tyler Moss stopped 28 shots before being pulled in favour of Rob McVicar in the third. The Brandon, MB native stopped nine of the 12 shots he faced. The 44 shots were the most given up by the Moose this season, as were the seven goals. The five-goal loss tied for the worst suffered by Manitoba this season (10/24/3 vs. HAM 5-0L)The win was the first-ever for the Barons over the Moose as this was the first-ever meeting between the two.

Sunday, December 14, 2003 – Manitoba 2 @ Hamilton 4 – What was a three-game road-winning streak when the weekend began, quickly turned into a two-game losing streak when it ended. Following Saturday's 7-2 rout at the hands of the Barons, the Moose were doubled up by the Hamilton Bulldogs 4-2 at Copps Coliseum Sunday afternoon. As a result, the Moose finished their first of four "three-games in three-day" stretches this season with a 1-2-0-0 mark. The Bulldogs opened up a 2-0 lead on a first period power play goal by Benoit Gratton and then a second period marker Jozef Balej. After Tomas Plekanec made it a three-goal lead half-way through in the final frame, Tyler Bouck got Manitoba on the board :21 later. Jimmy Roy then brought the Moose to within one, but less than a minute later, Balej's second of the game salted it away. Jean-Francois Damphousse made 23 saves for the win, while Tyler Moss stopped 27 shots, but saw his record fall to 4-7-2-1 on the year. The Moose failed to make up any ground on the fifth place Syracuse Crunch with the defeat, remaining in sixth with a 10-14-3-1 mark.

This Week

Tuesday, December 16/03 6:05 p.m. Manitoba (10-14-3-1) @ Cleveland (11-8-3-3) – The Moose return to the scene of the crime Tuesday night when they head back into the Gund Arena for their second meeting with the Cleveland Barons in four days. On Saturday afternoon, the Moose suffered one of their worst defeats of the season thanks to Miroslav Zalesak, Marcel Goc, and Lynn Loyns. The line combined for 13 points in a 7-2 triumph over the Moose. It tied for the most decisive loss of the season for Manitoba thus far, as the Moose gave up a season-high 44 shots. The Barons are now four points up on the Moose for fourth in the North Division. Zalesak, who had three goals and two assists on Saturday, is Cleveland's top scorer overall with 11 goals and 30 points. Brad Boyes, who had a goal and an assist himself Saturday, is next with nine goals and 22 points. Marcel Goc scored his first North American pro goal on Saturday and also chipped in three helpers. Dmitri Patzold made 37 saves for the win and upped his record to seven wins in 15 games. He has a goals against average of 2.53 and a save percentage of .923. Saturday's game also marked the first-ever meeting between the two teams. Cleveland now holds a 1-0-0- 0 advantage over Manitoba.

Wednesday, December 17/03 6:00 p.m. Manitoba @ Albany (7-10-5-2) – The Moose will face the Albany River Rats for the first time in their franchise history when they head into the Pepsi Arena on Wednesday night. Albany is the AHL affiliate of the Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils. They entered the week with the least amount of points of any team in the AHL, but still had a winning percentage better than five teams in the league, including the Moose. The River Rats have only two wins in 13 games this season at home. While they are currently riding a four-game winning streak on the road, the River Rats have only one win in their last five games at home - that being a victory Saturday over Wilkes-Barre. Albany has scored the second-fewest goals of any team in the AHL. They do lead the league though in the most shorthanded goals allowed. Craig Darby is the leading scorer with eight goals and 20 points. Former Moose Steve Kariya is third in team scoring with four goals and 12 points. In goal, Scott Clemmensen has made the most appearances for the Rats. He has only three wins though in 14 appearances. He has a goals against average of 2.74 and a save percentage of .918. Last season, the River Rats failed to make the post-season with a record of 25-37-11-7.

Friday, Dec. 19/03 7:30 p.m. & Sunday, Dec. 21/03 2:00 p.m. Grand Rapids (16-8-4-0) @ Manitoba – The Griffins will make their first visit to the Arena this season standing atop the West Division. They entered the week 16-8-4-0, five points ahead of the Chicago Wolves and good for third overall in the AHL. Grand Rapids has seven wins in their last 10 games and come to town with three of the league's hottest players. Kevin Miller entered the week with a three-game goal-scoring streak, Nathan Robinson has seven points in his last seven games in a row, and Jiri Hudler has seven assists in six consecutive games. However, both Miller and Hudler were recently recalled by the Griffins' NHL affiliate, the Detroit Red Wings. As a result, Robinson was the team's leading scorer to begin the week with just five goals and 16 points. In goal, the Griffins have counted on Marc Lamothe who has 10 wins in 19 appearances. He has a goals against average of 1.93 and a save percentage of .928. The Griffins also have Joey MacDonald in net. He has five wins in eight games and a .938 save percentage. The Griffins and Moose used to be IHL rivals. The Moose trail in the historical series between the two dating back to 1996 12-21-0-3.

Moose Notes

- Goaltender Alex Auld had a successful week after being recalled by the Vancouver Canucks. On Thursday, he made 28 saves as the Canucks tied the Colorado Avalanche 1-1 and on Sunday he earned a 2-1 overtime victory over the Carolina Hurricanes, making 31 stops. Over two games, he has a 0.93 goals-against average and .966 save percentage.

- Defenceman Jaroslav Obsut had his six-game point streak snapped on Sunday in Hamilton. Over the six games, a team season high, Obsut had three goals and three assists. The six-game points streak is the longest by a Moose this season.

- Brandon Reid and Fedor Fedorov each saw their three-game points streaks come to a halt Sunday as well. Fedorov, who was recalled to the Canucks Monday, has four goals and three assists in his last eight games while Reid has two goals and eight assists in his last 11. Fedorov still sits as the league leader in power play goals, with six.

- Ryan Kesler rejoined the Moose this past week after a successful stint with the Canucks. In seven games, Kesler had two points (1g, 1a) and was +1. Kesler will suit up for Manitoba's games on Tuesday and Wednesday before joining the USA National Team for the World Junior Hockey Championships, to be held from December 26 to January 5.

- The five goals Manitoba scored Friday was the most since the team's win over St. John's on October 13 (6-2 win), but the seven goals given up Saturday in the 7-2 loss in Cleveland was the most given up all season.

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