Manitoba Moose kick off weekend set with Texas Stars picking up an impressive 7-3 win

The focus all week long in Mooseland was on special teams as they looked to get off to a good start at home for this two-game set against a Stars team that sat 17 points up on them in the Central division standings.

Lineup news:

With Danny Zhilkin done for the season and Wyatt Bongiovanni and Tyrel Bauer nursing injuries the Moose made a few lineup changes ahead of puck drop. With David Gustafsson back up with the Jets it gave Daniel Torgersson a chance to get back in the lineup.

Moose lineup:

Malott – Lambert – AJF
Suess – Toninato – Chibrikov
Viel – Reichel – Ford
Torgersson – Nikkanen – Jones

Capobianco – Barteaux
Heinola – Lundmark
Sautner – Stewart

Millic
Delia

Notable:

The Moose got off on the right skate in this one opening the scoring when the identity line of Kristian Reichel, Jeffrery Viel and Parker Ford found the back of the net courtesy of this Reichel blast which tied his career high for goals with 12.

With the score tied 1-1, Kyle Capobianco was able to pick the corner with the help of a very good screen by Reichel in front of the Texas net to make it 2-1.

Manitoba had a 16-6 shot edge after 20 minutes and a 2-1 lead.

They continued to push in the middle frame as they added the only goal of the 2nd period which came off the stick of Henri Nikkanen. It was his first goal of the season which coincidentally came on Hockey Day in Finland and the relief at scoring was evident as he tossed the monkey off his back.

After the Moose gave up two goals to let the Stars back into this one the heartbeat line of Viel, Reichel and Ford give the home team the lead back. Texas was not happy as they felt their netminder was interfered with.  That made it 4-3 for Manitoba courtesy of Parker Ford’s 10th of the year.

The Moose didn’t sit back with the lead as they continued to try to add to their lead. Nice connected between Jets prospects Ville Heinola and Nikita Chibrikov here.

Texas pulled the goalie with three minutes to go and the Moose made them pay with Kristian Reichel scoring into the empty net to set a new career high for himself at 13. And for good measure more Finnish content on Hockey Day in Finland (here in Canada) as Brad Lambert made it a 6-3 game for the Moose. That’s the 16th goal of the season for the Jets prospect.

And for extra, extra measure Nikita Chibrikov made it’s a 7-3 game. That was the 15th goal of the season for the Jets prospect.

Multi-point game:

Kristian Reichel 2G 1A
Kyle Capobianco 1G 2A
Parker Ford 1G 1A
Jeffrey Viel 2A
Dawson Barteaux 2A

Player/Coach post-game media:

Highlights:

To follow.

Up next:

These two clubs will have a re-match tomorrow afternoon at 2 PM CST which concludes the