Moose survive Gulls rally

WINNIPEG – The Moose and Gulls renew hostilities in the back half of a weekend double header here at MTS Centre on the heels of the Moose big overtime win last night. Ondrej Pavelec gets the start amid trade rumours that swirl as a number of NHL teams face goaltending controversies due to injuries and lack luster play.

The Moose kicked things off rather quickly on a point blast from Julian Melchiori which eluded Gulls starter Dustin Tokarski – assists given to Andrew Copp and JC Lipon at the 1:01 mark. The Moose continued their early pressure and were rewarded by a nice goal from Jan Kostalec who had the room to move in and roof a wrist shot past Tokarski. Anthony Peluso got the assist and just 4:43 into the opening frame, the Moose had a 2-0 lead. The Gulls answered back at the 15:26 mark as Scott Sabourin deposited a juicy rebound off an Andrew Welinski point shot to make it 2-1 Moose. The first period ended with the shots even at 14 apiece.

The second period showed even more tight checking from both sides – neither wanting to give an inch of advantage to either side. Moose captain Patrice Cormier gobbled up a turnover in the Gulls’ zone and beat Tokarski to the stick side with a quick wrister unassisted at 8:29 to put the Moose up 3-1. Cormier continued his thieving ways when he scoped up a loose puck at the Moose blueline and took off to score a shorthanded goal to make it 4-1. His second unassisted goal came at 13:21. The Gulls answered back less than a minute later with Nick Sorensen beating Ondrej Pavelec to the glove side to make it 4-2 for the Moose. The Gulls closed the Moose lead to a goal with a nice effort from Nick Tarnasky who sniped one stick side on Pavelec to make it 4-3 Moose at the 18:10 mark of the period. The period ended setting up an exciting third frame with the shots 26-19 in favor of the Gulls.

The third period continued at a break-neck pace with both teams pressing hard. The Gulls eventually got even on a seeing-eye shot from the point by Andrew Welinski that eluded Ondrej Pavelec at the 12:11 mark. Not to be outdone, the Moose answered back to restore their lead with defenceman Peter Stoykewych netting his first ever AHL goal just 1:18 later. With the goaltender pulled the Gulls put the pressure on the Moose over the final 2 minutes with Pavelec making at least one quality save to preserve the win and the sweep of the weekend series.