Illegal Curve Hockey

Manitoba Moose lose second straight game to Texas Stars by 5-2 score but play much better in loss

It was a pretty tough loss for the Moose last night in Texas as the Stars took it 5-2. So they were looking for the split as a measure of positive to this five-game road trip.

Lineup news:

Still no Chaz Lucius which isn’t a surprise given he didn’t skate on Wednesday before the team left and it wasn’t certain he’d be making the trip. Jaret Anderson-Dolan was set to make his debut for the Moose after suffering a broken foot during Jets training camp. Daniel Torgersson came back in after missing yesterday’s game while Henri Nikkanen and Mark Liwiski came out. On the backend it was Dylan Anhorn returning to the lineup for Dmitry Kuzmin. And Thomas Milic was in net.

Moose lineup:

Suess-Toninato-Ford
JAD-Lambert-Chibrikov
Shaw-King-AJF
Torgersson-Conley-Empey

Sautner – Salomonsson
Anhorn – Bauer
Barteaux – Lundmark

Milic

Notable:

After not looking very good last night it was the opposite for Manitoba to start this one as they were engaged and moving well in the opening 20 minutes. They got the game going when Parker Ford scored on the power play tipping home an Elias Salomonsson point shot. Brad Lambert picked up the secondary assist.

And unlike yesterday when they gave up a quick goal it was the Moose who got a quick strike. Just 17 seconds after the opening goal of the game Ben King took advantage of an odd bounce to make it a 2-0 game for the visitors which is how the 1st period would end.

Manitoba was the much stronger team in the middle frame but Texas goalie Magnus Hellberg was excellent making 16 saves in the period. The Stars benefited from that as they got within one with 90 seconds left in the 2nd as Antonio Stranges shot through a screen and beat Thomas Milic upstairs.

The home team tied up the game 6:05 into the 3rd and then got the backbreaking go-ahead goal with 3:23 left to go. They’d add two empty netters to match the score from last night’s game.

The Moose lost Ashton Sautner in the 1st and Kevin Conley in the 2nd.

With the loss Manitoba falls to 3-7-0-0 on the season.

Multi-point game:

None

Highlights:

Post-game interviews:

Up next:

The Moose road trip will continue in Milwaukee where they will take on the Admirals on Wednesday 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.