By Tim Campbell
John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press
The Moose hit the ice last night at the MTS Centre wearing the jerseys of 20 community clubs from around the province. The sweaters will be returned to the community clubs sporting the autograph of the player who wore it.
THE Manitoba Moose aren't the first team trying to get somewhere with random confidence.
There have never been many winning teams, however, with such a hit-and-miss attitude -- a reality that seems lost on the Moose.
All of that was wrapped into Saturday night's game against the first-place Toronto Marlies at MTS Centre.
The Moose played in the first period like they, not the Marlies, owned the North Division, exciting the sell-out crowd of 15,003 with three goals before 10 minutes had gone by.
But that was it for the home team, and the Marlies showed why their record is what it is with five unanswered goals in a 5-3 triumph.
"That's the story of our year," Moose goalie Drew MacIntyre said after the defeat. "We don't handle success very well and we have to learn from our mistakes and a lot of the time we don't, frankly.
"We have a good game but we're sick of coming into the next game flat. We have to learn play consistently. It shouldn't be as hard as we make it."
Earlier in the week, the Moose handled the Iowa Stars on home ice, but then turned into no-shows in losing the next night.
"It's not the first time," centre Brad Moran said, asked where Saturday night's first-period team went. "It's two different teams.
"We say the right things. Keaner (captain Mike Keane) is in here telling us it's not over after 20 minutes. But for whatever reason, we don't battle, we don't want the puck and we don't make things happen after the first period."
Manitoba, at 27-22-2-2, trails the first-place Marlies by 17 points. Of more concern are the Syracuse Crunch and Hamilton Bulldogs, who are making their play for second spot in the division.
One night the Moose look like they're in control of that situation. The next, however, leaves many doubts.
"I think for us we have to get confidence but we win one and get some, then the next game we don't even show up," said Moran, who had two assists and was plus-three in that first period. "I wish I could put my finger on it. It's a matter of playing those 60 minutes, wanting to battle and doing it night after night, no matter what we did the night before."
The Moose will get just that chance today, meeting the Marlies again at 2 p.m. at MTS Centre.
It's only the third meeting of the season -- Toronto has won the first two -- and there are five more to come after today.
Moose coach Scott Arniel was sombre after Saturday night's stark turnaround in the Marlies favour, which saw the Moose take only seven shots at Toronto goalie Scott Clemmenson after the roaring first period.
"I don't know if we were looking for an easier second, that the second would wind up like the first, but we started getting into penalty trouble and kind of lost our rhythm and some people on the bench," Arniel said. "They're a good offensive team and you give them that many opportunities, sooner or later they're going to capitalize.
"They have 12 losses on the year, so for us to even think that (the second would be easier), it was wrong."
What the game drove home was that if you don't want to do things at an accelerated pace, you're probably catching quite a breeze as opponents whiz by.
