Manitoba Moose

MANITOBA SITS FOURTH IN NORTH DIVISION WITH 72 POINTS

By Christina Caligiuri

The Manitoba Moose split their final regular season series against the Rockford IceHogs with a 6-3 loss in front of 10,177 fans at MTS Centre on Saturday night. Guillaume Desbiens scored both goals for Manitoba while Cory Schneider stopped 28 of 32 shots in his 20th loss this campaign.

Manitoba’s powerplay unit made their debut at 3:36 when Bracken Kearns was penalized for holding. The home team brought their shot count to five on the opening man-advantage, but couldn’t beat starting goaltender Corey Crawford.

With Evan Oberg serving time for holding at 8:24 the IceHogs opened the scoring on their opening powerplay. With 19 seconds left on the advantage, and with a crowd of players in front of Cory Schneider’s crease, Richard Petiot snuck the puck between the goaltender and his goal post for a 1-0 lead.

The Moose benefited from their second PP when Danny Bois was handed an interference penalty at 11:53. Guillaume Desbiens earned his 14th goal of the season when he whacked the puck over a sprawled Crawford to knot the game at one.

With 2:48 left to go in the first period the Moose stole the lead when the puck deflected off Guillaume Desbiens’ skate and into the net for a 2-1 tally.

With Mike Keane and Guillaume Desbiens both serving penalties in the early minutes of the second period, the IceHogs received a five-on-three advantage. With two extra-attackers, the ‘Hogs set up a tic-tac-toe play and Kyle Greentree connected when he beat Schneider under his glove, 2-2.

Rockford stole back the lead when Evan Brophey flew down the left side of the ice and beat Schneider through his five-hole for a 3-2 score.

With Mike Keane and Nathan McIver both serving time, the visitors benefited on their second two-man advantage. Jack Skille doubled his team’s lead when he sniped the puck between Schneider and his right goal post, 4-2.

Yan Stastny was awarded a penalty shot with 6:29 remaining in the game but he was denied by Crawford’s glove.
In the final minutes of play, the Moose put the pressure on the IceHogs.

In the final minutes of play, the Moose put the pressure on the IceHogs. With a bunch of failed attempts on Crawford, Michael Grabner snuck the puck past the goal line for a 4-3 tally. But, on the next play Kyle Greentree capitalized on Manitoba’s empty-net for a 5-3 tally. With Schneider still out of his crease and with five seconds left to play, Danny Bois potted another empty netter to confirm a 6-3 victory for the IceHogs.