Moose Recap: Manitoba 2 vs. Calgary 5
By: Anthony Fusco | Published: February 23rd 2024
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Quick Hits
- Jeff Malott scored twice in the Moose loss
- Matt Coronato posted two points (1G, 1A) in the Wranglers win
- Dustin Wolf posted 31 saves and an assist in the Calgary victory
Game Story
The Manitoba Moose (18-28-1-1) clashed with the Pacific Division's Calgary Wranglers (27-16-4-2) on Friday night at Canada Life Centre. Manitoba was coming off a 4-3 loss against Milwaukee on Monday afternoon.
Calgary opened the scoring with 48 seconds left in the first with a goal from Colton Poolman. Rory Kerins swept the puck to the top of the crease from the near corner. Poolman fought through traffic and the disc knocked off his skate and tipped past Thomas Milic. Manitoba took to the dressing room down 1-0 after 20 minutes of play. Milic finished the period with 13 saves, while Dustin Wolf countered with eight stops in the frame.
The Wranglers potted a goal in the second period courtesy of Will Riedell. The defenceman attacked into the zone with speed and found twine off a wrist shot from distance. Calgary produced another tally in the stanza, this time off the stick of Alex Gallant. Jonathan Aspirot threw a backhand on target, which was kicked out by the pad of Milic. Gallant was in the slot and buried the rebound. Calgary struck again, this time with a shorthanded goal from Matt Coronato with 10 seconds left in the period. The forward was sprung off a long stretch feed from Wolf and got in behind the Moose defence before finding twine. Manitoba was outshot by a count of 17-15 in the middle stanza and trailed 4-0 heading into the final 20 minutes of play.
Calgary found twine 1:29 into the third with a goal from Cole Schwindt. Coronato picked off a pass and sent it across the seam for a backdoor tap-in. The Moose broke-up the shutout bid of Wolf with a power play goal from Jeff Malott. Brad Lambert sprinted into the zone and passed across the ice to Malott, who scored past a sprawling Wolf. Manitoba added another goal from Malott past the halfway point of the period, as the forward juked past a Wranglers defender, zipped in and beat Wolf with a wicked shot under the bar. The Moose were unable to draw any closer as time expired with Calgary claiming the road victory by a score of 5-2. Milic was hit with the loss and ended with 35 saves, while Wolf recorded the victory and made 31 total stops.
Quotable
Moose Forward C.J. Suess (Click for full interview)
“I think we came out pretty slow. I don’t think we were quite hard enough on them. We weren’t pushing with all three guys up front. I think we were making turnovers at our blue line and neutral zone and that’s not good enough recipe for success."
Statbook
- Kyle Capobianco's 29th assist is a new-career high
- Jeff Malott's pair of tallies ties him for seventh in franchise history with Eric O'Dell with 72 goals
- Malott's multi-point outing was his seventh of the season
- Thomas Milic notched his first professional assist
- Simon Lundmark has posted two points (1G, 1A) his past two games
What's Next?
The Moose rematch with the Calgary Wranglers at Canada Life Centre on Saturday, Feb. 24. Puck drop is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT. It's Manitoba's Follow Your Dreams game in support of WASAC.
Tickets to all upcoming Moose home games are available at MooseHockey.com/TICKETS.
You can catch the game on CJOB.com/sports the Winnipeg Jets App or AHLTV.
