Fast Facts: Moose vs. Abbotsford – March 21

The Manitoba Moose (22-33-1-3) make a quick, two-game stop on home ice to battle the Abbotsford Canucks (33-23-2-1). Puck drop at Canada Life Centre tonight is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT. The Moose finished their previous road trip with a 2-2-0-0 record after a 3-2 overtime victory in Rockford on Wednesday. Manitoba sits nine points back of a playoff spot. Abbotsford is on a roll with five straight wins after a 1-0 win over Calgary on Sunday. Tickets for tonight's matchup are available at moosehockey.com/tickets.

Suess The Moment

C.J. Suess scored with 30.9 seconds remaining in overtime on Wednesday to give the Moose a 3-2 win in Rockford. The tally was Suess’ first game-winner of the season and first overtime goal since March 1/20 against the Chicago Wolves. It was the forward’s second career walk-off tally. Suess ranks ninth on the Moose franchise leaderboard with 12 game-winning goals in his career. His career high came in 2019-20 when the Forest Lake, Minn. product tallied four game-winners on 14 total goals. Suess has 19 points (9G, 10A) in 58 games this season and three points (1G, 2A) over his past four games.

Race to Three

Breaking three goals has been critical for Manitoba to pick up wins this season. The Moose are 18-5-1-1 when scoring at least three goals in games. It’s not overly surprising to see results tip in a team’s favour when clearing four or more goals, but Manitoba holds a 7-4-0-1 mark after tallying three times in contests. Three of the past five Manitoba wins came with the club scoring five or more goals, and five straight when scoring at least three. Marking the importance of hitting that three-goal mark, the Moose have just four wins when scoring one or two goals in a game this season.

Back on the Board

Fabian Wagner saw his five-game goal streak snapped on Sunday, but was right back in the goal column on Wednesday. Wagner scored his seventh in the past seven games and is tied for second among all AHL goal-scorers during the month of March. Wagner is tied for third among AHL rookies with eight points (7G, 1A) in the month. The Nykoping, Sweden product’s seven goals lead Moose rookies, and Wagner heads up the forward class with 10 points (7G, 3A) in 38 games. He leads the Moose with a 17.1 shooting percentage. (minimum 10 games)

Roster Moves

The Moose announced yesterday the team reassigned forward Carson Golder to the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals. Golder has two assists in 10 games with the Moose during the 2024-25 campaign. He also picked up 30 points (16G, 14A) in 37 games with the Admirals this season. The winger holds nine points (2G, 7A) in 25 career games with the Moose. Golder has 58 points (31G, 27A) in 69 career ECHL games with Norfolk.

Who's Trending?

Ashton Sautner picked up the secondary assist on C.J. Suess’ overtime winner on Wednesday. The veteran defender has points in three of his past four games (1G, 2A), pushing his total to nine points (2G, 7A) on the season. Sautner has 94 points (23G, 71A) in his 471-game AHL career and has picked up at least 10 points in all but two of his nine previous seasons.

Broadcast coverage of tonight's game gets going at 6:45 p.m. CT on cjob.com, the Winnipeg Jets App and AHLTV on FloHockey.