Moose sweep Road Runners at home

Published on February 21, 2005 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


After the All-Star break, the Manitoba Moose got back down to business this past weekend, sweeping a two-game series with North Division rivals the Edmonton Road Runners. Friday night Jason King scored highlight reel goal in overtime to give the Moose a 3-2 win and on Saturday, Josh Green scored in the final minutes of the third period en route to a 2-1 Manitoba victory.

The team now heads back out on the road for a trio of games: Wednesday at Wilkes-Barre, Thursday in Syracuse and Saturday at Hamilton. Saturday's game against the Bulldogs will be televised live on Rogers Sportsnet.

UPCOMING OPPONENTS

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins

Wednesday, February 23, 6:05 p.m. Radio: CJOB 68 Venue: Wachovia Arena

The Moose meet the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for the fourth and final time this season on Wednesday... Manitoba won the season opener against the Penguins 6-3 at Wilkes-Barre and the two teams split a pair of shootout games in January... The Penguins are tied for third place in the East Division, three points behind Philadelphia and Binghamton for top spot... The Pens have only won two of their last five games, but won big their last time out -- a 7-1 pounding of the Hershey Bears at Hershey on Saturday... Kris Beech leads the team in scoring with 55 points, ranking him eighth in the league in that category. Beech is also tied for third in the league in assists with 55... Michel Oullet leads the Penguins and is second in the AHL with 30 goals. His 53 points is tied for 12th in the league... Top prospect and rookie defenceman Ryan Whitney is 11th in the AHL among blueliners with 27 points (5g, 22a)... Other notables include Ramzi Abid, second on the team with 19 goals and tied for third with 38 points... Marc-Andre Fleury has seen the majority of duty in goal this season for the Penguins, playing in 37 of the team's 54 games. Fleury has a record of 19-11-3 with a 2.49 goals-against average and .903 save percentage... Dany Sabourin has put up very good numbers as a call-up from Wheeling of the ECHL when needed. In nine appearances, he has a record of 4-3-2 with a 1.50 goals-against average and .945 save percentage...

Syracuse Crunch

Thursday, February 24, 6:00 p.m. Radio: CJOB 68 Venue: War Memorial at Oncenter

The Syracuse Crunch and Manitoba Moose meet for the first time this season on Thursday at the War Memorial at Oncenter in Syracuse, New York... Syracuse sits in fifth place in the North Division, seven points behind Edmonton for the final playoff spot... The Crunch have only won once in their last four games, a 4-3 shootout win over Cleveland on Saturday... Brad Moran is the team's leading scorer, with 39 points (18g, 21a) in 54 games... Former Moose Zenith Komarniski is on the Crunch blueline. He has three goals and nine assists for 12 points in 43 games played... Joe Motzko leads the team in assists with 22... Karl Goehring has played the majority of games in goal for the Crunch, appearing in 34 of 54 games. He has a 16-16-0 record with a 2.41 goals-against average and .916 save percentage... His counterpart, Pascal Leclaire is 5-6-3 with a 2.34 GAA and .926 pct. in 14 games. Last season, Leclaire stopped 50 shots to lead the Crunch to a 1-0 win over the Moose. Syracuse only had nine shots in that game... Syracuse's powerplay ranks 18th in the AHL (14.6%) while their penalty killing is 24th (81.7%)... The Crunch don't make their first appearance at the MTS Centre until April 5th and 6th...

Hamilton Bulldogs

Saturday, February 26, 6:00 p.m. Radio: CJOB 68 Venue: Copps Coliseum TV: Rogers Sportsnet

The Moose face the Hamilton Bulldogs for the fifth time this season on Saturday... In four previous meetings, each team has a pair of victories. Most recently, the sides split two games at the MTS Centre in mid-December... The Bulldogs are trying to catch the Edmonton Road Runners for the fourth and final playoff spot in the North Division. Currently, they are seven points back with Edmonton holding a game in hand... The Bulldogs have picked up points in five of their last six games and have won three of their last four. Their lone setback was a 6-3 defeat at the hands of Albany last Saturday... Bulldogs centre Tomas Plekanec was recently named MVP of the 2005 AHL All-Star Classic. He leads the Bulldogs with 20 goals, 21 assists and 41 points... Steve Ott is tied with Jason Ward with 33 points (15g, 18a) and leads the team with 233 penalty minutes... 2001 Calder Cup MVP Steve Begin was signed late last week by the Bulldogs and is expected to play his first game for the club this week... Yann Danis and Dan Ellis have split the duties in goal for the Bulldogs this season. Danis is 15-11-5 with a 2.41 goals-against average and .923 save percentage. Ellis is 7-17- 0 with a 2.73 GAA and .908 pct... Hamilton's penalty killing is 17th in the league at 83.2%... Their powerplay is ranked 23rd (13.5%)... Corey Locke, Chris Higgins and Marc-Andre Thinel each have four points against the Moose this season in head-to-head action between the two clubs... Locke, Higgins and Ott each have two goals.

