TORONTO -- It's Wade Flaherty's day off, a complete and deserved day off for the Manitoba Moose, but he has agreed to have a discussion about his return to the AHL playoffs.
This is a complete reversal of just about this time last year, when he was departing, via injury, the series that went to an unsuccessful seventh game against Grand Rapids. And when he didn't want to talk about the bitter end, about which he could do nothing.
So on Wednesday, Flaherty was all smiles after his successful debut in the North Division final, having entered Tuesday's game after the first period to stop all 19 shots he faced and help the Moose to a 3-2 victory in Hamilton, cutting the Bulldogs' lead to 2-1 in the series.
Injecting his veteran savvy, and his birth certificate, is a new dynamic for the series.
For starters, he's facing a goalie half his age (Flaherty's 39) in the Hamilton nets. Carey Price, Bulldogs parent club Montreal's first-round pick of 2005, is just out of junior.
"What is he, 19? Hey, he's from Williams Lake. A good B.C. boy," Flaherty said Tuesday, laughing at the mention of birthdays. "When I was 17, I was playing in Williams Lake. For the Mustangs. That's before his time, of course, but that's pretty funny.
Beautiful place
"It's a beautiful place. Small town just like Terrace. He's a B.C. kid, being from a small town, you take note of that, sure."
The Bulldogs seemed to know Flaherty was suddenly in the series Tuesday night. They hacked and bumped him and gave him little room. And that's not all.
"I don't know if they were (after me) or not," Flaherty said. "I was concerned with what I was doing. That's the way I play. I was following the puck.
"A couple of guys said some stuff to me but I don't even know what it was. I wasn't paying attention. It's part of the game and you can't let it affect you. I'm just following the puck."
Moose coach Scott Arniel is less worried about what the Bulldogs think of Flaherty's presence and more concerned with how his team might erase the series deficit.
"The way I look at it is that he was going to be in this series no matter what," Arniel said. "In a perfect world, I didn't want to use him last night but he was going to be in, with the three-in-three coming this weekend."
Game 4 is Saturday and Game 5 Sunday afternoon, both in Hamilton, and if the Moose can extend matters beyond that, it's Game 6 Monday night in Winnipeg.
"I didn't know how, when or where, but Wade would be in this weekend," Arniel said. "I still haven't decided now how it's going to go, but you're probably going to see both goaltenders (Flaherty and Drew MacIntyre).
"Now that becomes one of our strengths. Our depth has been very important to us, we have it in forwards and defencemen, and now we have it in goaltending.
"That stretch in February and March, those two ran together and we won a lot of hockey games (17 out of 18 at one point) and it was because of those two. Now I hope to get that one-two punch going again."
After Tuesday's win, the Moose moved their base over to Toronto to make practice more convenient and to give the players more options for some relaxation until Friday.
"We have a three-in-three coming and we just had three games in four days," Arniel said. "Today, we needed a recharge day.
"I'm glad we have this break in the series. We expended a lot of energy Sunday (a 3-2 loss), and again last night in Hamilton. We have people who need a rest. And I do like the setup that's coming. We're a team that's done well in these situations."
Now that one of these "situations" includes Flaherty, the Moose are convinced they're back in the game.
tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca
