Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
CLUNK... and... CLUNK
Moose wrap up regular-season home schedule with two losses
The Marlies' Todd Perry lowers the boom on Moose forward Michael Grabner. (MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS )
Manitoba’s Alexandre Bolduc busts in all alone only to be stymied by Marlies goalie Justin Pogge Saturday night at the MTS Centre. (MIKE DEAL WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
A generally impressive regular season for the Manitoba Moose ended at home as it started.
With pair of clunkers.
The Moose dropped another regulation decision to the Toronto Marlies, this time 3-2, at MTS Centre. They began the season by dropping a pair to another AHL North Division rival Hamilton, and they were the only times all season the Moose were swept on home ice.
Manitoba fell one win short of equalling the franchise mark at home and will have to settle for a 25-13-0-2 tally.
Saturday, the crowd of 13,043, the 11th lower-bowl-sellout of the season, lifted the Moose average attendance for the season to 7,769, second in the league. It was down 38 fans per game from last season but more than 310,000 spectators watched the regular season here.
What the home folks will see next is not yet determined.
At 49-22-0-6 with three road games left, Manitoba's standing in the division is locked -- first -- but conference and overall seedings are still up in the air.
What is known is that the next action here is likely April 15 and 17, a week from Wednesday and Friday, when the North Division best-of-seven series will open against the fourth-place team, either the Marlies or Syracuse.
The Marlies, by virtue of their sweep here and their fifth straight win over the Moose, are not going to make it easy on Syracuse, whom they lead by a point going to the last three games of the season. Syracuse, however, has by far the smoother schedule and the tie-breaker.
The Moose finish up with three road games this week, in Hamilton, Toronto and Cleveland and will try to improve an already record-setting road record of 24-9-0-4. Those numbers tell you the team has been better away from home.
In both games this weekend, the Moose results on offence were meagre. Offensive anemia, though infrequent, has marked the team's worst patches of the season and not surprisingly, when the Moose score two or less, their record is an unimpressive 7-16-0-6.
Jason Krog's 30th of the season started the home team off on a better note Saturday but that was it for the night until a clever late play by Mark Cullen for a wraparound goal at least made the final 2:40 interesting.
Toronto, however, nullified Manitoba's good start by tying the game in three minutes.
Like Friday, the desperate Marlies were opportunistic, letting soft patches in the Moose defence be their edge. Manitoba starting goalie Curtis Sanford, victimized by three wrist shots in 28
overall shots, lost for only the third time in regulation since he came to the team in January.
After falling behind by two late in the second, the Moose just weren't able to muster any dangerous stretches at all, though they ended up with an improved shot total from Friday, 36 versus 27.
The Marlies, who had lost six of seven coming into this weekend and were the authors of their own predicament with Syracuse, are now 38-29-3-7 with home games left against Rochester, Manitoba and Hamilton.
NOTES: Head coach Scott Arniel returned centre Mario Bliznak, left-winger Pierre-Cedric Labrie and defenceman Daniel Rahimi to the lineup Saturday night...The boo birds came out in the third period when Manitoba's sixth power play of the night failed badly... It ended in the third power-play goose-egg of this final six-game homestand, predictably all of them losses.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 5, 2009 ??65535
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