Manitoba Moose

Anemic offensive production continues to plague the Manitoba Moose.

An inability to put the puck in the net with any frequency doomed the Moose again as they fell 3-1 to the Norfolk Admirals before a crowd of 5,763 last night at the MTS Centre.

"We just don't have the finish," said Moose head coach Scott Arniel. "In this game, you've got to be able to score more than one goal."

With the loss, the Moose slip to 8-6-2 overall and finish a four-game homestand with a shootout win, two losses and an overtime defeat.

"We've got to learn from things like this, home is supposed to be a tough place to play for the visitors and we didn't really make it that way," said Moose defenceman Travis Ramsey. "Our defence wasn't that great tonight either and it starts there. If we're not scoring, you've got to be solid on the back end."

The Moose struck first, thanks to a miscue by Admirals goalie Riku Helenius.

Helenius coughed up the puck behind the goal to Moose forward Derek Leblanc and he found Tommy Maxwell in front for his first goal of the season at 8:34 of the first period.

Paul Szczechura evened the score at 9:13 of the second and Martins Karsums took advantage of a bad line change and gave the visitors the lead late in the frame as he broke in all alone on a breakaway and rifled his high shot over the glove of Daren Machesney and just under the crossbar at 17:38.

Adam Hall had the other goal for the Admirals.

The Moose lost forward Pierre-Cedric Labrie late in the first period to a shoulder injury.

Arniel said Labrie won't accompany the Moose on a three-game road trip that begins tomorrow against the Houston Aeros.

Moose Tracks

THREE STARS

1. Norfolk C Paul Szeczchura - The hard-working pivot showed soft hands, batting the puck out of the air on the game-winning goal.
2. Norfolk D Mike Lundin - The blue-liner logged big minutes and drew an assist on the decisive marker.
3. Manitoba F Tommy Maxwell - The energetic forward scored his first goal of the season.

THE SKINNY

The offensive woes continued for the Moose, who haven't scored more than one goal in regulation time or overtime in four consecutive games and six of the last seven.

THE GLUE

Word that RW Guillaume Desbiens would miss four to six weeks with a broken foot was the latest dose of bad news for the Moose.

Desbiens has two goals and four points in 13 AHL games and also made his NHL debut for the Vancouver Canucks last month.

"He's a piece of glue that I can always throw out there, whether I didn't like the way the lines were going or if something was happening, I could move him around to different spots," said Arniel. "He's a real team player and you don't replace those guys." Were it not for the injury, Desbiens probably would have been recalled by the Canucks after Alexandre Bolduc (shoulder) and Michael Grabner (ankle) went down with injuries late last week.

THE QUOTE

When asked for his opinion on the pre-game practice of kicking around a soccer ball, which led to a broken ankle for Grabner, Arniel had this to offer:

"Every team does it and it's been going on for a number of years," said Arniel. "It's just a freak accident, that's all it was. Stuff happens. You can't have guys living in glass houses because you're afraid they're going to hurt themselves."