Manitoba Moose

MANITOBA DROPS FIRST PRESEASON MATCHUP, 5-2

By Christina Caligiuri

Marty Murray won his first face-off as a Moose and the first face-off of the game as the visiting Manitobans embarked on their first-ever matchup against the newly formed Abbotsford Heat.

Three minutes into the period, Abbotsford’s J.D. Watt was called-out for elbowing and then unsportsmanlike conduct giving the Moose a four-minute advantage. Half-way through the double minor, Carson Germyn escaped on a short-handed surge and fired a slapshot past Adam Munro to open the scoring.

Before the young Moose could counter, Mikael Backlund took the visitors by surprise. On a quick line change, the 20 year old centre jumped over the wall, stormed the net, grabbed the puck and fired it over Munro for a two-goal lead.

With Manitoba in the sin bin with two-minutes to go in the opening period, the Heat benefited from their first man-advantage. Already scoring a shorthanded and even-strength marker, Carson Germyn covered all bases by notching his second of the night on the powerplay, 3-0.

At 19:32 a hit-from-behind on Evan Oberg caused an out roar from both sides resulting in three misconducts and four additional penalties. When all was said and done, the Moose got the upper hand and entered the second period with a five-minute powerplay.

Despite handling the puck for the majority of the powerplay, the Moose only fired a single attempt on goaltender Matt Keatley before the penalty expired. 

Carson Germyn completed his hat trick on the powerplay, notching his third against Munro, in the latter half of the second. After the goal, Winnipeg-born netminder Rejean Beauchemin swapped in to man the pipes for the Moose.

Manitoba finally broke their goose-egg on their 12th shot of the game. With a pass from Dirk Southern, Derek LeBlanc cracked Keatley to get the visitors on the board.

The Moose put themselves within three when Dan Gendur earned his first of the preseason. At 6:08, the Vancouver-native slide the puck under Keatley for a 5-2 tally.

Despite the last period effort, the Moose ran out of time before they could tie the game and the Heat earned the win, 5-2.