The Moose went 2-2-0-0 during week six of the AHL season, leaving their record at 5-8-1-2 on the year. The Moose started the week by completing their four-game series with the Grand Rapids Griffins and then hosting the Calder Cup Champion Hershey Bears to close out the week.
On Tuesday and Wednesday the Manitoba Moose finished up their "home-and-home" series with the Grand Rapids Griffins. The Moose earned two hard-fought victories over their North Division rivals by identical scores of 2-1. The back-to-back victories were the first for the Moose this season and couldn't have come at a better time as the Moose couldn't afford to drop too many games to a divisional opponent. Game one for the week was a tough contest with two of the best fights of the season taking place in that game. Mike Keane and Darryl Bootland went at it in the second period, and then Rick Rypien and Brendan Brooks dropped the gloves in the third period, a fight where so many punches were thrown it looked like it was in fast forward. Brandon Reid got his first goal of the season for the Moose in the game, and it turned out to be a big one as it was the game-winning goal on the power play at 6:15 of the third period.(
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In the final game of the series, the Moose scored first but more importantly they scored last, as Jason Jaffray notched his team-leading tenth goal of the season at 1:04 of the third period to secure the victory for the home team. The Griffins pulled their goalie with just under two minutes to play, but the Moose held on for their second victory in as many nights versus the Griffins.(
see the recap)
In the second half of the week the Moose played host to the reigning Calder Cup Champion Hershey Bears on Friday and Saturday. This marked the first time ever that these two franchises have met, leaving the Norfolk Admirals as the only remaining team that the Moose have yet to face. In game one of the series the Moose played a spirited game giving Hershey everything they could handle, but down by a goal with the goalie pulled for the extra attacker, the Bears scored into the empty net to ice the win for the visitors 4-2.(
see the recap)
In the second game versus the Bears on Saturday the Moose demonstrated once again that they could play with "the Champs" as the two teams were tied after the first period. However the Moose gave up two quick shorthanded goals on the same powerplay in the middle of the second period and could not recover from it losing 7-3 to the Bears. The victory improved Hershey's road record to a perfect 8-0.(
see the recap)
The Moose now head out on a three-game road trip that will take them to Rochester on Friday, Syracuse on Saturday and finally Hamilton next Tuesday.
The Moose head to league-leading Rochester on Friday, November 17th where the Americans hold a 12-1-0-0 record, including a perfect 7-0 record at Blue Cross Arena. One of those seven victories came at the hands of the Moose earlier this year on October 8th, when Rochester scored four unanswered goals in the third period to defeat Manitoba 6-3. Including the game earlier this season the Moose hold a record of 6-4-1-0 at the Blue Cross Arena and an overall record of 10-9-1-1 versus Rochester.
The Moose will then travel to Syracuse for their first meeting of the season versus the Crunch. Last year the Moose went 1-3-0-0 in four games played versus Syracuse including two losses on the road at the War Memorial. Overall the Moose hold a 5-6-0-1 record in 12 games played against the Syracuse Crunch.
Brandon Reid appeared in all four games for the Moose this week and scored his first three goals of the season…His first goal of the season versus Grand Rapids on Nov. 7/06 was the game-winner as the Moose captured back-to-back victories over their division rivals to start the week...Reid also fired nine shots on net.