Game Story

The Manitoba Moose (33-29-5-1) claimed a 5-4 shootout over the Texas Stars (35-29-3-2) on Friday night at Canada Life Centre. They were coming off a 7-0 loss to the Milwaukee Admirals on Wednesday.

A defensively stout first period saw the Moose take a narrow 9-7 edge on the shot clock, while picking up the game’s first goal. Brayden Yager scored the 10th goal of his rookie campaign, ripping a shot past Remi Poirier to make it 1-0 at 18:22. Thomas Milic was solid in the opening 20, making all seven saves asked of him.

The offences took the upper hand in the second. Parker Ford gave the Moose a 2-0 lead with a power play goal 4:11 into the frame. Phil Di Giuseppe chased it with a marker of his own off a great solo effort at 7:42 for a 3-0 lead. With the Moose killing a penalty, Mason Shaw floated a sky-high pass for Walker Duehr, who collected and snapped it into the net to make it 4-0 at 12:40. Texas used a strong end to the period to cut the lead in half. Artem Shlaine made good on a power play chance at 18:21, before Jack Anderson beat the horn by 0.4 seconds to make it 4-2 as the clubs headed to the locker rooms.

Texas applied some more pressure with a goal from Justin Ertel at 8:15, cutting the Moose edge to 4-3. The Stars then equalized with 5.4 seconds left on the clock off Shlaine’s second of the game, and the game headed for overtime. Each side had a power play chance in overtime, but neither could end the game. In the shootout, Milic made a pair of stops, and the Moose got goals from Nikita Chibrikov and Danny Zhilkin, as they claimed two big points with a 5-4 shootout win.

Quotable

Moose forward Walker Duehr (click for full interview)
“I really liked our start. Being able to put up that many against a good team like that is pretty encouraging. Still a lot of things I think we can learn from, but we’ll take the win and take things to learn in the next game.”

Statbook

• Walker Duehr is tied for first in the AHL with five shorthanded goals
• Duehr is tied for the second-most shorthanded goals in a Moose season
• Brayden Yager is the ninth Moose to score 10 goals this season
• The Moose hold a 4-1 record in the shootout