Monsters no match for mighty Moose

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This article was published 02/12/2017 (2926 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It turns out eight wasn’t enough.

The Manitoba Moose continue to trample the competition, slaying the Cleveland Monsters to the tune of 4-0 Saturday night for their ninth straight victory.

Manitoba improves to 17-5-2 — 13-1-0 over their past 14 — which gives them 36 points. That’s tied with the Toronto Marlies for most in the American Hockey League. They’ve outscored opponents 25-3 during their past five victories.

“This is unbelievable,” said rookie defenceman Sami Niku, who set up a pair of goals in the win.

Defenceman Julian Melchiori opened the scoring just under seven minutes into the game. Mike Sgarbossa won the draw and got the puck back to Melchiori, who ripped a shot that went off the crossbar, hit Cleveland goalie Matiss Kivlenieks in the back and trickled over the goal line.

It was the fourth goal of the season — and second in as many games — for Melchiori, whose previous career high in goals over six pro seasons was three.

“I don’t know if I’m doing anything too differently. I’ve been around for a bit now, kinda figured out when to shoot the puck and when not to,” Melchiori said. He called the team’s start to this season “amazing,” especially since they were far out of the playoff picture in the two years since returning to Winnipeg.

“I think the mood every day coming to the rink is just enjoyable. I’m really excited for what’s going to happen to this team. I think we’ve taken some big strides early on,” Melchiori said.

“You look at our lineup, it’s a deep team, it’s a young team, but we have players right from our first to our fourth line, and to our third pair, that can play every night and contribute.

“It’s really exciting. It’s just good to be here, honestly.”

Jack Roslovic made it 2-0 just over a minute after Melchiori’s tally, tipping home a shot from Niku with the Moose on the power play. It’s the team-leading 13th of the season for Roslovic, the reigning AHL player of the week who has already matched his rookie goal scoring total in just 24 games. He had 13 in 65 games last year.

Roslovic nearly had another later in the period when he hit the post. Patrice Cormier and Cameron Schilling also rang iron in the opening 20 minutes, dominated by the Moose.

Manitoba struck again on the power play in the middle frame, as Nic Petan won a puck battle and fed Michael Spacek, who stepped into a booming slapper that beat Kivlenieks.

It’s the third goal of the year for the rookie.

Cleveland, throttled 7-1 on Thursday night by the Moose, showed some frustration late in the second as Jordan Maletta dropped the gloves with Manitoba’s J.C. Lipon.

But it wasn’t the spark they were looking for.

Petan made it 4-0 midway through the third, deflecting a Niku shot on the power play in a carbon copy of Roslovic’s goal. Petan now has six points in his past two games, with a goal and five helpers.

“He showed up, when he got sent down by the Jets, with the right attitude,” Moose coach Pascal Vincent said. “He’s being rewarded by doing the little things right.”

Manitoba continued to shine on special teams. Not only did it score three times on the power play, but it killed off six penalties on the night, which gives it 29 consecutive kills over the past six games. The Moose have the No. 2 power play and the No. 3 penalty kill in the AHL.

“The kill is good. We don’t like to talk about it too much. We just like to keep going. Every night it’s just a huge staple in our game,” Melchiori said.

Michael Hutchinson, named the AHL goalie of the month in November, won his seventh straight start.

He stopped all 27 shots he faced to record his first shutout of the year and improve to 9-1-1. Hutchinson sports a 1.73 goals-against average and .951 save percentage.

Tough guy Darren Kramer, playing for just the third time all season, drew into the lineup and skated on the fourth line. Rookie forward Jansen Harkins also dressed after being a healthy scratch last game.

Francis Beauvillier and Brody Sutter were relegated to the press box.

“Our offence is coming from all five players on the ice. We’re moving the puck quick, we’re supporting the puck and we communicate well on the ice,” Vincent said.

Manitoba is 7-1-2 on home ice this season. Combined with the 9-2-1 record of the Winnipeg Jets at Bell MTS Place, the city’s two pro hockey teams are 16-3-3 in front of their crowds so far this year.

The Moose don’t play again until next Saturday, when they welcome the Milwaukee Admirals to town for a pair of weekend matinees.

“We really don’t evaluate our team on the final score. We look at the process. There’s a lot of details in our game we can improve. So we’re going to be working on different themes during the week,” Vincent said.

“It’s going to be a good week of keeping our pace, keeping the confidence, but working on skills, our routes and making sure we’re sharp when we play our next game.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg