WINNIPEG – The Manitoba Moose remain winless following a 1-0 defeat to the Ontario Reign at MTS Centre on Saturday night. The loss is Manitoba’s second in a row to the defending American Hockey League champions.
Reign rookie Valentin Zykov scored the game’s only goal with eight seconds left to play in overtime. The forward redirected a Kris Newbury feed past Moose goalie Connor Hellebuyck with Joel Armia in the penalty box serving a two-minute minor for tripping. With the loss, Manitoba falls to 0-2-2 on the yet young season.
“When you look at this contest, I thought we improved on a lot of areas,” said Moose head coach Keith McCambridge. “Our structure was better. We were more aggressive on pucks. There’s obviously some work that still needs to go into getting to the level the Ontario team is at. When I compare (this game to Thursday’s loss), there’s lots of positives to build off in tonight’s game.”
WATCH: Manitoba Moose react to overtime loss against Ontario Reign
Manitoba though didn’t go down without a fight as Hellebuyck made 44 saves in the defeat. The Moose never cracked double digits in a period when it comes to shots, finishing with a total of 20.
“We expect big things out of Connor every night,” said Moose forward Ryan Olsen. “He shows us every single game. But we have to help him out. We owe him a couple of wins.”
The Moose continue their four-game homestand on Thursday with the first of two against the Lake Erie Monsters.
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