Manitoba product Jermaine Loewen leads Wolves to 4-2 win over the Moose

The Moose came into action sporting a 13-12-0-0 record.  They had been on quite the run at home and last night’s 3-1 win over the Wolves was their seventh straight at Bell MTS Place.

Only lineup changes were Griffen Outhouse made his first start in Winnipeg and Kristian Reichel would be back in the lineup after being out with injury since game four of the season.

Moose lineup:

Chibisov-Harkins-Griffith
Vesalainen-Spacek-Lipon
McKenzie-Suess-Poirier
Fejes-Maier-Reichel

Stanley-Nogier
Oligny-Nogier
Schilling-Gawanke

Outhouse
Berdin

Gameplay:

The Moose opened the scoring when Kristian Reichel turned and fired a harmless looking shot from the Wolves blueline but it beat a screened Oscar Dansk to open the scoring.  It was his first goal of the season.  It looked like Manitoba was going to be able to escape the first period with a lead despite being outshot 13-6 but the 14th and 15th shots of the opening frame by Chicago beat Griffen Outhouse to give the visitors a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.

In the 1st intermission the Moose held their annual Teddy Bear toss and lots of of bears were tossed that will go to kids courtesy of the generosity of Manitobans and distributed by the Christmas Cheer Board.

The Wolves would add a goal in the 2nd period when former Brandon Wheat King Reid Duke scored his second goal this weekend against Manitoba to make it 3-1.  About the only other notable thing in the middle frame was Johnathan Kovacevic leaving the game.

With Seth Griffith in the penalty box with a double-minor the Wolves made it 4-1 when Lucas Elvenes popped the water bottle off the Manitoba net.  While JC Lipon would add a late goal it was too little, too late and the Moose would fall 4-2.

The loss dropped them to 13-13-0-0 on the season.

Interesting Story:

Pretty amazing story for Wolves forward (and Manitoban) Jermaine Loewen who scored his first ever AHL goal tonight. He was born in Jamaica, adopted by a couple from Arborg and raised here in Manitoba.

Read his story. It is awesome.

He was the 1st Star of the Game and went out for an extra twirl to the delight of his hometown fans.

Video Interviews:

Health News:

Defenceman Johnathan Kovacevic took a hard hit in the 2nd period. It appeared that his head hit the glass after the hit and he was clearly a bit stunned. He skated back to the bench but spoke to the trainer and left for the room. Coach Vincent didn’t have an update after the game.

Next Up:

The Moose are off on Sunday.  They will likely practice on Monday before they head back out on the road for five games starting with the Stars in Texas on Wednesday.