Moose Update For The Week Of 04/11/10 – 04/17/10

After a grinding 80-game schedule that saw them finish fourth in the North Division, the Manitoba Moose started off their playoff run against the Hamilton Bulldogs. Find out how they did in this Moose update for the week of April 4, 2010 to April 10, 2010. For those looking for a more statistical look at how the Moose did during the past week, please visit that version of this report at Hockey’s Future Vancouver Canucks message board.
_________________________

The Week That Was

After failing to overtake the Abbotsford Heat for third place in the North Division, the Manitoba Moose travelled to Hamilton, Ontario to take on the Montréal Canadiens AHL affiliate, the Hamilton Bulldogs. The Bulldogs finished the 2009-10 season with the best record in the Western Conference, and second-best record in the entire AHL (52-17-3-8, 115 points). The Moose, meanwhile, finished 20 points and three places below where they did last season in the North Division, picking up a 40-33-5-2 record for 87 points. On paper, the series looked like a huge mismatch, though the Moose and Bulldogs did finish with similar 4-3-1-0 records against each other during the regular season.

The first game between the two teams took place on Thursday, with Hamilton opening up an early 1-0 lead on the Moose on a Mike Glumac slap shot just above the right faceoff circle. The Moose had a few chances to tie the game up at one, including a Yan Stastny breakaway shot that went off the post partway through the game. Early in the third period, Ryan Russell took a pass from Ryan White and fired a Howitzer past Cory Schneider to put the Bulldogs ahead 2-0. The Moose couldn’t muster any offence the rest of the way, and Cedric Desjardins made 21 saves for the shutout.

While the Manitoba Moose put in a decent effort against the Bulldogs on Thursday, they did anything but that against Hamilton on Saturday afternoon. David Desharnais and Mario Bliznak traded goals in the first period of the weekend game, then the floodgates opened in the second. In total, the Bulldogs scored five unanswered goals in the middle frame, including two on the power play. The fourth of those five goals, scored by Brandon, Manitoba native Brock Trotter, forced Moose head coach Scott Arniel to pull Cory Schneider from net. Manitoba was able to score a goal in the first minute of the third, with Dan Sexton picking up his first goal of the playoffs to make it 6-2 Hamilton. There was no stopping the bleeding though, as J.T. Wyman (on a penalty shot while his team was shorthanded) and Alex Henry (on the power play) added markers to throttle the Moose 8-2, and go ahead 2-0 in the North Division Semifinal. Hamilton went 4-for-8 (50%) on the power play on Saturday, after failing to convert on their seven chances on Thursday.

If history is any indication as to how the Moose will do after losing their first two games of a series, then things don’t look good as the Moose and Bulldogs travel to Winnipeg. Only once in five opportunities have the Moose came back from being down 2-0 in a series, defeating the Syracuse Crunch 4-2 in the 2005-06 North Division Semifinal. Interestingly enough, the Moose lost to the Bulldogs 4-2 in a similar scenario in 2006-07.

The Lines

The Manitoba Moose opened up their playoff run with the following lineup on Thursday.

Sergei Shirokov      -      Marco Rosa      -           Dan Sexton
Peter Olvecky        -   Jordan Schroeder   -   Guillaume Desbiens
Aaron Volpatti       -     Yan Stastny      -           Mike Keane
Dusty Collins        -    Mario Bliznak     -        Tommy Maxwell

           Lawrence Nycholat    -        Travis Ramsey
           Brian Salcido        -           Matt Clark
           Evan Oberg           -           Tom Galvin

                          Cory Schneider
                         Daren Machesney

Moose head coach Scott Arniel went with the same lineup for Game 2 of the North Division Semifinal against Hamilton.

Sergei Shirokov      -      Marco Rosa      -           Dan Sexton
Peter Olvecky        -   Jordan Schroeder   -   Guillaume Desbiens
Aaron Volpatti       -     Yan Stastny      -           Mike Keane
Dusty Collins        -    Mario Bliznak     -        Tommy Maxwell

           Lawrence Nycholat    -        Travis Ramsey
           Brian Salcido        -           Matt Clark
           Evan Oberg           -           Tom Galvin

                          Cory Schneider
                         Daren Machesney

Who’s Hot

Prior to getting lit up by the Bulldogs on Saturday, goaltender Cory Schneider had gone 7-3-0-1 in his previous 11 starts, with a 1.76 goals-against average, a 0.944 save percentage, and one shutout.

Third/fourth line forward Mario Bliznak has picked up eight points (6-2-8) in his last ten games.

Who’s Not

Forward Sergei Shirokov has picked up two points (1-1-2) in his last seven games, and four points (1-3-4) in his last 13 games.

Forward Marco Rosa has picked up two points (0-2-2) in his last seven games.

Who’s Up

With defenceman Evan Oberg getting sent back down, four players who started the season with the Manitoba Moose are currently up with the parent Vancouver Canucks.

None of the four players have so far played a significant role in Vancouver’s first round matchup against the Los Angeles Kings. Forward Matt Pettinger saw 4:12 of ice time in Game 1 of the Vancouver – Los Angeles series, going pointless. Forward Michael Grabner took Pettinger’s spot in Game 2 of the series, taking one shot in 2:53 minutes of work.

