AS a proposition, you'd find a lot of teams signing up for these odds: Include the end of your regular season and all of your playoff games, play 27 games and lose just three of them in the regulation 60 minutes.

This was the Manitoba Moose since Feb. 28, but there is no cup.

Wednesday was pack-up day for the Moose, out of the playoffs after just one round. They missed the playoffs in 2004 but otherwise haven't exited the post-season this early since 2000.

"We came up short in the playoffs again, but I guess when you lose four out of five in overtime, it might mean the other team is better and you have to accept that fact," GM Craig Heisinger said about his team's 4-2 series loss to the Syracuse Crunch. "Overall, I think it was a very rewarding year and a lot of the players took advantage of situations."

In their continuing goal to find a championship formula, the Moose went down many unexpected roads this season and will be better for it, Heisinger insisted.

"I've been wondering if this is strange to say or not but I think it's a very rewarding season," he said. "I'm not sure that makes any sense but I think we went through a tremendous amount of players (53) and lots of adversity and the coaches never gave them any excuses, any adversity or let them off the hook in any way, shape or form.

"The team performed as a unit and even when some of those pieces went missing, the people that took those minutes did an excellent job. We always talk about helping guys get from here to the next level, the NHL, but you can't overlook guys who took advantage of the other way, coming from the ECHL or college or junior and got their chance to make the step from that level to the AHL."

The team's consensus MVP, centre Brad Moran, said the playoff opportunity was attractive.

"Losing's not fun but if you're in those battles and close games and you win four overtime games, it's fun," Moran said. "But it hurts that much more, too, when you're so close.

"When it's all on the line and you're down 3-2 and it goes to overtime, it was a great opportunity. To score that goal it would be one you'd never forget. The potential of that for me made it fun. But we didn't back down from. We weren't scared of them."

Defenceman Nathan McIver, an important addition in April after Vancouver missed the playoffs, said the Moose played the kind of game they wanted.

"It was a fun series, a fun thing to be part of it," McIver said. "Five of six in overtime, it was close. It would have been nice to win but hats off to Syracuse, they found a way to score four overtime goals and we only got one."

With an out in their affiliation deal with Vancouver, answers Wednesday were cryptic at best, making it sound like the organization is at least contemplating its options and not all of them with the Canucks.

"That's a good question," Heisinger said. "I can't tell you. I think we're going to have a lot of our core guys back but after that it's too early to tell. The next two weeks to 21 days will play it out."

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

Baumgartner wants to play in the 'Peg

Veteran defenceman Nolan Baumgartner returned to the Manitoba Moose at the February trade deadline and was an impact player during the team's run to the playoffs.

His rich NHL contract, paying him $1.2 million this season, expires soon and he becomes a free agent this summer. On Wednesday, Baumgartner expressed a desire to return to the Moose next season.

"I don't know what the percentages are," said the 32-year-old Calgary native. "In my mind, there's a really good chance because I want to come back. But that's up to management, coaches and probably has a lot to do with the big club, whatever happens there.

"I want to come back. This is where I want to play. I feel comfortable here. It was like a breath of fresh air when I got here. I was really frustrated where I was (Des Moines). It wasn't going well there. Being able to come here and play in a organization that I really care for, and with the structure of the team and the guys here, it was a rejuvenation for me this year so I really want to come back. We'll see."