Sens vs. Moose 3/24/04 Articles: Outburst in third seals Moose win
March 25, 2004

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Ken Wiebe of The Winnipeg Sun

The Winnipeg Sun

Thu, March 25, 2004

Outburst in third seals Moose win

By KEN WIEBE, STAFF REPORTER

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- For two periods, the Manitoba Moose couldn't put the puck in the ocean. The floodgates opened wide in the third as the Moose scored four unanswered goals to roll to a 4-1 victory over the Binghamton Senators last night before 3,792 fans at Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

MOOSE 4 SENATORS 1

The Moose, who are 29-33-10-2 and remain seven points out of the final playoff spot in the AHL's North Division, finished their final road trip of the season with a record of 4-3 and will close out their schedule with a six-game homestand, beginning tomorrow against the Rochester Americans.

Dynamic centre Brandon Reid provided the offensive spark for the Moose, pushing the draw forward in the offensive zone to earn an assist on the winner from Jason King and providing the insurance marker on a penalty-shot goal in which he faked forehand, then backhand and then stuffed in a forehand shot along the ice.

"That's the first penalty shot I've ever scored on," said Reid, who now has nine points in his past four games and 55 points on the season. "That's my juice-boy move (a showdown game played at the end of practice). I can't do it on our goalies anymore because I do it all the time. It's the triple deke from the Mighty Ducks movies."

The Moose peppered Senators goalie Ray Emery through the opening 40 minutes and held a 33-17 shots advantage, but were trailing where it mattered most -- on the scoreboard.

Brad Tapper opened the scoring for the Senators at 15:19 of the first period, converting a one-timer on a slick pass from Denis Hamel on a 2-on-1 rush.

Moose head coach Stan Smyl was proud of the way his team rebounded from Sunday's disheartening loss to put up a great effort.

"We did a lot of things too pretty against Rochester," said Smyl, who had his team go through a quick practice on Monday rather than have a day off. "That was a wake-up call."

Emery finished with 44 saves, while Rob McVicar made 25 for the Moose.

MOOSE TRACKS: Rookie defenceman Kirill Koltsov suffered an undisclosed injury in the second period and didn't play in the third. He will be re-evaluated today. Smyl made one minor adjustment to his lineup yesterday, inserting rugged winger Sylvain Blouin for Sergei Varlamov. Blouin had been a healthy scratch for three consecutive games, while Varlamov was held pointless in his past three outings.