By Travis Kondratuk
www.moosehockey.com
Manitoba earned their 45th win of the season, the second most in franchise history, and set a new team record for home wins in a season with 25 as they defeated the Toronto Marlies for the seventh time this year. Manitoba jumped out to a two point lead in the Western Conference with the victory as Omaha lost 4-0 to Peoria tonight in a game with huge playoff implications. The Moose will be looking for the season sweep of the Marlies tomorrow afternoon in the final regular season game at the MTS Centre.
>> Click to view photos of tonight's game.
>> Click here to see official scorer's sheet
The Manitoba Moose 2006-07 year-end award winners:
The Manitoba Moose handed out their annual regular season player awards for the 2006-07 season prior to the game tonight at the MTS Centre.
Insta-Frame Galleries Most Valuable Player – Jason Jaffray
TFI Services Leading Scorer Award – Jason Jaffray
Dundee Wealth Management Best Defenceman – Yannick Tremblay
Continental Travel Julian Klymkiw Community Service Award – J.J. Hunter/Drew MacIntyre
Blue Cross Unsung Hero Award – Nathan Smith
Toyota Never Quits Hardest Working Player – Maxime Fortunus
Lawton Partners Rookie of the Year – Alex Edler
MTS Three Star Champion – Jason Jaffray
Remax Most Popular Player – Jason Jaffray
First Period
Drew MacIntyre gets the start in goal for the home side tonight, while Justin Pogge starts for the visiting Marlies.
Mason Raymond used his speed to create the first quality scoring chance for the Moose as he barreled around the boards then slammed on the breaks behind the Marlies net before coming back around with a wrap-around attempt. However, Justin Pogge was there to make the save on the play.
The Marlies drew first blood as defenceman Steffan Kronwall fired a blast from the point that beat Drew MacIntyre high to the glove side. Martin Sagat drew the lone assist on the opening goal at 4:37.
Manitoba tied it up a few minutes later on a beautiful play by Yannick Tremblay and Marc Chouinard. Chouinard snuck in behind the Toronto defence where Tremblay sprung him with a beautiful stretch pass. Couinard broke in on the breakaway and completely deked Justin Pogge out of his shorts with a nifty backhand-to-forehand move for his third goal as a member of the Moose.
Mason Raymond took the first penalty of the game for hooking at 10:48 of the first period. The Moose killed off the penalty and then quickly struck for a goal of their own.
Max Fortunus fired a shot from the point that took a nasty deflection on its way to the net making it impossible for Justin pogge to control the puck. Brad Moran was waiting at the edge of the crease to stuff home the rebound for his 25th goal on the year. Moran is now just one goal shy of his career high for goals in a season. The go-ahead goal came at 13:09 with Fortunus drawing the only assist.
After falling behind 1-0 early in the period the Moose battled back to dominate the reminder of the first outshooting the Marlies 19-4.
Second Period
With Mike Brown in the box for hooking, the Marlies tied it up as Martin Sagat flipped a puck over a sprawling Drew MacIntyre who fell down in the crease as he was sliding across. The goal came at 4:05 with Alex Foster and Chris Harrington assisting.
With a face-off deep in the Marlies end to the right of Justin Pogge, Brad Moran and Lee Goren connected on a set face-off play. Moran won the draw forward, then picked up the puck and fed a pass quickly across to Goren who was breaking to the net. Despite having two defenders draped on his back Goren managed to stick his stick out to re-direct the puck past Pogge for his 26th of the season. Goren needs just one more point to match his career high in a season with 69 points.
Tyson Nash took a holding penalty at 9:23 of the period to give the Moose their first powerplay chance of the game. Manitoba looked good as they worked the puck around nicely in the Marlies zone with the extra-attacker. However Mason Raymond ended the man-avantage early when he took his second penalty of the game, a holding call behind the Marlies net. Toronto turned up the intensity a bit with the man-advantage forcing Drew MacIntyre to make several good saves, but the Moose were able to kill it off without incedent.
Lee Goren and Phil Oreskovic took coincidental minor penalties with 1:14 left in the second, leaving the teams to finish the period four-on-four.
