Manitoba Moose

MANITOBA SWEPT ON TEXAS TRIP, EXTEND LOSING SKID TO FIVE GAMES

By Christina Caligiuri

The Manitoba Moose extended their losing streak to five consecutive games when they closed out their second road trip of the season with a 3-1 loss to the Texas Stars at the Cedar Park Center on Saturday night. Veteran Marty Murray notched Manitoba’s lone goal while goaltender Daren Machesney stopped 20 of 23 shots in the loss.

It only took 25 seconds for a fight to erupt as Nathan McIver and Francis Wathier squared off in the Moose zone. After a marathon fight of equal punches, both parties were sentenced to five-minute fighting majors.

At 1:47 and right off the draw, Tommy Maxwell dropped his gloves and jumped Luke Gazdic. Both tough customers battled until the referees intervened and each player was handed a five-minute fighting major along with a 10-minute misconduct for the Texas left-winger.

The third fight of the night happened moments later at 2:13. Matt McCue and former Moose Raymond Sawada participated in a short brawl before being reprimanded.

With Nathan McIver serving time for tripping, the Stars benefited from their first powerplay. For the second night in a row, Aaron Gagnon capitalized against the Moose when he fired a one timer from the right-wing circle to open the scoring at 10:10.

At 8:49 of the second period, Manitoba earned the equalizer. Goaltender Brent Krahn stopped Nolan Baumgartner’s initial blow, but veteran Marty Murray slapped in the rebound to knot the game at one.

With 2:06 remaining in the second stanza and with a jumble of players in front of Machesney’s crease, Sergei Korostin blindly backhanded the puck into the net to put his club back on top, 2-1.

The baby Stars got a little cushion room at 5:14 of the final frame. Scott McCulloch fed the puck to Perttu Lindgren, who was waiting patiently in the crease. The center-man finished the play when he went toppers on Machesney for a 3-1 lead over the visiting Moose.

The two clubs exchanged powerplays in the ladder half of the third period, but neither team could score on their respective man-advantages. Despite leading in the shot department, 34-23, the Moose couldn’t translate their shot lead into a goal lead and the visitors were defeated by the Stars, 3-1.