Manitoba Moose

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Moose man up, win the West

Stellar regular season ends right way in Cleveland

By: Gary Lawless

12/04/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

CLEVELAND -- After a couple of weeks of looking more like a team of late-night Highlander scrubs, the Manitoba Moose finally slipped back into their capes and tights to take on the super-hero qualities that have made them one of the AHL's best teams all season.

It was the last night of the regular season and, after four straight losses, the Moose needed to get their house in order. They did with a 4-1 win over the Lake Erie Monsters before an announced house of 17,627 at Quicken Loans Arena.

The win allowed the Moose to capture the Western Conference to go along with the North Division banner they've owned for a few days now.

"I just told the players to be awfully proud. We started back in October and played 80 hockey games and won 50 of them," said Moose coach Scott Arniel, who stepped off the ice with a smile for the first time in two weeks.

"There have been lots of good things that have happened to individuals and also as a group. I talked to them a little bit of how the last couple of weeks have been a bit of a downer, but we can't let that keep us down going into the playoffs."

The club could still lay claim to the AHL overall title if the Hershey Bears lose in their last game of the season today. Manitoba finishes with a 50-23-1-6 mark for 107 points and left the rink in first place Saturday night. The Bears, however, have 106 points and one game to go. At stake is home-ice advantage throughout the post-season.

Manitoba did the little things and the big things correctly Saturday, taking a 3-0 lead on goals by Taylor Ellington, Nolan Baumgartner and Michael Grabner. The largest crowd in the AHL this season refused to give up on their club and roared well into the third period, but were rewarded with only one goal for their participation.

The conference title was the first in Moose history, as were the 50 wins.

Arniel felt his team started to look like itself on Friday night in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Toronto Marlies, who the Moose will face in the opening round of the playoffs, and finished the makeover on Saturday.

"I thought we were better on Friday and we built on that in this game," said Arniel, who admitted he'd do a little scoreboard-watching today to see if his team ends up with the AHL regular-season crown. "I told them after the first game on this road trip that we're a stingy team and we can't give up a lot defensively if we want to win in the playoffs. That's playoff hockey and we got close to it in this game."

The Moose will take today off to return to Winnipeg and then get back to practice on Monday.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca

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Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 12, 2009 C1

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