Third Period
Michael Grabner playing in his first game with the moose just missed on getting his first point as he fed a nice spin-o-rama backhand from behind the Marlies goal outfront to Marc Chouinard.Chouinard had a couple of cracks at it but Pogge stopped them both.
Michel Leveille on an ameteur tryout contract with the Marlies took a hooking penalty at 15:32 giving the Moose just their second powerplay chance of the game. Once again the Moose worked the puck around nicely with the man-advantage but failed to capitalize.
The Marlies turned up the pressure late in the period, pulling Justin Pogge with just under 1:30 left. Greg Gilbert called his timeout for Toronto with 1:11 left in the game and the face-off down to the left of Drew MacIntyre.
MacIntyre saved the victory for the Moose as he absolutely stoned Robbie Earl on the door-step, sliding across with the pad save on a one-time effort from the Marlie forward with just 0:20 left to play.
The Moose held on, defeating the Marlies for the seventh time this season and will look for the season sweep tomorrow afternoon at the MTS Centre.
The victory put the Moose up by two points in the Western Conference as Omaha lost to Peoria 4-0. Grand Rapids lost 3-1 in regulation to further complicate the playoff picture for the Moose as they still don't know who they will face in the first round of the playoffs.
Moose scratches: Daniel Rahimi, Brandon Reid, Brendan Brooks, Tyler Bouck, Shaun Heshka
Marlies scratches: Brad Brown, Dominic D'Amour, Erik Westrum, David Cloutier, Jermey Williams, Reid Cashman, Ben Ondrus, Luke Fulghum, Karel Pilar, Owen Fussey, Brad Leeb
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Highlights - Moose vs. Griffins - stream
| SCORING |
1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| Toronto |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| Manitoba |
2 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
Apr 13, 2007 - MTS Centre FIRST PERIOD:1. Toronto, S. Kronwall (3) (A. Foster, M. Sagat) 4:37 2. Manitoba, M. Chouinard (3) (Y. Tremblay) 6:25 3. Manitoba, B. Moran (25) (M. Fortunus) 13:09 Penalties - M. Raymond Mtb (hooking) 10:48 SECOND PERIOD:4. Toronto, M. Sagat (4) (A. Foster, C. Harrington) 4:05 PP 5. Manitoba, L. Goren (26) (B. Moran) 7:53 Penalties - M. Brown Mtb (hooking) 3:17, T. Nash Tor (holding) 9:23, M. Raymond Mtb (holding) 10:53, J. Jaffray Mtb (holding the stick) 16:17, C. Harrington Tor (hooking) 18:46, L. Goren Mtb (roughing) 18:46 THIRD PERIOD:No Scoring Penalties - M. Leveille Tor (hooking) 15:32
| SHOTS |
1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| Toronto |
4 |
6 |
10 |
20 |
| Manitoba |
19 |
4 |
10 |
33 |
POWER PLAYS:Toronto Marlies 1-4. Manitoba Moose 0-2. GOALTENDERS:Toronto Marlies Pogge 19-25-2 Start: 1st 0:00 Min: 58:38 SV: 30 GA: 3 [L] Manitoba Moose MacIntyre 24-12-2 Start: 1st 0:00 Min: 60:00 SV: 18 GA: 2 [W]
Attendance:
11,970
- MTB - #20 Brad Moran
- MTB - #37 Lee Goren
- TOR - #1 Justin Pogge
- Tomorrow is Moose Fan Appreciation game at the MTS Centre, it's the final game of the regular season and the Moose want to thank all the fans for their amazing support. There will be fantastic prizes all game long and fans will have the opportunity to win the "Shirt off a Moose player's back" as all of the player's jerseys from the game will be given away to fans after the game. There will also be a free post-game concert to kick-off the Moose playoffs as we look to make our run to the Calder Cup. The concert features Fresh I.E., Drew Brown, Malynda, Amanda Falke, Kerri Woelke, and the Muddy River Quartet.
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Updated: Apr. 13, 2007 at 10:25 PM CDT