Defenceman Nolan Baumgartner sat out the first two games of the series. The only other player of the foursome, forward Alexandre Bolduc, continues to sit out with a shoulder injury he suffered in a fight against John Scott of the Minnesota Wild on January 13, 2010.

During the 2009-10 regular season, eight Moose players missed a total of 156 games while on recall to the parent Vancouver Canucks. This does not include games by Jannik Hansen (74 games), Aaron Rome (72 games), Mathieu Schneider (39 games), Brad Lukowich (29 games), or Sergei Shirokov (3 games), who all started the season with the Canucks.

Alexandre Bolduc	63 games
Michael Grabner		41 games
Nolan Baumgartner       28 games
Matt Pettinger		11 games
Cory Schneider		 7 games
Mario Bliznak		 3 games
Evan Oberg               2 games
Guillaume Desbiens	 1 game

During the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs, four Moose players missed a total of eight games while on recall to the parent Vancouver Canucks.

Nolan Baumgartner        2 games
Alexandre Bolduc	 2 games
Michael Grabner		 2 games
Matt Pettinger		 2 games

Who’s Down

One player who started his season with the Vancouver Canucks currently suits up for the Manitoba Moose.

Forward Sergei Shirokov had two penalty minutes and three shots on net in Manitoba’s 2-0 loss to Hamilton on Thursday. He followed that up with getting no points on one shot in the 8-2 demolition of the Moose by the Bulldogs.

Who’s Hurt

Five players have their names on Manitoba’s injured list as their playoff run started, while two others came back into the lineup after sitting out multiple games with different injuries.

Defenceman Taylor Ellington (leg; missed two games) is currently out day-to-day with an injury he suffered in the final game of the regular season.

There’s still no timetable for the return of defenceman Geoff Waugh (concussion; missed ten games) to the Moose lineup.

Defenceman Nathan McIver (hand; missed 13 games) will miss at least the first round of the playoffs with his third broken hand of the 2009-10 season.

Defenceman Michael Funk (concussion; missed 50 games) has not played a game since getting hurt on November 7, 2009 in a game against the Texas Stars. He will not return to play for the Moose this season, and may see his career end with his fourth concussion in 1 1/2 years.

The other player who will not play for the Moose this season is defenceman Brad Lukowich (shoulder; missed 14 games games). Instead of joining the Moose after clearing waivers just before the NHL Trade Deadline, Lukowich elected to have season-ending surgery.

On the plus side, forward Peter Olvecky (upper body; missed two games) and defenceman Lawrence Nycholat (back; missed eight games) found their way back into the Moose’s lineup as the playoffs started.

During the 2009-10 regular season, 21 Moose players missed a total of 324 games due to injury or illness. These totals do not include any games a player may have missed while they were injured as a member of the Vancouver Canucks or Anaheim Ducks (in the latter case, for those players who are Ducks property), but does include Brad Lukowich’s games, as he’s officially a member of the Manitoba Moose, despite not playing any games for them this season.

Michael Funk		61 games
Nathan McIver           35 games
Geoff Waugh             30 games
Brad Lukowich           14 games
Guillaume Desbiens	12 games
Tommy Maxwell            7 games
Brian Salcido		 7 games
Peter Olvecky            6 games
Marty Murray             5 games
Matt Pettinger           5 games
Daren Machesney          4 games
Alexandre Bolduc	 3 games
Eric Walsky		 2 games
Mario Bliznak		 1 game
Taylor Ellington         1 game

During the 2009-10 Calder Cup playoffs, five players have missed a total of ten games due to injury or illness. These totals do not include any games a player may have missed while they were injured as a member of the Vancouver Canucks or Anaheim Ducks (in the latter case, for those players who are Ducks property), but does include Brad Lukowich’s games, as he’s officially a member of the Manitoba Moose, despite not playing any games for them this season.

Taylor Ellington         2 games
Michael Funk		 2 games
Brad Lukowich            2 games
Nathan McIver            2 games
Geoff Waugh              2 games

Hey, I Remember You!

The only member of the Hamilton Bulldogs who played for the Canucks and Moose is goaltender Curtis Sanford. Unfortunately for Sanford, he suffered an ankle injury late in the regular season and will miss the first round at minimum.

The Week Ahead

The Manitoba Moose continue their Calder Cup run at home at the MTS Centre against the Hamilton Bulldogs. Game 3 takes places on Monday at 7:30 p.m. CT, game 4 will be played on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. CT, and in the event the Moose win one of those games, game 5 will be played at 7:30 p.m. CT on Friday.

Anyone who wants to follow the games can listen to them for free on Winnipeg radio station CJOB 68, on Vancouver radio station Team 1410, or you can pay a fee to watch the games through AHL Live.
_________________________

That’s it for another edition of the Moose update on The Mattress Line. As always, if you have any suggestions on what I can do to make this better, just let me know in the comments section on this post, or mention it in the relevant thread on The Mattress Line section of The Breakaway Forums.

Advertisement