Madferret
4-28-05, 11:45 PM
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In the end, the St. John's Rats pulled one too many dirty moves. And it could cost them their first-round, AHL playoff series with the Manitoba Moose. Ever wonder how long you could hack a Moose on the ankle or rake a hockey stick across its back before it gets up and turns on you? About 62 1/2 minutes, it turns out.
Because that's how long the Rats, officially known as the Maple Leafs, laid the lumber to the Moose in Game 4 here last night, before they finally paid the price. Joel Kwiatkowski's five-minute major for high-sticking Manitoba's Jessie Schultz gave the Moose a power play that extended into overtime, and the home team finally exacted some sweet revenge, Winnipegger Lee Goren scoring 2:35 into overtime for a 3-2 Moose win.
Manitoba now has a 3-1 stranglehold on the series, with a chance to provide the final Rat poison in Game 5 here tomorrow night. We won't predict a winner, but there is one thing we can say about the end of this best-of-seven. When it's over, the Moose are going to want the biggest ice bath they can find. Because this team is going to be a bus load of bruises.
If there's a chippier team around than the Maple Leafs, we want to see it. We've also never seen a team take as much crap as the home side did last night, without retaliating. Criticized for their lack of discipline in a Game 2 loss in Newfoundland, the Moose were the picture of composure, taking one, solitary minor penalty. Meanwhile, the Rats were making a fairly steady parade to the sin bin, and taking the dumb penalties for the second straight game.
LOOKING LIKE AN IDIOT
There was Brett Engelhardt trying to goad Alexandre Burrows into a first-period fight, and looking like an idiot in the process. Rivaling that one for stupidity was former Moose Jason MacDonald feeding Manitoba goalie Wade Flaherty an elbow sandwich as he skated by in the second period. Problem is, the Moose didn't capitalize on either of those, or four more they had in regulation time, including back-to-back ones in the dying minutes of the third period.
If I'm St. John's coach Doug Shedden, I'm telling my boys to keep the elbows up and the sticks in slash mode until Manitoba rediscovers its power play. Which is what Shedden did, presumably, right to the end of regulation, when he and his team lost it. First, king Rat David Ling took a roughing penalty on Moose forward Alexandre Burrows with about four minutes left and the score tied, 2-2.
During the ensuing Moose flurry, Kwiatkowski felled Manitoba's Jesse Schultz with a high stick. The ref missed it and play ensued, with Schultz, his blood coagulating next to the St. John's goal, leaving the ice for treatment. At the next whistle, a linesman confirmed what the entire rink already knew: that Kwiatkowski deserved a five-minute major. Which is when Shedden gave a water bottle the heave-ho.
The Rats could have been called for half a dozen more cheap shots on the night, but the guy wearing the stripes, Bob Langdon, wasn't in the mood to call them, for some reason. Through 40 minutes, you couldn't help but wonder if the Leafs were beginning to wear the Moose down, not only by laying the lumber, but also the body, at a remarkable clip.
By the third period, Manitoba's passes weren't as crisp, their stride wasn't as strong and they seemed to have lost some of the hunger that had them carrying the better part of the play. It took at tying goal by Josh Green with some eight minutes left to force overtime.
Patiently, the Moose waited for St. John's to self-destruct.
The Rats didn't let them down.
In the end, the St. John's Rats pulled one too many dirty moves. And it could cost them their first-round, AHL playoff series with the Manitoba Moose. Ever wonder how long you could hack a Moose on the ankle or rake a hockey stick across its back before it gets up and turns on you? About 62 1/2 minutes, it turns out.
Because that's how long the Rats, officially known as the Maple Leafs, laid the lumber to the Moose in Game 4 here last night, before they finally paid the price. Joel Kwiatkowski's five-minute major for high-sticking Manitoba's Jessie Schultz gave the Moose a power play that extended into overtime, and the home team finally exacted some sweet revenge, Winnipegger Lee Goren scoring 2:35 into overtime for a 3-2 Moose win.
Manitoba now has a 3-1 stranglehold on the series, with a chance to provide the final Rat poison in Game 5 here tomorrow night. We won't predict a winner, but there is one thing we can say about the end of this best-of-seven. When it's over, the Moose are going to want the biggest ice bath they can find. Because this team is going to be a bus load of bruises.
If there's a chippier team around than the Maple Leafs, we want to see it. We've also never seen a team take as much crap as the home side did last night, without retaliating. Criticized for their lack of discipline in a Game 2 loss in Newfoundland, the Moose were the picture of composure, taking one, solitary minor penalty. Meanwhile, the Rats were making a fairly steady parade to the sin bin, and taking the dumb penalties for the second straight game.
LOOKING LIKE AN IDIOT
There was Brett Engelhardt trying to goad Alexandre Burrows into a first-period fight, and looking like an idiot in the process. Rivaling that one for stupidity was former Moose Jason MacDonald feeding Manitoba goalie Wade Flaherty an elbow sandwich as he skated by in the second period. Problem is, the Moose didn't capitalize on either of those, or four more they had in regulation time, including back-to-back ones in the dying minutes of the third period.
If I'm St. John's coach Doug Shedden, I'm telling my boys to keep the elbows up and the sticks in slash mode until Manitoba rediscovers its power play. Which is what Shedden did, presumably, right to the end of regulation, when he and his team lost it. First, king Rat David Ling took a roughing penalty on Moose forward Alexandre Burrows with about four minutes left and the score tied, 2-2.
During the ensuing Moose flurry, Kwiatkowski felled Manitoba's Jesse Schultz with a high stick. The ref missed it and play ensued, with Schultz, his blood coagulating next to the St. John's goal, leaving the ice for treatment. At the next whistle, a linesman confirmed what the entire rink already knew: that Kwiatkowski deserved a five-minute major. Which is when Shedden gave a water bottle the heave-ho.
The Rats could have been called for half a dozen more cheap shots on the night, but the guy wearing the stripes, Bob Langdon, wasn't in the mood to call them, for some reason. Through 40 minutes, you couldn't help but wonder if the Leafs were beginning to wear the Moose down, not only by laying the lumber, but also the body, at a remarkable clip.
By the third period, Manitoba's passes weren't as crisp, their stride wasn't as strong and they seemed to have lost some of the hunger that had them carrying the better part of the play. It took at tying goal by Josh Green with some eight minutes left to force overtime.
Patiently, the Moose waited for St. John's to self-destruct.
The Rats didn't let them down.