Mighty Manitoba Moose charge to top of AHL standings

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/11/2017 (2928 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba Moose are in rarefied air these days, looking down at the rest of their American Hockey League competitors from their perch on top of the standings.

Winners of seven straight — and 11 of their past 12 — the Moose are off to a dynamic 15-5-2 start. Those 32 points put them nine clear of the next-best team in the Central Division and has the team tied with the Toronto Marlies for the AHL lead.

They’ve accomplished all this despite playing 14 of their first 22 games on the road.

Manitoba will look to continue their winning ways when they kick off a four-game homestand tonight at Bell MTS Place by hosting the Cleveland Monsters.

It’s been quite the turnaround for a franchise that has floundered since returning to Winnipeg in 2015, missing the playoffs by a mile in their first two seasons. The Moose went 26-41-9 in their first season back, which was the third-worst record in the AHL. Last season they improved slightly to 29-37-10, which was the sixth-worst record overall.

Combine the Moose mark this season with the impressive 15-6-3 record the Winnipeg Jets had entering their game in Colorado Wednesday night, and you have a combined 30-11-5 record for the two pro hockey teams operating in the city.

What’s changed?

In a nutshell, the draft-and-development model Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Chevelydayoff and Moose GM Craig Heisinger have been preaching about for years is finally starting to pay off.

This Moose team is succeeding almost entirely from the play of promising prospects within their organization, a list that has gone from threadbare to deep.

This is not a case of being led by career AHL stars or veteran NHL players signed to prop up their roster. That was how the first version of the Moose enjoyed so much success. After filling the void left by the Jets’ departure to Phoenix in 1996, the Moose eventually became the farm club of the Vancouver Canucks. While there were certainly some strong prospects to play in these parts over the season, the organization would often go out and sign big names with the goal of being as competitive as possible.

It worked. For years the Moose were a perpetual AHL powerhouse, seemingly icing a championship contender every season.

The Moose were sent packing to St. John’s when the NHL returned to Winnipeg in 2011, only to return following four years on the East Coast. Cheveldayoff and Heisinger made it clear from day one they intended to use the farm to groom the next generation of NHL players, even if it meant some growing pains.

As a result, Moose fans hoping to see the same kind of success they had come to expect were in for disappointment — until now.

In their most recent victory, an 8-1 thrashing of the Rockford IceHogs on Tuesday night in Illinois to cap off a perfect three-game road trip, the Moose had scoring contributions from nearly the entire roster. It was the first time the franchise had scored that many goals in a game since 2007.

J.C. Lipon had a hat trick. Brendan Lemieux had a goal and two assists. Nic Petan, Mason Appleton and Patrice Cormier each had a goal and an assist. Jack Roslovic, Chase De Leo and Cameron Schilling had two assists, and goalie Michael Hutchinson stopped 47 of 48 shots he faced.

Roslovic is the offensive leader of this team with 11 goals and 13 assists through 22 games in just his second year of pro hockey. He’s currently third in the AHL in scoring.

Appleton has perhaps been the biggest surprise, as his seven goals and 12 assists put him in a tie for 11th in league scoring and third-best among rookies.

July 1 depth signings Michael Sgarbossa (8G, 13A) and Buddy Robinson (8G, 7A), the continued improvement of young players such as Lemieux (6G, 8A in just 14 games), Lipon (7G, 8A) and De Leo (4G, 8A), and solid starts from rookies Jansen Harkins (2G, 3A) and Michael Spacek (1G, 4A) have given head coach Pascal Vincent the ability to put together four strong lines every game.

Goaltending has also been tremendous. Hutchinson is 7-1-1 in nine starts with a 2.00 goals-against average and .945 save percentage that puts him along the league’s best in both categories. Eric Comrie, currently on recall with the Jets in place of the injured Steve Mason, is 8-4-1 with a 2.30 GAA and .927 SV%.

On the blue line, the July 1 depth signing of Schilling (2G, 15A, second-best among all defencemen in the league), the emergence of rookie Sami Niku (2G, 10A) and the continued development of Winnipegger Peter Stoykewych (3G, 9A) have turned what had been a weakness into a strength. Tucker Poolman, currently on recall with the Jets, has also been a force in his limited time.

There’s still more than two-thirds of the season left to play, so much could still change. Both the Jets and the Moose have enjoyed relative good health this season, and a change in that could certainly impact the fortunes on the farm.

But there’s no denying the organization certainly seems headed in the right direction, and the result is pretty heady days for fans of pro hockey in Winnipeg right now.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @mikemcintyrewpg