Moose rebound with 7-2 win over Bulldogs

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Moose #16 Peter Olvecky rams Bulldogs netminder Cedrick Desjardins. Bulldogs #5 Alex Henry is behind. (BORIS.MINKEVICH@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

 WINNIPEG — And in the third game, they rose again from the dead.

Forward Jordan Schroeder scored the first hat trick for a Manitoba Moose player this season and forward Guillaume Desbiens had a goal and three assists as the Manitoba Moose put together a dominating effort in a 7-2 win over the Hamilton Bulldogs before a crowd of 7,546 at MTS Centre Monday night.

The win narrows Hamilton’s series lead to 2-1, with a Game 4 looming at MTS Centre Wednesday night that should be quite an affair if the final five minutes of last night are any indication. Hard feelings, cheap shots, melees and two fights -- both of them won by the Moose -- capped the night.

The seven-goal performance counts as a veritable offensive onslaught for a Moose club that had just two goals in the first two games combined in Hamilton -- a 2-0 loss in Game 1 followed by an 8-2 embarssment in Game 2. It was the first time the Moose have scored seven goals in a game all season.

Schroeder -- who also had an assist for a four-point night -- scored the first hat trick for the Moose since Jason Jaffray scored three against Hershey in last year’s Calder Cup final. Schroeder scored twice -- a gorgeous one-timer from the top of the faceoff circle and then a rebound conversion -- just 2:24 apart in the first period. And then, just 41 seconds after Moose forward Dan Sexton tipped a point shot to make the score 3-0 for the Moose early in the second period, Schroeder scored again, slamming a bouncing puck past Hamilton netminder Cedrick Desjardins.

It was the fourth goal in just eight shots for the Moose at that point and Dogs coach Guy Boucher got out the hook, lifting Desjardins in favour of backup Robert Mayer, who’s second on the Hamilton’s goalie depth chart because of a lingering ankle injury to regular backup Curtis Sanford.

Schroeder -- who was selected 22nd overall by the Vancouver Canucks in the 2009 NHL entry draft -- is generously listed as 5-8 while Sexton is even more generously listed as 5-9.

It took until early in the third period for someone over six-feet to score for the Moose. And it was richly deserved when 6-2, 205-pound Desbiens -- who’d been a dominating physical presence for the Moose much of the night -- got paid off with a short-handed breakaway, going backhand on Mayer to extinguish whatever designs the Bulldogs still had on a comeback.

Yan Stastny, who was the best Manitoba forward through the two losses in Hamilton, got his reward at 14:51 of the third, fanning on a one-timer but still managing to lift the puck over Mayer. Marco Rosa wrapped up the scoring for the Moose with his first of the series at 16:38.

Hamilton’s goals were scored in the second period by Chad Anderson and Ryan White to make the score 4-2 after 40 minutes. But that was as close as Hamilton would get on a night that saw Moose netminder Cory Schneider play his best game of the series so far and the Moose have a huge night on special teams, going 4-8 on the powerplay and 7-8 on the penalty kill.

They also went 2-2 in the ring late in the third as Desbiens scored the knockdown on Hamilton forward Andrew Conboy and then forward Aaron Volpatti beat the daylights out of White, who had moments earlier tried to flatten Moose defenceman Ryan McGinnis with a charge.

Volpatti got called for instigating and may be suspended by the league for Game 4.The Manitoba Moose downed the Hamilton Bulldogs 7-2 at the MTS Centre tonight.
 

A replay of a live blog of the action is below.