Moose look to extend hot streak in Texas

   

The Manitoba Moose know how to saddle up in Texas.

The American Hockey League club experienced success in the Lone Star State during the regular season but will need more as it begins the Calder Cup playoffs with a best-of-three series against the Texas Stars staged entirely at H-E-B Centre.

Game 1 is scheduled for Tuesday at 7 p.m. (CT), while Game 2 is set for Thursday at 7 p.m. (CT). A third and deciding contest, if necessary, goes Friday.

The Moose were a perfect 4-0 this season in Cedar Park, Texas, located just north of Austin. The latest triumphs — an 8-3 blowout Saturday and a 4-1 win Sunday — came as each club put a bow on the 2023-24 regular season.

The results had no bearing on the Central Division standings but certainly provided a boost to the young team’s psyche as it enters the series.

“It’s kind of a funny and unique situation… you get a crash course on a team right before you start a series with them,” forward Jeff Malott said by phone Monday.

“I don’t think anybody’s putting too much weight on those two games but it is a good opportunity to test out systems and make adjustments and get a crash course before starting this play-in series.”

The Moose need to win twice in Texas to advance to the next round and guarantee themselves some home games in the post-season. The winner of the short series will battle the Milwaukee Admirals in a best-of-five division semifinal.

There won’t be much southern hospitality when these division rivals clash, but Manitoba head coach Mark Morrison believes his team will be able to settle in quickly after getting a couple of cracks at the Stars.

“I think our nerves are OK here because we’ve already played them two games,” he said. “We’re looking to play the same way we’ve played, just clean up a few things. So, probably a bit of an advantage to both teams about that.

“You’re not as nervous going into the first game because you’ve already played them twice and you know their tendencies.”

Morrison stressed the importance of special teams in this series, areas of the game the Moose and Stars mirror one another.

Texas operates at a league-best 21.9 per cent efficiency on the power play, while the Moose own the fourth-best power play at 21.1 per cent. The Stars rank 28th out of 32 teams on the penalty kill at 78.3 per cent, while the Moose are 30th at 77.7 per cent.

“It is important that special teams are worked on,” Morrison said. “We tried to work on that in the two-game series and we’re working on it here today.

“The team that we’ve become in the second half of the season after going on that 11-game skid, we, in our locker room, completely believe we’ve turned things around and we like our odds in the playoffs.”– Jeff Malott

“Special teams are the areas where you can implement different systems into it, which might be able to catch a team off guard a little bit — rather than your forecheck or your (defensive) zone coverage, that doesn’t change.”

The Moose, the AHL affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets, have left no questions about whether they can play with their backs against the wall — they’ve done just that on many occasions over the last three months while pulling themselves out of the league’s basement and into the playoffs.

The club went 21-12-1-1 after enduring a franchise-worst 11-game losing streak in January.

“I think regardless of who we match up with in the playoffs, the team that we’ve become in the second half of the season after going on that 11-game skid, we, in our locker room, completely believe we’ve turned things around and we like our odds in the playoffs,” Malott said.

The one question looming is what the inexperienced squad will look like when things turn up a notch in the playoffs. The young players on the team had time to find their footing in a 72-game regular season but there’s no time to settle into a three-game series.

A fast start is imperative.

“You don’t have much time to catch up and regroup, so having a good start and establishing your style in that first game is definitely huge,” said Malott.

Brad Lambert and Nikita Chibrikov, two of the biggest offensive producers for the Moose and the team’s co-rookies of the year, will be counted on to immediately produce.

Lambert and Chibrikov will almost certainly have some confidence following their NHL debuts last week. Chibrikov buried what proved to be the winning goal in the Jets’ 4-2 triumph over the Vancouver Canucks, while Lambert assisted on a goal by Gabe Vilardi.

“We see them as inexperienced playoff players in the American Hockey League,” Morrison said. “They’re better players than they were at the beginning of the year, but they still don’t have AHL playoff experience behind them, and they have to raise their level of play.

“Everywhere in North America, you learn to raise your level during playoffs. The game gets faster, harder, stronger and that’s probably the biggest thing that they’re gonna see.

“So, we’ll see how they react to that.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam