Kids brought energy to Project 11 School Day game but Moose cannot match it and Rocket take it 5-2

The Moose have lost three straight games including yesterday afternoon when the Rocket handed them a tough 6-2 loss. They were looking to end their homestand today in front of 7000+ with a win to get them back to .500 before they head out on the road for the rest of the month.

Lineup news:

Before warm-up we learned that the AHL had suspended forward Jeff Malott for the end of game stuff that happened yesterday. Reviewing the video it’s hard to see why they singled Malott out since he, like the rest of the team, were heading to their dressing room. He didn’t throw a punch, all he did was try to interpose himself as his teammate Artemi Kniazev was swarmed by Rocket players.

As expected alternate captain C.J. Suess, who had been dealing with a lower-body issue and Jets prospect Chaz Lucius, who had been dealing with a concussion, were both ready to return to the lineup. With Malott suspended the only other forward from yesterday who sat was Henri Nikkanen.

Moose lineup:

Toninato – Lambert – Ford
Suess – Lucius – AJF
Bongiovanni – Zhilkin – Chibrikov
Viel– Reichel – Torgersson

Capobianco – Stewart
Chisholm – Lundmark
Sautner – Bauer

Milic
Salminen

Notable:

With it being the Project 11 game lots of focus on mental health today for the benefit of the thousands of kids who are in attendance at Canada Life. Lots of focus on Rick Rypien.

Different day, same result as the Rocket again open the scoring less than a minute into the game. Looked like there was some interference on Milic but refs discussed and decided otherwise.

Kids are bloodthirsty. They yell “fight fight fight” whenever they can.

While the team found themselves down by two goals it could have been more except Jets goalie prospect Thomas Milic made some highlight stops in his first ever AHL start.

This was a bit unusual and would have been rather unfortunate for Manitoba as the refs called a penalty on Laval but no Rocket player had touched the puck. Capobianco went for the clear and it almost ricochets into the net Milic had been vacating for the extra man.

Took awhile but Wyatt Bongiovanni got the Moose on the board with his second of the year during a power play opportunity.

Moose were “only” down 3-1 after 40 and had they had a quick start they could have potentially changed the narrative. But they didn’t giving up a quick one to spot the Rocket a 4-1 lead. They would get one back as Ashton Sautner used the double screen in front to score his third goal of the year.

Perhaps the best play of the game was this rather unexpected booming hit by Nikita Chibrikov on Manitoban Riley McKay.

The kids brought the energy to the Project 11 School Day game but the home team couldn’t match it. Laval defeated Manitoba 5-2 to sweep the weekend series handing the Moose a four-game losing streak and dropping them to a 4-6-0 record.

Player/coach media availability:

After the game we spoke with:

C.J. Suess which runs until 1:45
Wyatt Bongiovanni which goes from 1:46 until 4:34
Assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner from 4:35 until the end.

Highlights:

Up next:

The Moose are expected to be off tomorrow and will likely be back on the ice on Wednesday as they prepare for a big road trip which starts out east in Belleville.