Illegal Curve Hockey

Manitoba Moose kick off the season with chaotic 6-4 win over the Wild in Iowa

The Moose began the 2024-25 season on the road against Central Division rival Wild in Iowa where they will play a double header.

Lineup news:

No changes from practice on Thursday.

Moose lineup:

Toninato-Lambert-AJF
Shaw-Zhilkin-Chibrikov
Suess-King-Ford
Liwiski-Nikkanen-Torgersson

Lundmark – Salomonsson
Kuzmin – Bauer
Sautner – Barteaux

Milic
DiVincentiis

Notable:

Elias Salomonsson made his North American debut and Domenic DiVincentiis also made his first appearance, in a backup role, for his first pro game.

It was a rather inauspicious start for FloSports as the Moose stream kept looping to the same person instead of the game. The home feed and away feed were also problematic and we couldn’t hear the Manitoba play-by-play. It was also choppy. I get that it’s new but AHLTV was vastly superior.

Right from the start the game looked more preseason than regular season with both teams trading early chances.

First Moose goal of the season goes to Ben King as he gave Manitoba a 1-0 lead. The opening frame would end 1-1 after 20 minutes.

Dominic Toninato got on the board with his first of the season in game number one to give the Moose a 2-1 lead.

Jets prospect Elias Salomonsson lit the lamp in his first AHL game for the Moose on the power play.

Parker Ford with the shorthanded goal to give the Moose a two goal lead but it wouldn’t last long as Iowa got two power play goals late in the middle frame to tie the game up after 40 minutes. Former Winnipeg Ice forward Michael Milne tied the game at 4-4.

With just under nine minutes left in the 3rd defenceman Simon Lundmark gave the Moose a 5-4 lead in the 3rd with his first of the season.

And to seal the deal it was an empty netter for Nikita Chibrikov.

It was a bit of a scramble but the Moose win game 1 of regular season 6-4 over the Wild in Iowa.

Multi-point game:

Nikita Chibrikov 1G 2A
Elias Salomonsson 1G 1A
Parker Ford 1G 1A
Brad Lambert 2A

Highlights:

Post-game interviews:

Up next:

The Moose conclude the weekend series with an afternoon re-match. Puck drop is at 3 PM CDT.

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.