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Final win loses meaning

By: Paul Wiecek

Posted: 04/11/2010 12:30 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

And in the end, the Manitoba Moose had their first-round playoff opponent decided for them.

While the Moose were caught up in an overtime battle with the Peoria Rivermen at the MTS Centre Saturday night, the Abbotsford Heat were staging a dramatic third-period comeback against the Lake Erie Monsters in Cleveland, locking up third place in the North Division for themselves with a 4-3 shootout victory over the Monsters.

The Heat scored twice in the game’s final three minutes to set up the shootout victory they needed to lock up a first-round playoff date with the second-place Rochester Americans.

That was the first-round opponent the Moose were hoping to play heading into their final game of the regular season Saturday night, which proved to be a 2-1 shootout win over Peoria before a crowd of 12,301.

But the Abbotsford win earlier in the evening made the Moose victory later immaterial to the final standings (although most of the Moose didn’t know that) and Manitoba will instead now have to face the Hamilton Bulldogs juggernaut in the first round, beginning next Thursday in Hamilton.

The Bulldogs finished the season with 115 points, 28 points better than the Moose and best in the entire Western Conference by a full 12 points.

But the good news is the Moose actually fared quite well against Hamilton head-to-head this season, winning the final meeting between the two teams just last week in Hamilton to finish with a winning 4-3-1-0 record.

"We have to play the best sometime, so we might as well start at the top," Moose netminder Cory Schneider said last night.

"We feel like we have a chance for sure," said Moose defenceman Travis Ramsey.

It was a shell of a Moose team that was on the ice against Peoria last night. With defencemen Geoff Waugh, Taylor Ellington and Lawrence Nycholat out with injury and Evan Oberg called up earlier in the day by the Vancouver Canucks, the Moose iced a blue-line that included raw rookies Jordan Hill and Matt Clark, the latter a highly touted Anaheim Ducks 2009 second-rounder signed earlier in the day from the OHL.

Hill had just one pro game on his resumé coming into the night, while Clark was playing in his debut, but the youngsters — particularly Clark — were equal to the task on a night that saw the Moose play much better defensively than they did the previous night in 3-2 victory over Peoria.

Clark had two great scoring chances in overtime and was on the ice in the final minute of overtime.

"He’s a kid Anaheim is very high on," said Moose head coach Scott Arniel. "Randy Carlyle speaks very highly of this kid."

The Moose are also expecting other help before the playoffs begin. Vancouver Canucks 2008 first-rounder Cody Hodgson will arrive in Winnipeg today and Anaheim Ducks winger Dan Sexton — who’s already had two productive stints with the Moose this season — should be in Winnipeg by Monday.

Arniel said the statuses of Ellington and Waugh remain uncertain for the playoffs, but Nycholat will be dressed in Hamilton Thursday night.

With last night’s victory — Schneider made 28 saves, Mario Bliznak scored the equalizer in the third period and Mike Keane scored the shootout winner — the Moose finish the 2009-10 regular season with a record of 40-33-5-2 and 87 points.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

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