CLEVELAND -- Riding an eight-game winning streak to the south shore of Lake Erie for tonight's AHL game against the Lake Erie Monsters, the Manitoba Moose are no longer the team in need of help.

That's because they've helped themselves.

One trade-deadline deal and a big catch-up period in team-building have helped the Moose surge forward in the second half of the season.

Manitoba has lists of impressive numbers going. In addition to the winning streak, it is 12-2-0-1 in the last 15, it has won six in a row on the road and 11 of the last 13 and it is 9-0-1 since veteran defenceman Nolan Baumgartner was added to the lineup via a deadline-loan deal with Dallas.

It has all lifted the second-place Moose a notch above the fray for the final playoff spots in the North Division and Western Conference. With 11 games to go, they are not home and cooled-out just yet, but have restored a cushion that figures to help them avoid any do-or-die games until the post-season.

And all of this while Vancouver call-ups and injuries continue to be a challenge.

Four Canucks players remain eligible to play for the Moose, but none of Mason Raymond, Rick Rypien, Luc Bourdon or Nathan McIver will play again in the AHL until Vancouver is finished for the season.

The Canucks have used all of their allowed post-deadline recalls and may only summon a Moose skater under emergency conditions of three injuries or suspensions. The emergency does exist (with Raymond, Lucas Krajicek, Aaron Miller and Mattias ñhlund all hurt) but since the team has two healthy forwards and one healthy defenceman still in the press box on any given night, it seems unlikely now that even Jannik Hansen's or Brad Moran's hot streaks will bring about an emergency recall as it stands.

Add to the four recalled players injuries to five regular Moose skaters Jason Jaffray (shoulder), Alex Bolduc (shoulder), Zack FitzGerald (jaw), Jimmy Sharrow (shoulder) and Jozef Balej (knee) and you have a Manitoba team currently near its season high for absentees.

All this leads to an eight-game winning streak?

It does and it has because the Moose have learned to deal with the ever-changing lineup. It's been going on since November and there have been trying weeks, to be sure.

Practised in adversity, getting much better goaltending from rookie Cory Schneider that gives the team its best goalkeeping of the season, receiving great special teams and having some scoring balance to go with a top line that continues to produce, have all placed the Moose in their top gear of the season.

They take a mark of 40-24-2-3 for 85 points into tonight's game against the Monsters, who are 23 points lower in the standings. The trip continues Wednesday and Friday in Rochester against a team even lower in the standings before wrapping up Saturday with a game against the first-place Toronto Marlies.

NOTES: Bolduc did not make the trip and won't play for at least a week... Hansen has points in four straight games, nine in his last six and 24 in his last 21.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca