The Moose have lost the opening game and won the closing game of the preceding two series on this six-game homestand so after losing on Friday night to the Wranglers they were hoping that pattern would continue today.
Lineup news:
Only lineup change from Friday for Manitoba was Greg Meireles drawing in and Wyatt Bongiovanni sitting.
Moose lineup:
Malott-Stenlund-Limoges
Polei-Maier-Jones
Lambert-Nikkanen-Reichel
Torgersson-Lucius-Meireles
Heinola-Gawanke
Sautner-Lundmark
Chisholm-Stewart
Salminen
Holm
Notable:
Taking penalties against the second best power play isn’t ideal as Manitoba learned on Friday when they gave up two power play goals and that’s how this game started with Calgary scoring on a 5 on 3 to take a 1-0 lead.
Hockey really should be called “the beautiful game” because there are instances like this and this throughout the course of a game.
While they found themselves down 2-0 in the 1st period the Moose had self-created chances like this one by Jets 2022 1st rounder Brad Lambert on the PP but also ones like this where the Wranglers almost scored on themselves.
Some good work by the Lunch Pail Line gave the home side some life early in the 2nd period as Cole Maier got his third of the year to make it a one goal game. But Calgary was able to score ten seconds later off this shot from the neutral zone that chased Oskari Salminen from the game.
Jets 2019 4th rounder Henri Nikkanen picks up the puck in the Manitoba end and rips this shot home to bring the home side within one. Veteran move by Evan Polei to help “create” time and space. That’s Nikkanen’s third of the season.
Jets 2021 1st rounder Chaz Lucius finds himself in the right place at the right time and he tied up the game here in Winnipeg. That was his second of the season.
And just like that the Moose erased two, two-goal deficits to tie the game 3-3 after 40 minutes.
Moose were remarkably close to an all-Finnish goal sequence as 2019 4th Henri Nikkanen uses his body to get puck, over to 2019 1st Ville Heinola who dished it to 2022 1st Brad Lambert who will be seeing this in his nightmares. As my colleague Phillip Paul Martin of the Native Hockey News said ““they had no Fin(n)ish…”
This has been far and away the best game by Henri Nikkanen since he’s come over to North America. The Jets 2019 4th rounder has been noticeable all game long. It’s little plays like this one…
The contest would need extra time where Leon Gawanke called game off a nice pass by Ville Heinola.
That was probably Heinola’s best game of the season as he was excellent for Manitoba.
And the pattern continues with the lose one, win one as they take it 4-3 in OT to improve to 7-3-1-0 which puts them 1st in the Central.
Health Update:
Jets 2018 5th rounder Declan Chisholm didn’t return after the 1st intermission and we were told post-game it was precautionary but no further update on his status.
Player media availability:
Coach media availability:
Highlights:
To follow.
Up Next:
The Moose will take the day off on Monday before they resume practicing on Tuesday. After a few days in Winnipeg they take off on Thursday for a five-game road trip later in the week which gets started in Texas next Friday.
