Illegal Curve Hockey

Stars use power play to clinch a playoff spot in 4-2 win over the Moose

Photo Credit: Jonathan Kozub/Manitoba Moose

The Moose ended the road portion of their regular season this weekend with a split, losing in Rockford on Friday but winning in Milwaukee on Saturday afternoon. By the time they got home later that night it was established that they had secured the 2nd spot in the Central Division. Who they play is still yet to be determined as they might play either the Admirals or the IceHogs.

This is an important game for the Stars who can, with a single point, clinch the fifth and final spot in the Central Division playoffs which would put them into a best of three series with either of the aforementioned Admirals or IceHogs finish in fourth.

Lineup changes:

Where to start? This column is usually a line or two. I was at ice level as we didn’t have a photog this evening so I was grabbing some shots of Daniel Torgersson, Henri Nikkanen and Wyatt Bongiovanni and only noticed that Arvid Holm led the team out with Evan Cormier backing him up which meant no Mikhail Berdin and that David Gustafsson wasn’t on the ice. It turned out it was a lot more than just those two.

The list included: Cole Maier, Nicholas Jones, Jeff Malott, CJ Suess, David Gustafsson, Johnny Kovacevic, Jimmy Oligny, Mikhail Berdin, as well as Greg Meireles and Austin Poganski.

Moose lineup:

Vesalainen – Reichel – Eyssimont
Polei – Nikkanen – Johnson
Torgersson – Hutchinson – Lynch
Caron – Bongiovanni -Egle

Heinola – Stewart
Chisholm – Gawanke
Phillips – Lundmark

Holm
Cormier

Notable:

Just ten seconds into the game the Moose lost Kristian Reichel after he took this hit.

There was a welcome to Winnipeg moment for Daniel Torgersson as the Jets 2020 2nd rounder scored his first AHL goal in just his second game with Manitoba.

Penalties were disproportionally called against the Moose. At one point it was 7-0 in terms of power plays for Texas and eventually ended 8-2 for the visitors. They scored three times.

Health updates:

Moose head coach Mark Morrison says that it was mostly maintenance for the guys not in the lineup. Did say that there were guys with some bumps. Said Kristian Reichel is fine. He also added that Greg Meireles is expected to be out for four weeks. And that Austin Poganski skated today.

Player media availability:

Coach media availability:

Game Highlights:

Up Next:

The Moose are scheduled to practice tomorrow as they prepare for their final two-game series of the regular season which gets underway on Thursday when they host the Abbotsford Canucks.

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.