Manitoba Moose

Well, this is it. Hershey is the last team we’ll play this season, and here’s hoping it’s a matchup that’ll end with a championship. Let’s see how Game 1 will play out:

Eight minutes before game time, the lights go down and the cheering goes up. Still several minutes before any players will even take the ice and it’s hoppin’. I’m not going to get tired of that intro video.

Here’s a “Go Moose Go” chant right after the sponsorship presentation and before the presentation of the Western Conference champs trophy. Yeah, we’re into it.

Jason Jaffray is pumped, too. He’s hopping on the Moose bench during the Canadian national anthem.

FIRST PERIOD

Coach Arniel is trying to get things going early, sending a message with the starting line: Mike Keane (3 Stanley Cups), Guillaume Desbiens (Calder Cup), Mark Fistic and Mario Bliznak (a Memorial Cup each).

And there’s end-to-end action on the first shift. After the Bears press in the Moose zone, Bliznak has a partial break, but he’s stopped by Michal Neuvirth. However, Chris “Son of Ray, not Phil” Bourque is whistled down for slashing.

The Moose don’t do a tonne against a Bears’ PK that was 29th in the regular season and is 12th in the playoffs.

Back to even-strength, Desbiens steals a puck behind the net and centres it to Keane, but Neuvirth gets across to rob El Capitaine.

Bourque goes back to the box on a marginal tripping call where a Moose player stepped on his arm after he fell. He’s lucky not to get teed up for unsportsmanlike conduct after slapping the puck into the boards after gaining control to kill the play.

The Moose are granted a 5-on-3 after Kyle Wilson cleanly slashes Jason Krog’s stick frm his hands. And Manitoba makes the most of it. Mark Cullen whiffs on his first cross-crease pass from Krog, but not his second, hitting paydirt on a near-identical play. 1-0 Moose.

With Wilson still sitting, the Bears look like the ones with the PP. Keith Aucoin gathers a broken-up pass in the centre of the Moose zone, swings to the right of Cory Schneider, and centres to league MVP Alex Giroux, who wrists one home less than a minute after Cullen’s opener. 1-1 game.

Soon after a Shaun Heshka slashing minor expires, Cody Hodgson feeds Michael Grabner coming up the left side. He drags it to his backhand and lifts it over Neuvirth, and then does an Ovechkin-style hip-check into the boards to celebrate. 2-1 Manitoba.

Speaking of the Great Eight, as much as I love the guy, I don’t want to see his jersey at the arena on Tuesday, please. Hershey is the Caps’ farm club, and there’s no sense in showing any sort of inadvertent support. Oh, and to the guy in the Labatt Lounge wearing a Sergei Fedorov Washington jersey, the only Fedorov I want to see is Fedor.

Former Moose coach Randy Carlyle is in attendance and shown on the big-screen. Huge cheers for the man, and why not? The 2005 run was our most exciting run till now, and he was a major part of that.

Patrick McNeill takes a slashing penalty late in the period, and Matt Pope has a loose puck lying before an open net, but is locked up before he can tap it in.

Some great signs in the intermission. Moose Eat Hershey’s (and its several derivatives) – the obvious, but classic. Brian Propps to the Shirtless Wonders,  especially the kid with the “OO” in “MOOSE”.

SECOND PERIOD

The Bears are intent on protecting Neuvirth no matter what it takes. While chasing a puck that Neuvirth covers, Hodgson stops short of the goalie, doesn’t give him a snow-shower, and skates around him, but still gets a John Carlson cross-check for his troubles.

It took long enough, but we finally get the first “Neuvirth” chants about five minutes into the period.

Dusty Collins doesn’t get a great chip out of the Moose zone, but it’s good enough for Grabner. He comes up the left side, drags it to his backhand and lifts it over Neuvirth. Sound familiar? 3-1 Moose.

Late in the period, Staffan Kronwall is about an inch away from a great play on a streaking Matt Pope, but he doesn’t hit the puck before he takes down the Pontiff. That’s a penalty shot, but His Holiness can’t find Five-Holiness in Neuvirth. It makes me wonder, though, Pope looked so possessed on the breakaway and so tentative on the penalty shot, should the AHL consider giving shooters the option of having a one-second head start on a defenceman to recreate the sense of urgency?

After Steve Pinizzotto gets away with only two minutes for boarding Zsck FitzGerald, the Bears get nailed for too many men. The second two-man advantage is less successful than the first, and the Moose enter the third up 3-1.

THIRD PERIOD

Jason Jaffray fails to cash on an open net early in the frame, and Oskar Osala makes that costly as he puts away a rebound shortly after. 3-2 Moose.

The other end of the rink starts a “Neuvirth” chant, but it’s not as hearty as the one on the second period side. I mean, it should be better, especially considering that’s the side that’s responsible for two periods of heckling!

Considering how tightly the game’s been called, Graham Mink gets away with a hit from behind on Guillaume Desbiens. However, there’s a sort-of even-up call shortly after as Keith “Don’t call me Adrian” Aucoin swats a puck over the glass with a very high stick. It’s a weird play to be sure, but I guess it’s a penalty? I don’t like the rule, but I’ll take the PP.

The penalty expires, and the Bears get a weird one to tie the game. With Mark Fistric off for cross-checking, Giroux fires a point shot to Schneider’s left. It hits the Moose forward defending the blue line, deflects to Nolan Baumgartner, standing to Schneider’s right, and goes off him and into the net. You’ve gotta be good to be lucky, and you’ve gotta be lucky to be good. Giroux is both. 3-3 tie.

Four minutes later, Hershey gets another lucky one as Osala tries to centre, but Baumgartner is victimized again as the pass deflects off his skate and under Schneider. 4-3 Bears.

Ninety seconds after the lead-taker, Neuvirth robs Pope point-blank, but Tyler Sloan takes a double-minor for high-sticking (one penalty you’ll never see in a hockey video game), and the Moose are potentially on the power-play for the rest of regulation and (hopefully) into overtime.

Kronwall takes Hershey’s second puck-over-glass penalty to give the Moose a third 5-on-3 of the night. Hate the sin, love the possibilities. The fans are restless as the Moose fail to pepper Neuvirth, but a Maxime Fortunus shot strikes at the right  time – with three seconds left in Sloan’s first minor. That means both Bears remain penalized and the Moose are 5-on-3 for essentially the rest of regulation. 4-4 tie.

Manitoba doesn’t rekindle the same magic for the rest of the advantage, and we’re off to OT.

OVERTIME

I don’t think it’s a good sign to be playing The Trews’ “Paranoid Freak” in the intermission. With an 0-3 extra-time record in the playoffs so far, and not doing well in OT over the last several seasons, it doesn’t take a freak to be paranoid. A win would restore my faith.

Sign watch: fierce Moose chomping on a Hershey bar.

Cool to see a guy in a Bob Cameron Bomber jersey wandering in the stands.

Back in action: Andrew Joudrey wraps around the net and flips it out front to wannabe hat trick hero Osala, but Heshka seizes him at the last moment and Schneider covers up.

Heshka makes a couple good offensive plays later on, keeping a couple tricky pucks from going out, but the Moose can’t cash.

The Moose are faced with a big PK as Baumer takes a high-sticking penalty on Mat Perreault. But it wasn’t meant to be as true hat trick hero Giroux pounces on a rebound in a scramble in front of Schneider. 5-4 Bears win in OT.

It was a classic game, and should be an example of what’s to come in the series. It’ll be tough to shut down Giroux, Aucoin and Mink (I want to see a “Mink isn’t in fashion” sign on Tuesday), but we’ve overcome several challenges on the way to the final. See ya Tuesday,