Manitoba Moose

MANITOBA EXTENDS LOSING STREAK TO FOUR STRAIGHT GAMES

By Christina Caligiuri

The Manitoba Moose failed to earn a single point on Friday night and as a result dropped their first-ever matchup against the Texas Stars 4-0 in front of 5,589 fans at the Cedar Park Center. Goaltender Rejean Beauchemin stopped 22 of 26 shots in his Manitoba debut while former Moose Greg Rallo tallied a goal against his former mates in the Stars win.

Goaltenders Rejean Beauchemin and Matt Climie manned opposite ends of the ice as the Manitoba Moose and Texas Stars embarked on their first-ever contest on Friday night at the Cedar Park Center.

The Moose received the first powerplay of the game when Travis Morin was put away for hooking at 9:36. Despite bringing their shot count to four on the man-advantage, the Moose couldn’t connect before the two-minutes expired.

At the 12 minute mark Ivan Vishnevskiy came down the right side of the ice, snuck low behind the defence and snuck the bullet inside the far post to open the scoring and put the Stars on top, 1-0.

Tempers flared after the goal as Matt McCue and Luke Gazdic exchanged punches near centre ice. After an even effort at the start, the Texas left-winger snuck a few more hits on McCue forcing the rookie to the ground. After the dispute, both attackers were handed five-minute fighting majors.

On their 15th shot of the night, the home team took a two-goal lead. With help from Scott McCulloch, Perttu Lindgren poked the puck behind Beauchemin at 6:21 of the second period.

Nathan McIver’s cross-checking penalty put Texas on their first powerplay of the night at 6:46. Situated in the Moose zone, Francis Wathier backhanded the puck to Aaron Gagnon.  The centre completed the play as he snapped the puck off the doorstep and into the mesh for his third of the season and the Stars third unanswered goal of the night.

The Stars didn’t lose any momentum in the second intermission as they came out and scored a mere 60 seconds into the third. Former Moose Greg Rallo went top shelf on Beauchemin to earn his team leading sixth goal of the season while putting his club ahead, 4-0.

Both clubs were getting feisty in the final minutes of the game with numerous penalties and lots of action after the whistle. Texas was leading the shot clock 25-22, but Manitoba was making a serious effort to catch up. However, the clock expired before Manitoba could notch an opening goal and the Moose dropped a 4-0 decision to the Stars to extend their losing streak to four-straight games.