By Jen Sharpe
www.moosehockey.com
The Manitoba Moose were seeking vengeance for Tuesday night's 5-4 loss to the Chicago Wolves, and the club found what they were looking for by winning Wednesday's rematch 4-1. Defenceman Danny Groulx earned a goal and an assist in the game, while rookie goalie Cory Schneider stopped 15 shots for his 10th win in 11 starts.
>> Click to view photos of tonight's game.
>> Click here to see official scorer's sheet
First Period
Nearly seven minutes of uninterrupted play resulted in only one shot on Moose goalie Cory Schneider and his Wolves counterpart Ondrej Pavelec. Two minutes and one visiting shot later, Chicago's Chad Denny took an interference penalty and offered the Moose the game's first powerplay. Though the club couldn't score on the man-advantage, Manitoba tested Pavelec twice to assume their first shot lead of the game.
That shot-lead translated into a goal-lead with just under six minutes left in the period. As the Moose carried play back into the Wolves zone, veteran defenceman Danny Groulx was fed the puck at the top of the far face-off circle, at which point he fired it just inside Pavelec's right goal-post to give his club a 1-0 lead.
After the goal, two more Chicago penalties kept Manitoba on the powerplay for the rest of the period. The Wolves killed the first penalty, but the Moose beat Pavelec on the second. Poised on the left wing, Colby Genoway bounced the puck off the end boards and back out to Greg Classen, who scored his 10th of the season on a sharp-angle shot.
The goal put the Moose up 2-0 heading into the second period.
Second Period
Two minutes into the second period, Juraj Simek added to Manitoba's lead. With a cluster of players crowding Pavelec's crease, the Slovakian rookie powered the puck around the net and wrapped it into the crowd, where it bounced off a defender's skate and into the net. The goal was Manitoba's third in seven shots.
For Chicago, it would take five shots to break their goose egg. Four minutes after Manitoba's goal, winger Colin Stuart slapped the puck past Schneider's glove to put the Wolves back within two.
Despite good chances at both ends of the ice, the goalies ensured both lamps stayed unlit through to the end of the second, enabling the Moose to carry their 3-1 lead into the final frame.
Third Period
Manitoba's penalty killers were called into action early in the third as a trio of Moose penalties kept the club down a man through to the game's final eight minutes. At that time, Wolves forward Darren Haydar took a roughing penalty and both clubs played four-on-four heading into Manitoba's third powerplay. Although the home team broke the 20-shot mark on the man-advantage, Pavelec strove and stretched to stop the puck and maintain the 3-1 score.
The Wolves opted for an extra attacker in the final two minutes, and thus Pavelec could do nothing to prevent Daniel Rahimi's empty-netter that sealed Manitoba's 4-1 victory. With the win, the Moose split their season series vs. the Western Conference leaders and broke a three-game winless skid.
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| SCORING |
1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| Chicago |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| Manitoba |
2 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
Apr 2, 2008 - MTS Centre FIRST PERIOD:1. Manitoba, D. Groulx (4) (C. Genoway, G. Rallo) 14:09 2. Manitoba, G. Classen (10) (C. Genoway, D. Groulx) 18:31 PP Penalties - C. Denny Chi (interference) 9:10, C. Denny Chi (holding) 14:51, J. Crabb Chi (hooking) 17:07 SECOND PERIOD:3. Manitoba, J. Simek (7) 2:02 4. Chicago, C. Stuart (8) (A. Deveaux, K. Doell) 6:15 Penalties - No Penalties THIRD PERIOD:5. Manitoba, D. Rahimi (3) 18:46 EN Penalties - M. Fortunus Mtb (hooking) 4:26, N. Baumgartner Mtb (hooking) 7:48, M. Fortunus Mtb (tripping) 10:23, D. Haydar Chi (roughing) 11:44
| SHOTS |
1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| Chicago |
3 |
9 |
4 |
16 |
| Manitoba |
6 |
6 |
10 |
22 |
POWER PLAYS:Chicago Wolves 0-3. Manitoba Moose 1-4. GOALTENDERS:Chicago Wolves Pavelec 33-16-3 Start: 1st 0:00 Min: 59:16 SV: 18 GA: 3 [L] Manitoba Moose Schneider 21-12-2 Start: 1st 0:00 Min: 59:49 SV: 15 GA: 1 [W]
Attendance:
7,262
- MTB - Danny Groulx
- MTB - Colby Genoway
- MTB - Cory Schneider
- The Moose close out their regular season home schedule Friday and Saturday nights vs. Toronto.
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Updated: Apr. 2, 2008 at 10:22 PM CDT
