Game Story

The Manitoba Moose (27-19-5-1) made good on their chances Tuesday night, picking up a 4-0 victory over the Abbotsford Canucks (21-31-3-3) at Rogers Forum. They were coming off a 1-0 win over the Toronto Marlies on Sunday.

There were five entries on the scoresheet in the opening 20 minutes, all of which were penalties. Three resulted in power play opportunities: two for Abbotsford and one for Manitoba. The Canucks owned an 11-3 edge on the shot clock, but neither side could open the scoring, as Thomas Milic and Jiří Patera were perfect for their respective teams.

Samuel Fagemo broke the deadlock at 1:33 of the second period, scoring on Manitoba’s first shot of the frame. Milic was outstanding in the period, making a desperate toe save to deny a goal midway through the second. At 13:04, Parker Ford made it 2-0 by patiently navigating his way across the front of the goal and sliding his sixth goal of the season past Patera. Nikita Chibrikov nearly added to the lead on a breakaway, but his shot rang off the iron, as the 2-0 scoreline held into the intermission.

Manitoba turned up the heat in the third, outshooting Abbotsford 9-7 in the frame. Chibrikov made good on a power play chance at 7:01, potting Manitoba’s second power play marker in the past three games. Isaak Phillips put the contest out of reach two minutes later with a point shot for a 4-0 lead. Milic finished the night with 30 saves, capping off his second straight shutout as the Moose claimed a 4-0 win.

Quotable

Moose forward Jacob Julien (click for full interview)
“I think we got off to a little bit of a slower start than we wanted, but we bounced back and continuously got better throughout the game and won the game.”

Statbook

• Thomas Milic has made 61 consecutive saves
• Milic is the first Moose netminder to record shutouts in back-to-back games since Mikhail Berdin posted shutouts on Nov 8 & 9, 2019
• Phil Di Giuseppe is on a four game point streak (1G, 3A)
• Parker Ford is on a four game point streak (2G, 2A)
• Isaak Phillips has five points (3G, 2A) over his past six games
• Brayden Yager recorded his third multi-point (2A) game of the season