WINNIPEG – It took a little longer than expected but the Manitoba Moose finally have their first winning streak of the season. The Moose scored two third period goals to comeback to defeat the San Antonio Rampage 3-2 on Thursday at MTS Centre. It was the seventh straight loss for the Rampage while the Moose are finally finding their stride as they now have points in four consecutive games.
“I think we’re just getting better.” Moose head coach Keith McCambridge said. “You can’t put a value on experience and experience comes through playing games, playing minutes, playing in different situations for first year players. As as group or as a whole, we’re definitely improving.”
The Moose received goals from Patrice Cormier, John Albert and Ryan Olsen. Eric Comrie made 30 saves and the powerplay continues to improve as the Moose went 2/5 with the man advantage. They trailed after two periods but scored goals less than a minute apart in the final frame for the win.
“We had a bad second tonight and our coach kinda gave it to us a bit.” Olsen said. “We woke up. It wasn’t a pretty win but a sign of a good team is finding ways to win and that’s what we did tonight.”
Playing each other for the second straight night led to some tension off the start of the game. Darren Kramer and Mason Geertsen dropped the gloves just three minutes into the contest. Then Jay Harrison and Daniel Maggio chucked the knuckles midway through the opening period.
The Moose found themselves down two men in the late stages of the first and on the 5-on-3 Mikko Rantanen buried a one timer top shelf on Comrie. His 10th goal of the season gave the Rampage a one goal lead through one period.
The Moose failed to capitalize on several strong scoring chances to open the middle frame. Then the Rampage added another powerplay goal midway through the period. Nikita Zadarov from the blueline, with a low hard shot through a crowd for his fifth goal of the season.
With just 1:21 left in the period the Moose cut the lead in half. Brenden Kichton’s point shot was tipped in by Cormier parked out front. Cormier’s fourth goal of the season was a powerplay tally. Adam Lowry had the other assist and it was 2-1 after 40 minutes.
The Moose went back to work on the man advantage in the third and with 13:11 to play John Albert’s long shot from the boards beat Winnipeg’s Calvin Pickard. His fourth goal of the season tied the game at two.
Just 42 seconds later the Moose raced in on a 2-on-1 and Scott Kosmachuk sent a pretty pass across and Olsen deposited the puck into the wide open side. Olsen’s third of the campaign gave the Moose their first lead of the game and they hung on the rest of the way for a 3-2 victory.
“Coming out we knew they were a vulnerable team having lost six in a row I think.” Kichton said. “And we just jumped on it and got two goals and got the win. That was huge for our team.”
Kichton had two assists against the Rampage to give him a team leading 15 points on the season. Harrison left the game after two periods with an undisclosed injury. There were a total of 76 minutes in penalties assessed including eight fighting majors. The paid attendance was 5,742.
The Moose were without forwards Joel Armia and Matt Halischuk who were both called up by the Jets earlier on Thursday.
Manitoba has two more games before a nine day holiday break. They’re both on the road as they take on the Milwaukee Admirals on Saturday, followed by a trip to the Windy City to meet the Wolves on Monday. The Moose are then off until New Year’s Eve when they host the Iowa Wild.
WATCH: Manitoba Moose head coach Keith McCambridge and players discuss their win over San Antonio
Comments