Winnipeg Sun
Monday, January 14, 2002
By Kirk Penton -- Winnipeg Sun

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- Maybe the Manitoba Moose should look into scheduling games against the Chicago Wolves every week.

The Moose walked out of Allstate Arena last night with their third-straight win in 15 days over the Wolves, this time a gutsy 5-4 triumph in front of 6,024 spectators.

"Everybody has different systems and their system kind of works good with ours," said Moose forward Brad Leeb, who scored the game-winner with 10:13 to go in the third after taking a beautiful, rink-wide pass from Ryan Ready. "We get a lot of good opportunities and today was just one example of that."

The win came at the right time for the Moose, who dropped the first two matches of a six-game road trip Friday in Grand Rapids and Saturday in Milwaukee.

And while the bleeding may have figuratively stopped yesterday for the Moose, it didn't end literally. Winger Tyler Bouck suffered a concussion when he was elbowed by Wolves defenceman Brett Clark in the first period and centre Harold Druken injured a knee late in the second frame.

Bouck will be evaluated today and could be out for a week, while Druken is flying back to either Vancouver or Winnipeg today and won't finish the trip.

The Moose and Wolves battled back and forth all game yesterday, but Manitoba's line of Andre Savage, Herbert Vasiljevs and Ready -- with Leeb thrown in once in a while because of the injuries -- really stood out and combined for seven points.

"They all can bring something a little different to that line," Moose head coach Stan Smyl said. "The biggest thing I think with that line is Vasiljevs with his experience. He does a lot of things quietly.

"He's in the right position offensively and he's in the right position defensively. And I think that really helps out Savvy and Ready."

Wolves head coach John Anderson wasn't too upset with the setback, considering his squad was missing veteran blueliners Dallas Eakins, Bob Nardella and Clark, who appeared to hit Bouck cleanly but was given a major and a game misconduct.

Anderson believes this year's edition of the Moose is much more dangerous than last year's and Leeb's game-winner was a perfect illustration of that.

"It was a great play, a great shot and they converted," he said. "I would say last year they maybe won't convert on that. They've got some scorers there that are tremendous finishers."

In the opening period, rookie Brandon Reid got the Moose on the board first with his third of the year and Druken popped home his second of the campaign to make it 2-2. Then, in the middle frame, Justin Kurtz notched his fifth with Manitoba on the power play and Vasiljevs later deposited his eighth.

Brad Tapper had Chicago's first two goals, while Jarrod Skalde and Rob Brown added the others.



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