Moose Pick up Back-to-Back Weekend Wins in Texas

The Manitoba Moose have taken both games from the Texas Stars in their weekend series in Cedar Park. 

On Friday, it was a 3-2 shootout win, before Manitoba picked up another victory in extra time by the way of a 6-5 overtime final the following night. 

The Moose are now 4-2-0 and sit right behind the Stars for first place in the Central Division in the early going, despite playing one less game than their weekend opponents.

For Manitoba, it was a well-rounded offensive attack on both nights. Outshooting Texas 84-65 in the two-game affair, the Moose relied on scoring from 12 different players, while Oskari Salminen and Collin Delia combined for 58 saves on the 65 shots faced over the weekend.

Wyatt Bongiovanni and Kyle Capbianco each scored power play goals in the Friday night affair, while Brad Lambert scored the lone shootout marker, as the Moose won 3-2 in the opener.

“We played a really good game," netminder Salminen reflected. "It felt like we were the better team the whole game. Second period, there was little bit of a dip, but that’s about it. We could have scored maybe four or five goals in that game. We got it done in the shootout, so it feels good to win." 

Saturday's game was a high-scoring affair, as the Moose and Stars put up a combined 11 goals, including Ashton Sautner's overtime winner, his second marker of the game.

Alongside the offensive defenceman, Jeff Malott, Nikita Chibrikov, Danny Zhilkin and Lambert each put up multi-point outings, while Axel Jonsson-Fjallby scored a shorthanded tally in the victory. 

“We had a pretty good start," Sautner said. "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." 

Manitoba returns home to Canada Life Centre for a Saturday afternoon affair with the visiting Rockford IceHogs, before playing the second game of a back-to-back 24 hours later. Both matinee matchups feature 2:00 PM central time puck drops. Tickets can be purchased at MooseHockey.com/Tickets.