Moose trio turning into deadly combination

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This article was published 22/02/2021 (1685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Pascal Vincent played a hunch in training camp, combining young left-winger Bobby Lynch on a line with well-travelled centre Tyler Graovac and veteran right-winger Nathan Todd.

Lo and behold, it appears the head coach of the Manitoba Moose may have struck gold.

The trio, intact for the last three games of a four-game AHL season-opening homestand, combined for 12 points and half of the club’s 10 goals.

Vincent was intrigued with the idea of putting Graovac’s experience, Lynch’s speed and Todd’s goal-scoring savvy together and now they sit first, second and third in team scoring, respectively.

Vincent liked the unit’s chemistry enough that he plans to use it to start Monday’s road opener in Montreal against the Laval Rocket.

“There’s a different mix of skills that can work really well if they play with some confidence and then they create some chemistry over time,” said Vincent following Sunday practice. “And the last two games I thought they were our more creative (line) and they produced a few goals but they were also reliable defensively.”

Manitoba went 2-2-0 against Toronto and is tied for second with the Marlies in the AHL’s Canadian Division, two points behind the 3-1-0 Rocket.

The 27-year-old Graovac has a goal and four assists. His presence has been a catalyst for his two undrafted wingers.

“I was with Gravy a little bit there (in training camp) and he’s a veteran in the league so you know it’s easy to watch and learn from him,” said Todd, who has two goals. “So I’m not too surprised about that with him in the middle and… Bobby came in, he’s got a ton of speed and he’s been using it for the last four games… I’m happy, we’re getting opportunities, we’re getting chances and we’re putting the puck in the net.”

With 70 NHL games on his resume, Graovac playing rights do not belong to the parent Winnipeg Jets. He was loaned to the Moose by the Vancouver Canucks’ farm team in Utica, N.Y., to make him more readily available for recall to the NHL under current quarantine rules.

Lynch, 22, said it helps that all three players are operating on a similar wavelength.

“I think we see the game pretty similar,” said Lynch, who has two goals and four points. “We’re always talking on the bench — just where we are on the ice and little things we can do to change. And those those end up carrying over to the following shifts and we’re capitalizing on those changes.”

Graovac, Lynch and Todd will need to be in top form against the bruising Rocket lineup.

“I think it’s going to be way more physical,” said Vincent. “And there’s going to be a way more battles along the boards. Against the Marlies, it’s more about neutral zone regroup and building speed and a lot of motion in the offensive zone.”

Vincent was impressed with the progress his young players made last week and he was overjoyed with the performance of third-year pro Mikhail Berdin, who stopped 141 of 153 shots fired his way in the opening four games.

Just don’t expect reserve goaltenders Arturs Silovs, also on loan from Utica, and Cole Kehler to see the ice anytime soon.

“The plan is to play him as much as we can,” said Vincent of Berdin, who has a 3.02 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage. “We’ll speak to him on a daily basis and re-evaluate every single day, what the plan is for the following day but the plan is… to play our young guys and to make sure that those guys see different situations, that they play games.”

The Moose will follow Monday’s outing against Laval with games Wednesday (6 p.m.), Friday (6 p.m.) and Saturday (3 p.m.). The rest of the schedule for Canadian Division has not been released.

BLUE-LINES: Moose defenceman Johnathan Kovacevic returns to the lineup after serving a two-game suspension for a cross-check in Game 2 of the opening series with the Marlies. Kovacevic was not originally penalized during the game… Manitoba signed defenceman Adam Brubacher to a professional tryout Saturday. Brubacher will go into quarantine with forwards Kamerin Nault and Peter Krieger, who recently signed professional tryouts. That brings the club’s roster number to 32.

 

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14