Manitoba Moose will be without Mason Appleton for Game 3 of Round 1

At the midway point of the 2nd period on Sunday in game 2 with the visitors up 4-1 Moose forward Mason Appleton was in the Grand Rapids zone when he was on the receiving end of a check to the head by Griffins forward Colin Campbell.  Appleton stayed down for a few moments before he eventually got up and skated to the Manitoba bench under his own power.  The refs called it a checking to the head penalty on Campbell and he was only given a two minute penalty.

The play occurred right in front of my seat in the press box and at the time I said this:

Appleton played the rest of the game which devolved as you might expect with emotions high and a big scoring disparity into plenty of shenanigans in the 3rd period.  Moose forward Buddy Robinson took out Axel Holmstrom on a play I didn’t really see clearly.  Holmstrom was really wobbly and left the game with help from the Grand Rapids trainers.   Robinson was given a five minute major and a game misconduct.  The league ruled on both plays on Monday giving Campbell a game for the play on Appleton while Robinson was given a two-game suspension.

The news gets worse for Manitoba who are in tough against a veteran Griffins team tonight in game 3 as voice of the Moose Mitch Peacock indicated (around the :40 second mark) in his preview today that Mason Appleton didn’t make the trip to Michigan as he is still being evaluated back in Winnipeg.  Appleton is the leading scorer for Manitoba during the regular season and a big part of their power play.

Puck drop between the Moose and Griffins is at 6 pm CT.  Voice of the Moose Mitch Peacock will have the call which you can listen to on TSN 1290 Winnipeg or on Moose Listen Live.

As always stay tuned for the latest Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose news by keeping it locked to our web site  illegalcurve.com and on social media including Twitter | Facebook | Instagram.  You can also follow me on twitter as well (@icdave).