Moose Recap: Manitoba 6 vs. Texas 2

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Quick Hits

• Axel Jonsson-Fjallby (2G, 1A), Jeff Malott (1G, 2A) and Henri Nikkanen (1G, 2A) each notched three points
• 10 different Moose skaters notched a point in the win
• Collin Delia made 30 saves in the victory

Game Story

The Manitoba Moose (21-28-1-1) rematched with the Central Division's Texas Stars (26-22-3-2) on Sunday afternoon at Canada Life Centre. Manitoba was coming off a 7-3 victory over Texas on Saturday afternoon.

Manitoba opened the scoring 2:49 into the contest with a power play goal from Jeff Malott. Nikita Chibrikov gained the zone and found Malott, who moved into open space and snapped the shot past Remi Poirier. Manitoba added another goal at the 8:05 mark of the frame with a tally from C.J. Suess. Henri Nikkanen moved the puck to Malott, who skated in and fired a shot. Poirier kicked the rebound wide and Suess was waiting to deposit it into the open net. The Moose were outshot by a count of 15-8 but led 2-0 after the first 20 minutes of play. Collin Delia vacuumed up all 15 shots he faced in the stanza, while Poirier ended with six stops.

Texas cut the Moose lead in half with a tally at the 4:42 mark from Keaton Mastrodonato. The forward skated onto a flip pass behind the Moose defence and wired a shot past Delia. The Stars tied the contest 15 seconds later with a goal from Jack Becker. Riley Damiani sent the disc through the crease where it pinballed into the net off Becker. Manitoba restored the lead with a minute to go off a strike from Axel Jonsson-Fjallby. Malott brought the puck across the line on a two-on-one and passed to Jonsson-Fjallby, who one-timed a hard shot on Poirier. The rebound was kicked wide, but Jonsson-Fjallby followed his own rebound and sent it home. Manitoba went up by two with a power play goal from Jeffrey Viel with 19 seconds left. Jonsson-Fjallby pushed the disc to Viel, who beat a partially screened Poirier. Despite being outshot to the tune of 26-18 after 40 minutes, the Moose held a 4-2 lead heading into the final period of play.

Manitoba added some insurance 2:58 into the third. Simon Kubicek launched a pass down the ice. Jonsson-Fjallby gathered up the disc and sniped the puck past Poirier. With Texas down and little time remaining, the decision was made to call Poirier to the bench in favour of the extra attacker. The gambit was unsuccessful and the Moose took advantage by potting an empty-net tally courtesy of Nikkanen. Texas wasn’t able to draw any closer and the Moose notched the weekend home sweep with a 6-2 win. Delia picked up the victory and ended the contest with 30 stops, while Poirier was hit with the loss and made 22 saves of his own.

Quotable

Moose Forward Axel Jonsson-Fjallby (Click for full interview)

“It’s huge, we’ve been saying that we need to play desperate. It’s pretty much playoff hockey for us already. What we’ve been doing these last two games and putting up a lot of goals is good too. We haven’t been that much of a high-scoring team, but to get six and seven goals, it’s huge.”

Statbook

• Henri Nikkanen has four points (2G, 2A) over his past two games
• Parker Ford has tallied three points (1G, 2A) over his past two contests
• Jeff Malott notched his fourth career three-point contest
• Axel Jonsson-Fjallby has notched five points (3G, 2A) over his past three games
• Jeffrey Viel has points in three straight games with four points (2G, 2A)
• Nikkanen posted his second career three-point night
• Simon Kubicek posted his first career AHL point with an assist

What's Next?

The Moose head on the road for a contest against the Milwaukee Admirals at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena on Wednesday, March 6. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT.

You can catch the game on CJOB.com/sports the Winnipeg Jets App or AHLTV.

Tickets to all upcoming Moose home games are available at MooseHockey.com/TICKETS.