Manitoba Moose

It will go down as the American Hockey League season that fell just short.

The Manitoba Moose had their Calder Cup dreams dashed as the Hershey Bears earned a 4-1 victory over a crowd of 15,003 at the MTS Centre last night.

With the win, the Bears claim their AHL-record 10th Calder Cup crown in six games.

"It has to be the hardest feeling," said Moose defenceman Maxime Fortunus. "Knowing that you're that close and you have a chance. You can work all season long and all the playoffs, just to get there. We fell short a little bit.

"It's always kind of hard to believe, when it happens like this. We knew we had a chance. Even when we were down 3-0 in the first period."

The Bears came out flying, scoring twice in the first 6:10 of the contest on goals from Andrew Gordon and Chris Bourque.

Alexandre Giroux continued his remarkable season by intercepting a cross-ice pass from Moose forward Guillaume Desbiens, cruising in and sliding a backhand past Moose goalie Cory Schneider at 11:16 of the first period, stunning the hometown faithful.

"We just kind of laid an egg in the first period," said Schneider. "Myself and everyone else didn't come to play in the first and that's all they needed."

In his post-game address, Moose head coach Scott Arniel told his players how proud he was of their effort from September until June.

"We continued to battle and I feel for these guys because I know they put it all on the line," said Arniel. "I know this wasn't the ending they wanted to have. I told them to keep their heads up. It's been a long 102 games from September until where we are now. I told them to take this experience and know it's a feeling you don't ever want to have again. But be proud of what you've done. We lost to a real good hockey team and there wasn't much separation between us."

Seeing the opposition celebrate in his home rink was tough for Schneider to swallow.

"It's never fun. It's probably one of the worst feelings in sports," said Schneider. "Over the course of six games, they were the better team and they deserved to win. Hats off to them for what they did. But it's kind of frustrating because I don't think we ever really got going the way we wanted to and the way we could."

Mario Bliznak gave the Moose some life, converting a pass from Cody Hodgson at 11:03 of the second period but despite a serious push, that was as close as the Moose would come.

Keith Aucoin put the game on ice with 20.2 seconds left, finishing things off with an empty-net marker.

"Every game could have gone either way. Even tonight," said Bears head coach Bob Woods. "I didn't feel comfortable until that empty-netter went in. They could have packed it in after being down 3-0 but they kept pushing and pushing."

Bears goalie Michal Neuvirth won the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the Calder Cup MVP.

"It's an unbelievable feeling right now," said Neuvirth, who made 24 saves last night. "I can't believe this is happening. We deserve this Cup. We're the best team in the AHL right now."

Neuvirth caught the attention of the Moose for his strong play.

"He was one of their top people in the series," said Moose forward Jason Jaffray. "He gave up four goals in the last four games. We kind of thought that he was their weakness coming into the series."

HOOF PRINTS: In the final four games of the series, the Moose power play sputtered, going 0-for-14. The Bears were 3-for-12 over the same span. Former Winnipeg Jets forward Keith Tkachuk was among the interested spectators who were in the building last night.