by Marc Ciampa, moosehockey.com
For the second straight night, a Moose player had a three-goal performance as Jason King registered a hat-trick to lead the Manitoba Moose to a 6-4 win over the Cleveland Barons.
For the third time in as many games, it was the opposition that scored first on the Moose. On a delayed penalty at the 9:11 mark of the opening frame, Marcel Goc blasted a shot past Alex Auld to make it 1-0 Barons. Ryan Clowe and Patrick Rissmiller received assists on the play. Rissmiller intercepted a Johnathan Aitken clearing attempt to set up the play.
Looking for some spark, several minutes later Wade Brookbank and Mike Hoffman dropped the gloves. It was Brookbank's third fight of the season in three games for the Moose.
Late in the first, the Moose found themselves on the powerplay after Christian Ehrhoff took a hooking penalty. On the ensuing man advantage, Jason King took the puck out of the corner, drove hard to the front of the net and jammed in his own rebound. Baumgartner and Sarno got the assists on the play.
21 seconds after the Moose goal, Josh Prudden put Manitoba on its third powerplay of the period with a hooking penalty. The Moose took advantage, as Jason King and Jesse Schultz worked a give-and-go that resulted in King netting his second of the game and fifth of the season thus far as the Moose took a 2-1 lead.
After one period of play, the Moose were ahead 2-1 with an 8-7 edge in shots.
Less than a minute into the second, Jeff Heerema sprung Kesler with a beautiful tape-to-tape pass to send him on a breakaway. Kesler was upended and awarded a penalty shot. On the ensuing penalty shot, Kesler skated in a beat Schaefer stick side.
The Moose continued to press in the second period. Sarno fed King in the slot, who fired it past Schaefer for his third goal of the game. Just past the five-minute mark of the second period, Manitoba was ahead 4-1.
Cleveland had an opportunity to get back in the game after the Moose got back-to-back penalties. DiPenta was ticketed for tripping at the 10:14 mark and at the 12:00 mark Mojzis went to the box for roughing. 19 seconds later, Marcel Goc tipped a shot past Auld to make it a 4-2 game.
It didn't take long for the Moose to bounce back from the setback, however. A minute and one second after Goc's goal, Heerema banged home his own rebound after being sprung on a breakaway by DiPenta to score his first of the season.
The Barons didn't quit despite the setback. On a delayed penalty, 30 seconds later Tomas Plihal flipped a shot over Auld's shoulder from in close.
Things began to get heated between the two squads as DiPenta dropped the gloves with Ryan Clowe right after the Cleveland goal. DiPenta had the upper hand before losing his balance.
After 40 minutes, the Moose were ahead 5-3 and held a 27-17 edge in shots.
The bad blood boiled over 38 seconds into the third period as Wade Brookbank fought Jim Fahey, with Brookbank getting the better of the match-up. Both players only received roughing minors for their efforts.
Cleveland's Christian Ehrhoff put the Moose back on the powerplay 58 seconds in and Manitoba capitalized. Showing remarkable patience, Baumgartner waited until the opportune moment before blasting Manitoba's sixth goal past Schaefer.
The Barons responded with a powerplay goal of their own at 5:26. Ryan Clowe scored, from Goc and Fahey, to make it a 6-4 game.
With time dwindling down in the third, Lee Goren had a great chance to score after a feed from Heerema but rang it off the post behind Schaefer.
>> View full box score
NOTES: Johnathan Aitken made his regular season debut as a Moose after missing the first two games with an eye injury. Kent Huskins drew the short straw as a result... With three goals on the season, Kesler matches last season's total over 33 games... Moose have outscored their opponents by a 10-3 margin in the second period this season... Last season, the Moose didn't have three wins until their 13th game of the season November 4 at Houston (3-1 win)... This is the first time the Moose have ever won their first three road games of the season. The only other time Manitoba started a season 3-0 was 2002-03 when they won at home vs. Worcester (4-1 & 6-4) and at Lowell (3-2).
