Oct.29 Practice Report – Road Effort Lifts Moose
By: CK Nakhwal | Published: October 29th 2018
With the Manitoba Moose in the midst of three games in four days, this was a day of recovery in Milwaukee.
The Winnipeg Jets AHL affiliate's staff held one-on-one meetings with players, and an optional skate at the home of the Admirals, ahead of tomorrow’s rematch with the Nashville Predators affiliate (6:45 p.m. CT - TSN 1290, moosehockey.com/listenlive and the Moose App).
Nine skaters took to the ice in total, including all of the players scratched Sunday, and the two netminders.
The lighter day came on the heels of what may have seemed like a run of the mill early season matinee to some, but yesterday’s visit to Rockford was something much bigger than that for the Manitoba Moose.
The Jets American Hockey League affiliate was determined to snap an 0-3-0-0 start to its away schedule, and did so with a hard fought 2-1 shootout win Sunday at BMO Harris Bank Center.
Rookie goalie Mikhail Berdin led the way in his first AHL start with 35 saves through overtime before adding three more in the penalty shot decider. The 20 year old Russian said he approached the game just as he did his ECHL starts leading into the contest.
“For a goalie maybe it’s not different,” said a calm Berdin not long after his first star debut Sunday. “I don’t know, I feel comfortable here. I just enjoy it. I don’t think about players. I just do my job – what I need (to) do.”
Hey if it ain’t broke, right? After all, prior to joining the Moose, Berdin went 3-0-0 with a 1.98 goals against average and a .934 save percentage with the Jacksonville Icemen.
On the offensive side of things, Seth Griffith scored the shootout decider, while Tye McGinn’s first with the Moose accounted for the regulation time tally. Felix Girard set up McGinn’s goal to give the Moose a 1-0 second period lead in Rockford. It was Girard’s third helper in the last four games.
“Yeah it’s huge for us," said an upbeat Girard minutes after the victory over the IceHogs. “We needed a win like that, sometimes when you go into a game and it’s tight – both teams are working hard and everything – it’s very rewarding to get two points out of that and it brings the guys together for sure.”
The Moose improved to 4-4-0-0 on the season with the success in Illinois, and the victory lifted Manitoba to 4-0-0-0 when they score the game’s first goal.
Next up, finishing off the trip with another strong effort against the league-leading Admirals who have just one regulation loss in ten starts.
