Manitoba Moose

Call it one final salute to the hometown faithful.

While the praise has justifiably been handed out to fans from both the Manitoba Moose and Hershey Bears throughout the Calder Cup final, a last shout-out is required now that this exciting playoff run has come to a close.

Manitoba hockey fans packed the MTS Centre for the second time on Friday night and provided an NHL-like atmosphere with its near White-Out.

Although the Moose stumbled out of the gate and the Bears sucked some of the energy out of the building by jumping ahead to a 3-0 lead, the fans continued to stay in the game as the Moose got it to 3-1 and continued to push to cut into the lead.

A Go-Moose-Go chant erupted shortly after Keith Aucoin scored an empty-net goal in the final minute to clinch the Calder Cup, a fitting send-off to a Moose team that advanced further than any other time in 13 years as a franchise in the River City.

"You know, through this whole playoffs (the fans) have been amazing as that seventh man," said Moose head coach Scott Arniel. "Even when we were down 3-0 and we started to get some life in the second period, they were getting boisterous and loud and stayed right in there.

Fans stuck around

"I thought maybe if we could have got that second (goal), maybe that push from the crowd would get us that third one."

Many fans even stuck around for the Calder Cup presentation and Bears celebration.

"We really appreciate the Manitoba fans staying around and giving us some applause and watching the ceremony," said Bears forward Graham Mink. "That was a class act."

Friday's sellout crowd of 15,003 meant that a total of 116,095 came through the turnstiles at the MTS in 11 Calder Cup playoff dates -- which results in an average of 10,554, which was tops in the AHL.

Although it's an apples and oranges comparison, the Lowell Devils (ranked 29th in the AHL in attendance during the regular season), drew only 91,728 (average of 2,293) for 40 home dates during the regular season.