Manitoba Moose

First they lost the game, then they lost their best player.

An exhausted Manitoba Moose club touched down in Winnipeg early Sunday morning, ending a six-game road trip just hours earlier with a disappointing 3-2 loss in overtime to the Milwaukee Admirals.

Still reeling from that loss, the Moose learned they were also losing winger Sergei Shirokov, who was called up to the Vancouver Canucks after a couple of weeks of lighting up American Hockey League goaltenders.

The 23-year-old Russian prospect had four goals and six assists in 10 games with the Moose to lead all AHL rookies in scoring since being sent down by the Canucks the second week of October.

Shirokov had been one of the few constants for a Moose team that has been consistent only in its inconsistency through their first dozen games -- and the last six on the road in particular.

The good news? Every time the Moose have lost this season, they've come back to win the next one.

The bad news? Lately, they've also followed every win with a loss.

And so it went on a gruelling road trip for the Moose that finally wrapped up after a six-games-in-nine-nights marathon that took them to four cities and saw them criss-cross the border twice.

The narrative of the trip was like all the air travel -- up and down. A win to open the trip in Cleveland was followed by a loss the next night. Then it was a win and a loss in Hamilton, followed by a win in Chicago and then, finally, an overtime loss in Milwaukee Saturday night.

In the end, the Moose took seven out of a possible 12 points -- 3 wins, 2 losses, one overtime loss -- and showed glimpses of the club that went all the way to the Calder Cup final last June.

And then the very next night -- or sometimes the very next period -- they looked every bit like a club that lost half the personnel from last year's squad and still have a long way to go to actually becoming a team.

The heartening news for Moose fans, however, is twofold. First, despite all the inconsistent play, this is still a squad that has returned home with a very respectable 7-4-1 record in their first 12 games.

And even more heartening is that expectations are now so high in the Moose organization after last season's Calder Cup run that they're angry with a record that would be the envy of a lot of hockey teams.

"Yeah, we're on the plus side," Moose head coach Scott Arniel mused, "but if you're going to go out and play these games and want to be one of the elite teams, than being a point or two over .500 (actually three points) is not what we're after. We're a better team than what showed on this road trip."

And they also, sometimes, showed on the road trip that they were a better team, but heading home Saturday night all the talk was still about consistency.

"You just can't take a couple of shifts off. Good teams will capitalize," said Moose forward Marco Rosa.

The Good

• The Moose have been good in the clutch. They've gone to overtime four times in 12 games and won three of four, once in overtime and twice in a shootout. That includes one of each on this road trip, most notably the shootout win in Chicago Friday night that capped a 0-0 classic. The only blemish was the overtime loss to Milwaukee in the final game of the trip Saturday night.
• With Cory Schneider as the starter, it figured the Moose would have good goaltending, and he hasn't disappointed. While his GAA of 2.41 doesn't crack the AHL's top 15, he's undefeated in shootouts, leads the league in wins and minutes played and is second in number of saves. Backup Daren Machesney lost both his starts on the road, including in overtime to Milwaukee. Tough to fault him for that one though, turning away 35 of 38 shots in the loss.
• The top line of Marty Murray, Matt Pettinger and Sergei Shirokov had been exceptional. They looked comfortable together and they were collectively held off the scoreboard just once on the road trip -- the Chicago game when no one scored, although Pettinger did ultimately win the game in the shootout. It will be interesting to see who Arniel puts on the line with Murray and Pettinger, or whether he breaks the two veteran NHLers apart.
• The Moose showed some class on an off-day in Chicago on Thursday, dropping some serious coin on the players by taking them downtown, treating them to dinner at a noted pizza joint and then taking them to the Hawks-Canucks game.
• The Milwaukee Admirals have a forward named Wacey Rabbit. That is awesome.

The Bad

• The organization knew the Moose were going to struggle at times to score goals. Despite their winning record, they have been outscored 32-30.
• The Moose penalty killing has been better than the power play, but that's not saying much. The Moose had given up eight goals in 47 chances heading into Milwaukee, an 83 per cent penalty kill that ranks them 13th in the AHL.
• Six road games in nine nights in four cities with four separate border crossings is crazy. Period.
• Fourteen games in October -- which is what the Moose will have played when they wrap up this month-long marathon at MTS Centre this Thursday and Friday with a pair against Wilkes-Barre -- is also crazy.
• All right, she was young. And yeah, she tried her best. But the lass that slaughtered the Canadian anthem in Cleveland -- both nights -- should be forced to watch Front Page Challenge reruns for the rest of her life. Remember that guy at the CFL game in Vegas a few years back who sang O Canada to the tune of O Christmas Tree? This gal was worse than that. Seriously.

The Ugly

• It's hard to equate fan interest in the AHL with what fan interest would be for an NHL team. But back-to-back crowds of 2,500 in Hamilton for the Moose against the Bulldogs last week suggests that maybe the Arizona judge did Jim Balsillie a favour when he told him he couldn't move the Phoenix Coyotes to Steeltown.