A three-goal spurt bridging the second and third periods powered the Manitoba Moose to a 5-3 victory over the Abbotsford Heat on Sunday morning at Winnipeg’s MTS Centre.
Mark Flood, Shawn Weller and Guillaume Desbiens scored for the Moose during the decisive outburst, in a game that was televised nationally by the CBC.
With the victory, the Moose (25-12-6) strengthened their grip on second place in the North Division, while the Heat (21-19-6) sit in fifth.
Abbotsford started slowly on Sunday, as Manitoba earned a 13-5 edge in shots in the first period and claimed a 1-0 lead on a goal by Garth Murray. Murray, who captained the Heat last season, took a slick feed from Bill Sweatt on the rush and muscled a backhander past Abbotsford goalie Leland Irving. It was Murray’s first goal in 18 games with Moose.
The Heat have struggled on the power play this season, but the man-advantage unit clicked twice early in the second period.
Josh Meyers leveled the score at the 2:23 mark, as his rising slap shot from the left point beat Moose goalie Tyler Weiman. Jon Rheault made it 2-1 for the Heat exactly three minutes later, tipping in Cam Cunning’s shot on a two-man advantage.
Flood’s power-play goal at 15:30 of the second ignited the Moose rally. Irving never saw Flood’s shot from the point, which found its way through a maze of bodies.
Just over a minute later, Weller’s one-timer off a nice feed from Mario Bliznak found the back of the net to give the Moose a 3-2 lead.
Desbiens gave Manitoba some insurance with a fluky goal at 12:25 of the third. His backhander took a pair of 90-degree deflections off Joe Piskula and Gaelan Patterson of the Heat, before sliding between the legs of a stunned Irving.
Cunning drew the Heat back to within a goal, driving to the net and chipping home a rebound off Matt Keith’s initial shot. It was Cunning’s third goal of the two-game set in Winnipeg.
But that was as close as Abbotsford would get, as Desbiens rounded out the scoring with an empty-netter.
ICE CHIPS:
- Cody Hodgson, the Vancouver Canucks’ first-round pick in 2008, played his first game back with the Moose after missing over a month with a broken orbital bone. Wearing a full face mask, Hodgson posted an even plus-minus rating, one shot on goal and two penalty minutes.
- The Heat went 2-for-4 on the power play on Sunday. Abbotsford ranks 27th in the AHL with a 12.7 per cent success rate on the man advantage.
- The Heat visit the San Antonio Rampage on Wednesday, in the third game of their 10-game road trip.