Manitoba Moose

The Manitoba Moose were counting on forward Matt Pope to score at least 20 -- maybe even 30 -- goals this season.Sixty-seven games into the season, Pope finally justified all that optimism -- and the Vancouver Canucks contract he signed following last season -- with a two-goal outburst at the MTS Centre Friday night that helped pace the Moose to a 6-1 throttling of the Rockford Ice Hogs.

The two goals tripled Pope's goal output for the year -- he had just one goal coming into the game. And along with an assist, the winger also more than doubled his total offensive output, which stood at just two points coming into the game.

A statistical trick? Not at all on a night where Pope was the most dangerous player on the ice through three periods and had at least two golden opportunities to score the hat trick turned away.

So effective was Pope, in fact, he was mobbed by three Rockford players in the dying minutes of the game, all three trying to goad him into a fight that Pope wisely declined.

So how does that happen? How does a guy muster just one goal and one assist and look like the most disinterested player in the building for much of his 32 games with the Moose this season and then, out of the blue, erupt like Pope did last night?

And, more importantly, can he do it again?

"Since I came back, I've just been trying to have some confidence with the puck," said Pope, who was playing in his fifth game back with the Moose since being banished to the ECHL for an eye opener last month.

"Instead of just getting rid of the puck, I've been trying to get a good shot on net. I've just been trying to move my feet, simple things like that."

But more than his touch around the net, Pope said the difference Friday night was the way he was throwing his body around. "When I'm playing my best is when I'm out there hitting guys," said the 25-year-old undrafted Langley, B.C. native.

Exactly, said Moose head coach Scott Arniel. "When we sent Matt down to Bakersfield, what we talked about was competing for pucks, being hard to play against, going to those high traffic areas and (scoring) goals.

"And that's exactly what he was tonight -- he was a good power forward."

Arniel has tried just about every imaginable line combination to ignite Pope this season but it was a combo that wasn't even really about Pope that finally lit the fuse.

Newly acquired winger Peter Olvecky, picked up just Wednesday from Milwaukee in a swap for Marty Murray, was paired up with centre Marco Rosa, with whom Olvecky had played in Houston last year.

The idea was to surround Olvecky with some familiarity on a team he skated with for the first time ever Friday morning. But it was the other winger on that line -- Pope -- who was the biggest and immediate beneficiary, scoring on feeds from Rosa twice barely two minutes apart in the first period and then, along with Olvecky, setting up Rosa's 20th goal of the season in the second period.

Olvecky also scored unassisted in the third period, bringing the line's production on the night to eight points.

It was precisely the kind of offensive spark the Moose have lacked all season and it could not be coming at a more opportune time, with the Moose fighting for a playoff spot and still hoping to redeem with a playoff run a regular season that has been more downs than ups.