Manitoba Moose

Moose vs. Rampage:

Thursday's match-up between the Manitoba Moose and San Antonio Rampage will be the first clash between both teams this season. Last season, Manitoba and San Antonio split their series with each team winning both match-ups on home ice. The Moose hold a 7-2-0-3 record when hosting the Rampage (12-7-1-4 overall).

Winning in Winnipeg:

Saturday's 4-2 victory over Toronto was Manitoba's sixth consecutive win at home, the season standard for most wins at the MTS Centre. This already breaks the 2007-08 longest home-streak record which was four games from December 31, 2007 - January 5, 2008. The franchise record for most consecutive wins on home-ice is nine games from February 3 - March 10, 2007.

Plenty of Penalty Minutes:

The Moose racked up a total of 22 penalty minutes in Saturday night's game vs. Toronto, with eight infractions. Seven Moose players spent time in the box on Saturday night, including Guillaume Desbiens, Jason Jaffray, Daniel Rahimi, Nolan Baumgartner, Mark Fistric, Alexandre Bolduc and Pierre-Cedric Labrie. Five of the penalties were served for either fighting or roughing. The fewest penalty minutes the Moose have amassed in a game this season was eight vs. Hamilton on October 11, 2008 and the most was on November 1, 2008 with 31 minutes in Quad City. The franchise record for most Moose penalty minutes in a single game is 113, set on December 4, 1996 vs. Orlando.

Special Team Improvements:

Manitoba stifled 16 of 17 Toronto powerplays last weekend, improving the club's penalty killing to 91.1percent and once again first in the AHL. After the Moose's opening weekend, they dipped to 23rd in the AHL, only stopping the powerplay 71.4 percent of the time. In the past 11 games, the Moose have held a spot in the top ten among all teams. Manitoba also improved their powerplay status by jumping one spot from 22nd to 23rd after scoring two man-advantage goals against the Marlies on November 15, 2008.

Download the full game notes (pdf)

Jaffray is heavy on Hat-Tricks:

In Saturday night's 4-2 victory over the Toronto Marlies, Alberta-native Jason Jaffray netted his first hat-trick of the season scoring the second, third and fourth goals of the game. Last season, Jaffray scored three goals on November 23, 2007 in Syracuse, and in 2006-07 he recorded Manitoba's lone regular season hat-trick (a four goal performance on October 24, 2006 at Chicago) and the only playoff hat-trick (May 1, 2007 vs. Grand Rapids). In 1997-98, Manitoba recorded a franchise-record seven hat-tricks, while in 2001-02 no Moose player scored more than two goals in a single game.

Schneider Goes for Ten:

Goaltender Cory Schneider has recorded nine consecutive wins with the Moose this season, only dropping one game to the Hamilton Bulldogs on October 10, 2008 (3-1 L). With a record of 9-1-0, 1.30 GAA, and a 0.948 SV%, the second year tender sits in first place above all AHL goaltenders. So far, he has faced 249 shots and only allowed 13 goals. He also registered his first shutout of the season on November 2, 2008 at Peoria against the Rivermen (4-0 W). Last season Schneider held the longest winning record with nine consecutive games from February 17 - March 28, 2008.

Against the Rampage:

• Defenceman Jimmy Sharrow has two assists in two games vs. the Rampage.
• Moose prospect Dylan Yeo earned his first AHL point (an assist) January 13, 2008 vs. San Antonio.
• Maxime Fortunus scored his first AHL goal against the Rampage on November 5, 2005.
• Former Moose, Greg Classen, is now playing for San Antonio.

Streaks and Milestones:

• Cory Schneider is on a nine-game winning streak.
• In his last 11 games, Jason Jaffray has registered 14 points, putting him at the top of the scoring leaderboard.
• In nine games with the Moose, Jason Krog has earned 12 points.