Moose Recap: Manitoba 6 at Texas 5 OT

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Quick Hits

• Ashton Sautner scored twice, including the overtime-winning goal
• Oskar Back notched three points (1G, 2A) in the loss for Texas
• Five different Moose skaters tallied multi-point outings in the win

Game Story

The Manitoba Moose (4-2-0-0) rematched with the Texas Stars (3-2-1-1) on Saturday night at H-E-B Centre. Manitoba was coming off an 3-2 shootout win the previous evening.

The Moose opened the scoring 56 seconds into the contest. Jeffrey Viel and Nikita Chibrikov went to work in the Stars zone. Chibrikov sent the disc through traffic into the crease where Danny Zhilkin was waiting to knock it past Remi Poirier for his first professional tally. The Stars struck back at the 7:45 mark of the frame. Curtis McKenzie found Derrick Pouliot who beat Collin Delia with a screened shot. The netminders held court the rest of the way, as both teams headed into the first intermission tied 1-1. Shots on goal favoured the Moose by a count of 18-17.

Texas took the lead 2:48 into the second period. Oskar Back manoeuvred the puck to Matej Blumel, who streaked down the ice. The forward fired a heavy shot that trickled past Delia. The Stars added some insurance a couple minutes later. With Texas on the power play, Back was able to shovel a backhanded rebound past a sprawling Delia. Manitoba battled back to make it a one-goal game past the halfway point of the contest. Zhilkin zipped down the ice and found Axel Jonsson-Fjallby on a shorthanded rush. The latter ripped a quick shot past Poirier for the first shorthanded goal of the Moose season. The Stars restored the two-goal lead a minute later, as Fredrik Karlstrom converted an odd-man rush. Manitoba fought back within a goal on a tally from Jeff Malott. The forward jumped out of the box and into the play, before launching a heavy shot past Poirier for his second of the campaign. The Stars pushed back ahead by a pair with just a shade over two minutes left in the second with a quick slot shot from Nicholas Caamano. With one second left on the clock the Stars appeared to have scored a goal at the buzzer, but it was waived off after review. Manitoba was outshot 13-9 in the middle frame and down 5-3 after 40 minutes of play.

Manitoba got within one with a goal in the third stanza courtesy of Ashton Sautner. Brad Lambert made a skilled play from the corner and swept the puck to Sautner, who was able to uncork a howitzer through Poirier. Manitoba tied the contest 5-5 just past the halfway point of the frame. Malott worked the puck free and stuffed it in front to Lambert, who’s quick shot found twine for his second point of the period. Neither side could find the winning goal in regulation and the horn sounded to send both sides to overtime for the second straight night.

In the extra frame, Manitoba was tasked with killing off an early penalty. The antlered ones survived some good Stars chances and were able to counter-attack as the period wore on. With less than a minute to go in the frame, Chibrikov found Sautner, who ripped his second of the game past the pad of Poirier to end the contest and complete the comeback. Delia notched the road victory and ended with 34 saves, while Poirier was hit with the loss and finished the game with 39 stops.

Quotable

Moose Defenceman Ashton Sautner (Click for full interview)

“We had a pretty good start. I think things got away from us a little bit in the second. Huge comeback. We talked about it before the game, with the schedule in the American League, you play back-to-backs against the same team. So obviously you need to string two in a row together. We were able to do that against a really good team and we’re really happy with the weekend heading back home now."

Statbook

• Brad Lambert has tallied nine points (3G, 6A) his past six games
• Nikita Chibrikov posted his first three-assist and point AHL contest
• Danny Zhilkin tallied both his first professional goal, assist and multi-point game in the win
• Kyle Capobianco has eight points (4G, 4A) his past four contests
• Jeffrey Viel has assists in consecutive contests and notched his 50th career AHL helper
• Wyatt Bongiovanni has notched five points (1G, 4A) his past three games

What's Next?

The Moose return home to face the Rockford IceHogs at Canada Life Centre on Saturday, Nov. 4. Puck drop is scheduled for 2 pm CT. The Moose host their third annual Manitoba Made Day game with a perogy giveaway on exit. Tickets to all upcoming Moose home games are available at MooseHockey.com/TICKETS.

You can catch all Moose games on CJOB.com/sports the Winnipeg Jets App or AHLTV.