The 1st period was a gong show for the home side as they were heavily out shot (23-2) but managed, courtesy of the strong play of Eric Comrie, to only be down by one goal after 20 minutes. They did manage to kill a 5 on 3. On the flip side hard work by Kyle Connor gave him his ninth goal of the season. His play has certainly elevated of late and these are the digging in the corners are the types of things he needed to add to his game.
Kyle Connor does some dirty work in corner, gets puck out to Stoykewych. Ninth goal of season. Roslovic also gets assist. pic.twitter.com/nnw4b81s2q
— Dave Minuk (@ICdave) February 26, 2017
The 2nd period was a better one for the home side in front of 6700 fans inside the MTS Centre as Kyle Connor got his second goal of the game (10th on season) to tie things up. It was only the fourth Moose shot of the night.
Kyle Connor with his second of the game on just the fourth Moose shot of the night. That’s his 10th goal of season. #AHL pic.twitter.com/uFfhpd61dT
— Dave Minuk (@ICdave) February 26, 2017
And to keep with the weird theme J.C. Lipon took a harmless looking shot from the blueline that fooled Rampage goalie Spencer Martin to give Manitoba a 3-2 lead on just their sixth shot of the game.
The final period was fairly uneventful. Except for rookie Kyle Connor adding an empty netter to:
1. Get the first Moose 2.0 home hat trick; and
2. Win all the fans (about 6700 folks) inside MTS Centre pancakes.
First Moose 2.0 hat trick at the MTS Centre (fourth overall) goes to Kyle Connor who scores his 11th and third of the night. 4-2 Moose. pic.twitter.com/orUktxIK2i
— Dave Minuk (@ICdave) February 26, 2017
Hard to say which they were more excited about.
Post-game audio:
Eric Comrie
Kyle Connor
Coach Vincent
