Manitoba Moose

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Moose add Pettinger, ECHL sensation Sexton

By: Paul Wiecek

25/11/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Matt Pettinger should add fire to an improving offence. (KEN GIGLIOTTI WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

ROCKFORD, Ill. -- The general manager of the Rockford IceHogs, who the Manitoba Moose play tonight, is Hamilton native Mark Bernard, an answer to two hockey trivia questions.

Bernard's 13-year pro career as a minor league goaltender was utterly undistinguished, except for two things:

-- Bernard claims to be one of just three pro hockey goalies to ever score two goals in his career -- Ron Hextall and Martin Brodeur are the others;

-- Bernard set the pro hockey record for most assists in a single game by a goaltender when he recorded -- get this -- four assists on Jan. 30, 1997 while playing net for the Bracknell Bees of the British Ice Hockey Superleague (BISL).

According to a bio of Bernard in the game day publication here, Bernard's stick from that game is on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

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The Moose will have two new offensive threats in their lineup tonight when they take on the IceHogs.

The first will be a familiar face in Matt Pettinger, who scored two goals and two assists in seven games with the Moose before he was called up for a stint with the Vancouver Canucks.

The other is a fresh face to everyone -- 22-year-old Minnesota native Dan Sexton, who will make his Moose debut tonight.

The Moose announced Tuesday that they had signed Sexton, a right-winger who has been lighting up the East Coast Hockey League with 13 goals and 13 assists in just 18 games so far this season with the Bakersfield Condors.

"This kid's pretty good with the puck," said Moose head coach Scott Arniel.

Arniel said that he is "cautiously optimistic" that the addition of Pettinger and Sexton, along with last week's addition of veteran NHL centreman Erik Christensen, has given his club the depth and confidence necessary to put an end to a goal-scoring crisis that at one point not so long ago saw the Moose score just 10 goals in 11 games.

The Moose have had four-goal and five-goal outings in two of their last three games.

"We've been scoring goals of late and guys are feeling good about themselves," said Arniel. "It's not the case anymore where everyone is squeezing the sticks tight."

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Hockey fans in Manitoba will get an Olympic preview of sorts in February when Belarus and Switzerland play a two-game set at the MTS Centre in the lead-up to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

The games will be played Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 11 at 11:30 a.m. The Moose are marketing the second contest as a 'Schools game' that will include complimentary lunch for any school group in attendance.

The Swiss national hockey team is coached by Ralph Krueger of Steinbach.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 25, 2009 C4

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