Illegal Curve Hockey

Manitoba Moose double up the top ranked Texas Stars 4-2 for their second straight win

The Moose were looking to build on a strong 7-2 showing against the Wild on Sunday although they’d face a much tougher test against the Stars who are the top ranked team in the Central.

Lineup news:

This was the same set of players the team used on Saturday in the first game of the six-game homestand although the lines and D pairs were mostly different. This meant Chaz Lucius was out in favour of Danny Zhilkin. Simon Lundmark and Tyrel Bauer came in for Dylan Anhorn and Dawson Barteaux.

Lines & D pairs:

Shaw– Toninato –Ford
Suess – King – Wagner
AJF – JAD – Lambert
Liwiski – Zhilkin – Empey

Sautner – Salomonsson
Phillips – Coghlan
Lundmark – Bauer

DiVincentiis

Notable:

Much like last game the Moose got the party started early in the 1st and just like the game on Sunday it was defenceman Dylan Coghlan who opened the scoring for Manitoba. Nice work by Mark Liwiski with a hard forecheck to cause a turnover.

And just like last game it was Dylan Coghlan again scoring the second goal of the game for Manitoba. His sixth goal of the season made it a 2-0 score for the home team.

The Stars were able to get the game back to even early in the 2nd period but then Axel Jonsson-Fjällby got his third goal in the last two games to give Manitoba a late 3-2 lead after two periods of play.

Early in the final frame Ben King scored his third goal of the season against the Stars (8th overall) which would end up simply being an insurance goal.

Moose goalie Domenic DiVincentiis had made 15 saves on 17 shots through two periods and then stopped all 15 he faced in the 3rd (including 12 straight shots) to pick up the win.

While it will be a tall hill to climb the Moose are now within four points of the Wild and ten back of the IceHogs with three games in hand on both those clubs.

Multi-point game:

Dylan Coghlan 2G
Ben King 1G 1A

Highlights:

Player post-game media:

Coach post-game media:

Up next:

The Moose are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 11 AM CST as they prepare for the re-match against the Stars which is on Friday night.

David Minuk

Working hard on a daily basis to provide the latest Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose news for our readers and listeners. I also appear on the Illegal Curve Hockey Show every Saturday on our YouTube channel as well as the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show after every single Jets game. And I occasionally jump in the play-by-play booth at Canada Life to provide colour analysis during Manitoba Moose games.