Illegal Curve Hockey

Marlies take season opener against the Moose 3-2

Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)

The 2021 regular season for the Manitoba Moose got going tonight as they finally got things underway here in Winnipeg as they welcomed the Toronto Marlies to town for four straight games.

Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)

Moose lineup:

McKenzie-Suess-Reichel
Luoto-Graovac-Todd
Michaud-Maier-Jones
Perfetti-Lynch

Heinola-Samberg
Oligny-Gawanke
Chisholm-Kovacevic
Sautnet

Berdin
Silovs

Scoring plays:

What a way to get into your first pro hockey game as Jets 2018 5th rounder Declan Chisholm would score on his very first shot

Which was followed by 2020 1st rounder Cole Perfetti also scoring his first pro goal in his first pro game.

Save of the Year candidate:

Prospect Watch:

Cole Perfetti – Very smart young man whose vision is clear. Hasn’t played a game since the World Juniors but you can see the calculation on the ice. Knows where to be and will be a quick study at this level.

Dylan Samberg – He was playing on the right side, which he indicated post-game he feels comfortable doing. Considering he hasn’t played a game since March of 2020 when he was playing in the NCAA, he looked very good paired up with fellow prospect Ville Heinola.

Ville Heinola – Smooth skating and calm, cool and collected with the puck. The 2019 1st rounder will benefit from playing big minutes in these games.

Declan Chisholm – I joked after his first shift that the Jets 2018 5th rounder was one player to keep an eye on and then nine minutes later he scored his first pro goal in his first pro game. Calm with the puck in his end he consistently made a good first pass.

Johhny Kovacevic – When I spoke with him in December it was evident that the second year pro was champing at the bit to get back on the ice and the Jets 2017 3rd rounder made a nice play setting up the Chisholm goal and looked good considering he hasn’t played a pro game since March of last year.

Leon Gawanke – Another second year pro for the Moose is Jets 2017 5th rounder who was playing in the German DEL before returning to Canada to quarantine ahead of the AHL season. He was last year’s points leader for Dmen on Manitoba and you could see flashes of that game from him tonight. And he even added some pugilism mixing it up in the 3rd period.

Post-game interviews:

Coach availability:

Up Next:

The Moose and Marlies will be right back at it tomorrow 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.