AHL Manitoba Moose

Slow Start Costs Moose at Texas

February 10, 2022 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


The Manitoba Moose (25-12-2-1) faced off against the Texas Stars (13-15-5-3) for a Wednesday evening contest at H-E-B Center. The Moose were coming off a 3-2 overtime victory against the Stars the previous night.

Texas opened the scoring in the first period. The Stars forced a Moose turnover in the neutral zone and brought the puck in on the attack. Riley Damiani's shot bounced off a skate and wound up on the stick of Joel L'Esperance who sent the puck up and over Mikhail Berdin for a 1-0 Stars lead. Texas struck again shortly after with a goal from Anthony Louis. The Stars leading scorer converted on another neutral zone turnover, finishing a Damiani pass, to make it 2-0 before the game was five minutes old. Berdin ended the frame with seven saves through 20 minutes while Adam Scheel made nine stops of his own.

The second period saw the Moose come out with a push and attempt to cut into the Stars lead. Despite outshooting the home side by a count of 15-11, Scheel stood tall and thwarted all Moose attempts that came his way. Not to be outdone, Berdin was solid and made a multitude of big saves to keep the Moose down by a pair. The horn sounded to draw the period to a close with the Moose heading to their dressing room trailing 2-0.

The Moose cut into the Stars lead late in the third. With Manitoba on the power play, Todd Burgess got a hold of the puck and fired a pair of shots, only to have them blocked. The second attempt bounced to Matt Alfaro who broke up the Scheel shutout bid and made it 2-1. Manitoba pressed late and pulled Berdin in favour of the extra attacker, however, Curtis McKenzie found a loose puck and hit the empty net to ice the game 3-1. Berdin finished the contest with 27 saves in the loss while Scheel ended his night with 35 stops and the victory.

Quotable

Moose Forward Cole Maier (Click for full interview)

"Similar to last's night's game I think, just our start wasn't what it needed to be. Gave it everything we had there to battle back but teams in this league are too good if you give them an opportunity like that to jump ahead. It's going to be tough to battle back."

Statbook

Matt Alfaro scored his first career AHL power play goal

Manitoba is (6-1-0-0) against Texas this season

With an assist tonight, Leon Gawanke now leads the Moose in overall scoring with 22 points (5G, 17A)

Gawanke is on a three-game point streak with three assists in that span

The Moose penalty kill went 12/12 in Texas the past two games

What's Next?

The Moose continue their road trip with a stop in Abbotsford against the Canucks on Friday, Feb. 11. Puck drop is scheduled for 9 p.m. CT. You can catch the game on CJOB.com/sports, the Manitoba Moose App and AHLTV.

Single-game tickets for the 2021-22 season are available at MooseHockey.com/TICKETS. Visit MooseHockey.com/PACKAGES for more information on the benefits of being a Manitoba Moose Seat Holder.

Check out the Manitoba Moose Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from February 10, 2022


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