Moose shoot down Griffins
Sat Mar 24 2007
http://www.winnipegf...p-4533754c.html
By Gary Lawless
Fresh legs were exactly what the Manitoba Moose were in need of and they paid big dividends. Heading for what appeared to be their third loss in a row, the Moose turned to Mason Raymond in his first pay-for-play game and the former college boy turned pro came through.
Raymond scored his first professional goal late in the third period to help the Moose to a 3-2 shootout win over the Grand Rapids Griffins.
Raymond tied the score at 2-2 and then in the shootout veteran Yannick Tremblay scored the winner.
So much for losing streaks as the Moose had dropped two in a row earlier in the week to the Houston Aeros but are now back in the win column.
The earlier losses served to put Manitoba in a funny mood Friday and it took them the better part of three periods of hockey to shake the fog.
FIRST PERIOD
A fiesty period with lots of border-line play but AHL rules apply and there are only two power plays.
Moose 0/ Grand Rapids 0
SECOND PERIOD
Griffins hit the board first with Matt Ellis's tip-in goal, then Ellis follows up with a short-handed marker, one of his team's great strengths this season. At the expiry of a Grand Rapids power play later in the period, Lee Goren pokes home a rebound to get the home team on the board.
Grand Rapids 2 / Moose 1
THIRD PERIOD
Moose grind and grind until a rebound pops free with 4:04 to play and new pro Mason Raymond finds it and dumps it in behind Griffins goalie Stefan Liv, and the teams play their third straight 3-2 contest.
Moose 2 / Grand Rapids 2
EXTRA TIME
Griffins, who have the worst power play in the AHL, fail to score with an advantage for the final 1:52 of overtime. In the shootout, Yannick Tremblay's fourth attempt puts the home team ahead 2-1 and Moose goalie Drew MacIntyre then stops Kip Miller, barely, to give the Moose a fifth straight win over Grand Rapids.
Moose 3 / Grand Rapids 2
Game-breaker
The kid deserves the nod. Raymond scores an important late goal in his first pro game to give the Moose their 40th win of the season.
Have a seat
Moose forward Mike Brown is suspended two games by the league late on Friday afternoon. The Houston Aeros asked for the discipline and received it after Brown hit Matt Foy with a high charge on Wednesday night.
Next
Grand Rapids at Moose, tonight at MTS Centre, 7:30 p.m. (CJOB).
"We expect a lot out of ourselves and when it doesn't happen we get a little snarly," said Moose forward Lee Goren, prior to Friday's game. "We look at one another and demand a lot. There's a lot of talent in this room and that's the way it has to be for us to move forward."
The Moose were indeed a fractious group at the morning skate. Coach Scott Arniel and winger Jesse Schultz shared some heated opinions and veteran Brandon Reid continued to stew under his current playing conditions as he was informed he'd once again be a healthy scratch. :twisted:
All minor distractions for a team steaming its way to a top seed in the Calder Cup playoffs but coupled with a gruelling schedule and the weight of two straight losses it all added up to a tough grind.
The Griffins took advantage of a sluggish and frustrated Moose group for most of the game until the effervescent Raymond broke through to give his new team a second breath.
The club also lost veteran Marc Chouinard in the third period as he was crushed into the end boards by Griffins forward Ben Simon. There was no report on Chouinard at game's end.
The Moose and Griffs meet again tonight in what will be Manitoba's seventh game in nine nights. To suggest the club isn't tired would be foolish. It's as plain as the antlers on their jerseys.
Fatigue results in heavy legs and perhaps even more damning are the poor decisions that ride shotgun. The Moose made plenty of those and seemed to continually put themselves in bad positions.
The result was the first Griffins goal coming off a giveaway and the winner was a shorthanded marker. Manitoba goalie Drew MacIntrye was better than he had been earlier in the week and he did what was needed to allow his team to hang around and eventually steal this game. So they're a tired hockey team. Give them a break. They've been doing nothing but winning for the last two months. A few bad outings shouldn't be such a big deal.
But excuses at this time of year aren't acceptable. Clubs with aspirations of skating through the spring and into the early summer find ways to fight through the tough days and that's the task facing the Moose beginning tonight.