The Moose and Stars re-match was an important one as if Manitoba won they’d be able to stop the Texas win streak (six straight wins) and prevent them leapfrogging the team from up north in the Central Division. While they have three games in hand would be advisable to try to arrest their progress.
Lineup news:
Only changes were Jacob Julien came out and Fabian Wagner came in and they swapped goalies with Thomas Milic starting and Domenic DiVincentiis was backing up. They also swapped JAD with Samuel Fagemo. Also Walker Duehr missed his fifth straight game with a LBI.
Moose lineup:
Shaw – Gustafsson- Chibrikov
Lambert – Ford – Di Giuseppe
Barlow – Zhilkin –JAD
Wagner– Yager – Fagemo
Heinola – Salomonsson
Phillips– Clague
Sautner – Bauer
Milic
Notable:
It was a much more disciplined game for both teams but especially so for the visitors which is a good thing, even if they do have one of the best penalty kills on the road in the entire AHL.
Coming into the game, as per play-by-play voice Daniel Fink, the Moose were 9-2-2 in the back half of these two-game sets.
Jets goalie prospect and Moose All-Star Thomas Milic came up with a big stop early in the 1st.
Moose thought they had scored just passed the 7:30 mark of the opening period but the ref blew whistle so no dice. I’ve watched replay a few times and I have no clue how puck came loose as it looked like it was totally covered by Stars goalie Rémi Poirier.
In tight games being attentive to the details matters and a loss of possession by the Moose results in the Stars opening the scoring in the game with this nifty tic-tac-toe play.
Another save by Milic as he anticipated the pass across to stop the back door chance for the Stars.
The Moose outshoot the Stars 16-8 in first 20 minutes but it’s Texas who holds a 1-0 lead on Manitoba. While the home team have mustered just eight shots they all seemed to be of a high quality. Milic has been very good so far.
It felt like Jets prospect Brad Lambert could have had three or four goals already this weekend in Texas. His sixth of the season tied the game in the middle frame for the Moose as he chips this one home. Gives him three goals in his last seven contests.
The captain, Mason Shaw added to his team-leading goal total with his 14th of the season snapping a shot into the back of the net as the middle frame wound down. Gives him a seven-game points streak. Moose dominated 2nd period outshooting Stars 11-4 while scoring twice to take a 2-1 lead into the 3rd.
Things started to unravel for the Moose in the 3rd as the Stars tied the game on this miscue by Thomas Milic.
And just like that a tie game becomes a two goal deficit for the Moose as the Stars score off point shots tipped home with traffic in front to make it a 4-2 lead.
Mason Shaw would bring his team within one as he scored his 15th of the season after the puck double doinked off a pair of players and landed perfect in front of him. Gives him 15 goals in 41 games (he had 17 in 72 contests in his first season with Manitoba).
Moose had a chance but David Gustafsson could not get in front of the blast from his countryman Elias Salomonsson as they fought to tie the game.
Texas sweeps Manitoba in this two-game set winning 2-1 on Friday and 4-3 this evening and leapfrogs them into 3rd spot in the Central (Manitoba does have three games in hand).
Multi-point game:
Mason Shaw 2G
David Gustafsson 2A
Elias Salomonsson 2A
Highlights:
Player media:
Up next:
The team will head off for a few days as it is the AHL All-Star break which goes from Sunday until Thursday.
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