MOOSE NOTES

Series Sweep: With two victories in two games over the Edmonton Road Runners on the weekend, the Manitoba Moose gained their sixth series sweep of the season over an opponent. It was the second time this season the Moose have swept the Road Runners. The first came in Edmonton back on Dec. 10-12/04. The Moose have also swept two-game series against Cincinnati (Nov. 30-Dec. 2/04), Cleveland (Jan. 4-6/05), at San Antonio (Jan. 11-13/05), and at Houston (Jan. 14-16/05). It was also the Manitoba's first sweep of a homestand (min. two games) since Nov. 8-9/02 when the Moose beat the Lowell Lock Monsters.

Peter Not Peetering Out: With an assist on Josh Green's game-winning goal in Saturday's 2-1 victory over the Edmonton Road Runners, Moose forward Peter Sarno now has an sixgame points streak intact. In that time, he has collected 10 points (2G, 8A). That is two games shy of the season-high set by Lee Goren (11/12/04-12/02/04). Sarno is now tied for sixth in league scoring with 59 points (11G, 48A) and is second in assists, seven behind Binghamton's Jason Spezza. He is Manitoba's leading scorer by 10 points over teammate Jason King.

Green Gathering Goals Like Gang-Busters: With Saturday night's game-winning goal, Moose forward Josh Green extended his goalscoring streak to three games. That ties his longest such streak of the season (Jan. 14- 18/05). He is now one-game shy of tying the season-high set by both Jason King (10/13/04-10/18/04) and Lee Goren (11/12/04-11/19/04).

Record-Setting Season: With two wins over the weekend against the Edmonton Road Runners, the Manitoba Moose now boast a 34- 13-3-6 record in second place of the American Hockey League's North Division after 54 games. Last season, the Moose were only 20-25-7-2 after 54 games and near the basement of the division. In fact, the most wins previously by the Moose after 54 games in a season was 31 in the 1998-99 season when Manitoba was 31-14-9 on Feb. 14/99. The least amount of wins the Moose have had after 54 games in a season was their inaugural year in Manitoba, when they were 18- 27-9 on Feb. 11/97.

Still Packing 'Em In: With a pair of sell-outs of 8,812 on both Friday and Saturday night against the Edmonton Road Runners, the Manitoba Moose continued to establish a new franchise record for the number of sell-outs in a season. Including the final game at the Winnipeg Arena, the Moose have now sold out 14 of 28 home games this year. They are second in the AHL in average attendance at 8,680. In 24 games at the MTS Centre, the Moose have sold-out 13 times and average 8,699. They are on pace to smash the previous record for average attendance of 7,436 set back in 1996-97. They have already broken the record for the number of games with 8,000+ in attendance at 18. The previous record for an entire season was 16 in 1996-97.

Auld Knocks Old Mark: With a pair of wins on the weekend over the Edmonton Road Runners, Manitoba Moose goalie Alex Auld now has 20 wins this season. That is a new career-high in a season for Auld, who won 18 games last season.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOMINEE

Josh Green

2 GP, 2 G, 0 A, 2 PTS, +2, 11 SHOTS

This past week's Player of the Week nominee for the Manitoba Moose is centre Josh Green. In two games, Green scored two goals, including a game-winning goal and had 11 shots on net along with a plus-two rating. On Friday, Green scored a top-shelf goal on a nice set-up from Peter Sarno in Manitoba's 3-2 overtime win over Edmonton. On Saturday, Green's goal with 1:53 left in the third period gave Manitoba a 2-1 win over the Road Runners. Green now has four goals and four assists in his last 10 games. He has 15 goals and 15 assists for 30 points overall to rank fifth on the Moose.

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American Hockey League Stories from February 21, 2005


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