St. John's visits this weekend

March 29, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


The Manitoba Moose continue their six-game homestand to finish up the season this week with games three and four. The St. John's Maple Leafs come to town in a battle of two teams hanging on to the playoffs by the skin of their teeth. After dropping Sunday's game to Rochester, the Moose need to win all the rest of their games and get a lot of help. St. John's is in much the same position. Moose captain Dallas Eakins is scheduled to play his 1000th game as a professional on Sunday against the Baby Leafs.

This past week, the Moose finished up a seven-game road trip with a win over the Binghamton Senators to go 4-3-0-0 on the trip. They then split the weekend with Rochester, winning 3-1 Friday and losing 6-1 Sunday afternoon.

UPCOMING OPPONENTS

St. John's Maple Leafs

Friday, April 2nd 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 4th 2:00 p.m. Winnipeg Arena

St. John's enters the week in seventh in the North Division (28-34-7-3), six points back of the Moose...The Baby Leafs have only three wins in their last 10 games...They have a road record of 13-18-2-3 this season...The Leafs hold the season-series edge at 3-2-1...The two split the season-opening series at the Winnipeg Arena back on Oct. 11 & 13/03 (Oct. 11 - 4-5L; Oct. 13 - 6-2W)...Last met back on Jan. 6 & 7/04 in St. John's (Jan. 6 - 2-4L; Jan. 7 - 3- 3T)...The Baby Leafs have the lowest goals for/game in the league at 3.32...Aaron Gavey leads the Leafs in scoring with 19 goals and 60 points...Rookie Kyle Wellwood is second in team scoring with 15 goals and 49 points; he is second in the league in scoring amongst rookies...Gavey has three goals and seven points to lead the Leafs vs. the Moose this season...Fedor Fedorov leads the Moose vs. St. John's with four goals and four assists...Harold Druken entered the week on a three-game goal scoring streak....Kyle Wellwood is on a fourgame assists streak...Karel Pilar entered the week on a six-game points streak...Sebastien Centomo is the Leafs' top goaltender with 12 wins and a 3.08 GAA in 33 appearances...Mikael Tellqvist boasts a 2.72 GAA with nine wins in 22 appearances...Centomo has three wins in five games vs. Manitoba this season with a 2.38 GAA...Alex Auld has a win and a loss in two games vs. St. John's with a 3.02 GAA...Pierre Hedin is the team's top +/- player at +4...Robb Palahnuk leads the team in PIM with 133...St. John's power play is ranked 8th in the AHL at 15.9%...Their penalty killing unit is 26th overall at 80.5%.

MOOSE NOTES

Wednesday's game in Binghamton was Manitoba's final road game of the season and with the win, they avoided tying the mark for the worst road record in franchise history. This season, the Moose finished 14-20-4-2 away from Winnipeg Arena. In 1996-97, they ended the year with a road mark of 13-21-7.

With a point each in Friday night's 3-1 win over the Rochester Americans, Brandon Reid, Sean Pronger, and Jason King all extended their point streaks to five games - one shy of the team high this season. In those five games, the three combined for 11 goals and 14 assists for 25 points (Reid - 2G,8A; Pronger - 5G,3A; King - 4G,3A). Each respective streak was cut short on Sunday.

With his 19th goal of the season on Friday night, Pat Kavanagh recorded his 100th point as a Moose. Kavanagh also played in his 200th game a Moose on Wednesday in Manitoba's 4-1 victory over Binghamton. That night, Brandon Reid also played in his 200th game as a member of the Manitoba Moose.

While the Manitoba Moose still rank 23rd in the AHL in penalty killing, they have only allowed 58 power play goals against. The franchise record for the least power play goals against in a single season is 63 set back in 1994-95 when the team was in Minnesota. Before allowing three power play goals in Sunday's game, the Moose only allowed five power play goals in their previous 18 games or 66 opportunities.

With Friday's 3-1 victory, goaltender Alex Auld earned his 17th win of the season - the most in his career. Auld is now just two wins shy of Fred Brathwaite's all-time mark for wins by a Moose goalie with 45.

The four goals in the third period on Wednesday tied for the most goals in a period by the Moose this season. It was only the fourth time all year Manitoba has come back to win a game when trailing after both the first and second periods.

Brandon Reid's penalty shot goal at 14:41 of the third period Wednesday in Binghamton was the first penalty shot goal scored by a Moose player since Jason Cipolla beat Jan Lasak on Jan. 5/02. It was the third penalty shot attempted by the Moose this season. Reid was unsuccessful against Utah's Jason Bicashihua on Nov. 12/03, while Jimmy Roy failed to score against Grand Rapids' Joey MacDonald on Dec. 21/03.

With only 195 goals scored so far this season, the Moose remain on pace to break the franchise record low of 222 goals for (set in 2000-01). If they stay at their current pace, they are projected to score 205 goals.

By contrast, the Moose are also on pace to break the franchise record low of 228 goals against (set last season). With 214 goals allowed in 76 games, at their current pace, they are projected to have 225 goals against by the end of the season.



American Hockey League Stories from March 29, 2004


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