CLEVELAND -- The get-well cards will surely keep going to Jason Jaffray's house but the signatures will be a little more steady after the latest episode of the Manitoba Moose's late-season surge.

The team's leading goal scorer is out a few more weeks with a shoulder injury but his understudy brought his teammates to their feet Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena. Rookie pro Mark Derlago, called up from Bakersfield, Calif., (ECHL) pumped in his first two AHL goals in the second period to help spark the Moose to a 7-2 thrashing of the Lake Erie Monsters.

Derlago was thrust into a leading role upon his arrival last week. The 22-year-old Brandon native went straight to the team's No. 1 offensive line with Brad Moran and Jannik Hansen and had assists in his first two games. He then figured prominently on Tuesday with goals at 59 seconds and 11:56 of the second period as the visitors pumped in seven straight to set a franchise record with their seventh straight road win.

"He's a lot like Jaff," Moose coach Scott Arniel said of Derlago after the Moose ripped off their ninth straight win. "He's not experienced like Jaff and he's got some things to learn being at this level but he goes to those (get-dirty) areas.

"... He's not going to score goals from 50 feet out. He'll be five or 10 feet away. He had a couple of real good deflections tonight, too. He's got a real good stick and a good pair of hands."

Derlago tapped in a Moran rebound early in the second, then when Moran won an offensive faceoff and went forward, Derlago steered his knee-high pass home to give Manitoba a 4-1 edge.

"It's nice to get the first one and the second one came right after and that's a good feeling," Derlago, the former Brandon Wheat Kings sniper, said. "(Moran) said he was going ahead with the play and I didn't know it was going to be in the air like that but it worked out nice. It was a good play by him.

"Both those guys are easy to play with. They're offensive guys and if you're open, they're going to get you the puck. They know what they're doing in the offensive zone."

The fact the Moose aren't desperate at the moment -- they're on quite a roll and now just five points away from clinching a playoff spot -- probably helps Derlago slide into his new role a little easier.

"He's a goal scorer, first and foremost," Arniel said. "I'm happy to see him get one and two, so that he can get comfortable and so that he doesn't have to squeeze his stick. That's why he's on that line."

"That second one, that was an outstanding play, knocking it out of the air. That's what those guys do. Certainly, Mo and Hanny have been playing so well and to have him in there and getting into the mix, it certainly keeps that line rolling along."

The Moose, now 41-24-2-3 after a run of 13-2-0-1 in 16 games, can tie their franchise record for consecutive wins, 10, tonight in Rochester against the last-place Americans.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca