Explosive 1st period propels Moose to 6-2 win over Icehogs

The Moose came into the game with their magic number to clinch a playoff spot at eight points.

Lineup news:

Just a few changes to the lineup with Thomas Caron and Jimmy Oligny coming in and Evan Polei and Ashton Sautner coming out. Only other change was in net where Arvid Holm would get the start.

Moose lineup:

Malott – Toninato – Limoges
Harkins – Maier – Reichel
Torgersson – Nikkanen – Jones
Caron – Meireles – Boland

Heinola – Gawanke
Stewart – Lundmark
Oligny – Bauer

Holm
Salminen

Notable:

If you want to start a game off right then a pretty good way to do that is by scoring early in the 1st period which is just what Leon Gawanke did 32 seconds into this contest. That was his 15th goal of the season.

Just a few minutes later leading scorer Alex Limoges put home a nice pass by Jeff Malott to give the home team a quick 2-0 lead.

They wouldn’t stop there as they continued to apply pressure in the opening frame. Greg Meireles got into the act scoring his third goal in the last six games with this nice individual effort.

They’d get one more in the opening period courtesy of Jets 2020 2nd rounder Daniel Torgersson who may have played his best game in the shootout loss on Wednesday even though he didn’t get any points. Tonight he was rewarded with his ninth goal of the season.

The home team continued to push in the first minute of the 2nd period. Jansen Harkins, who appears to be somewhat unstoppable this season, put home his 20th goal (in his 34th game) with a nifty breakaway move that made it a 5-0 game.

At this point in the game Jeff Malott was already at three assists which gave him 99 points in his AHL career. He also tied his career high for assists with 18 which he set last year. Does it in one fewer game.

The Icehogs scored a pair to make it a 5-2 game after 40 minutes

However in the 3rd period on the power play leading scorer Alex Limoges got his second of the game, 19th of the season and 50th point to make it 6-2 after taking a nice pass from Dominic Toninato and firing it past Jaxson Stauber who came into the game in relief of Arvid Soderblom.

With the secondary assist on the sixth Moose goal, Leon Gawanke set a new career high for points. He’s up to 15G 22A for 37 points.

With the 6-2 win Manitoba improves to 34-19-5-4 which gives them 77 points (two back of Texas and Milwaukee in 1st). They are on a five-game points streak.

Player media availability:

Coach media availability:

Highlights:

Up Next:

The Moose are scheduled to practice tomorrow morning as they prepared to kick  off a two-game set against the Rocket starting with a Sunday afternoon game.