Moose red-hot since holidays, but first-half record leaves no room for error

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This article was published 21/01/2019 (2510 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With their season dangerously close to coming off the rails, Manitoba Moose coach Pascal Vincent issued a challenge for all his players as they headed into their holiday break last month.

It appears the message was received, loud and clear.

“I asked them to think about what they do well and what they need to bring back and how they’re going to help our team. I asked them to reflect on the first part of the season. And I believe they did so,” Vincent said Monday following a practice at Bell MTS Place.

His club is suddenly one of the hottest in the AHL, on a 6-0-1 run and 8-2-1 in the 11 games since returning from the break, outscoring opponents 37-22 during that stretch. They’ll look to keep the good play going as they hit the road for six straight games, starting Wednesday night in Grand Rapids.

“We’re playing the right way right now,” said Vincent. “Since Christmas, more than anything else, I feel we have a team that plays for each other. We understand what we have to do.”

The Moose still have plenty of work to do. They were a miserable 11-16-2 through the first 29 games and languishing near the basement of the league standings after dropping five straight heading into Christmas. And while they’ve started to climb out of the deep hole they created, the road ahead is still a long one if they want to make the playoffs.

“We’re like a GPS. We can give the directions to the destination, but they have to drive,” said Vincent.

Goaltending has been key, as No. 1 Eric Comrie has been a brick wall lately and on Monday was named the AHL Player of the Week.

The Moose have also welcomed several injured players back into the lineup, including top-pairing defenceman Tucker Poolman and winger J.C. Lipon, not to mention getting contributions from young players up from the ECHL and on pro tryouts, such as Alexis D’Aoust, Brent Pedersen, Hunter Fejes and Chris Collins, who are making the most of their opportunities.

“I think Christmas break was huge. We got rested, we got bodies back. Just a fresh mindset. It was pretty much a new season for us, coming back,” said forward Seth Griffith, who is second on the team in scoring with six goals and 20 assists in 33 games, including a goal and eight assists during the just-completed six-game home stand, in which the club went 5-0-1.

“It’s just about everybody buying in. It’s starting to show, we’re starting to get the results,” said Griffith, who is one of those players who missed some time with injury.

The Moose still have a half-dozen players on the injured list including forwards C.J. Suess, Ryan White, Nic Kerdiles and Emile Poirier and defencemen Luke Green and Jimmy Oligny. But they appear to now have the depth to still find success.

Defenceman Cam Schilling was called up to the Jets last week for their two-game trip through Nashville and Dallas, then returned to the Moose lineup Sunday afternoon only hours after being sent back down. He had a goal and assist in a 4-2 win over San Antonio.

“I think we were always right there, on the cusp of doing well. I think it took us a little bit longer than normal for the guys to kind of jell, to be able to get their offence going,” said Schilling.

Some of that could be blamed on turnover, which included losing forwards Kristian Vesalainen and Dennis Everberg to Europe early in the year and having top scorer Mason Appleton called up to the Jets, where he’s remained. Schilling, Sami Niku and Nelson Nogier have also seen time with the big club. That’s meant a constant shuffle of new bodies in and out of the lineup.

In fact, Manitoba has already had 40 different players suit up, and it’s barely past the halfway point of the schedule.

“Obviously we have a long way to go still here to be able to be in a playoff spot. But I think it just shows a little bit of optimism that we can win some games here, we can string some games together and go maybe on a run,” said Schilling.

“But at the end of the day it’s going to be about consistency, about night in, night out. We’re not going to be able to take any nights off, because we took too many off earlier in the year. Now it’s time to come to play every game.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg