No "Lack" of effort, Pens stun Moose 4-1

Both John Curry and Brad Thiessen saw action tonight and played well tonight.

The Manitoba Moose had just finished up a tough road trip that ended with three road games Friday, Saturday and Sunday, before having a day off Monday before two home games against the WBS Penguins. They were playing their 5th game in six nights tonight and for the first 20 minutes, really took it to the Penguins and were the more ready team.

I continued to think that if the Pens could just get one that they could win the game. I never thought I would see the Pens score four goals in a span of 4:11. But the Penguins clearly were the better team in the second period and trailing 1-0 with 8:04 left in the game Bryan Lerg opened the flood gates and the Pens went on to score four goals before the final buzzer sounded, stunning the Moose 4-1 and taking seven out of a possible eight points on their Canadian road trip.

The Penguins are now 48-18-0-1 and with 97 points the Pens are ahead of the 2nd place Hershey Bears by nine points with two games in hand. They also only need three points to clinch a playoff spot in this year's Calder Cup Playoffs.

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Quick recap of tonight's game after the jump.



After a Jesse Boulerice slash late in the first period, Cody Hodgson dug out a puck to Joel Perrault who made no mistake about it, blasting a puck past John Curry. The Moose took the 1-0 lead into the first intermission and out shot the Pens 12-5.

The 2nd period brought the game's first surprise. John Curry, who stopped 11 of 12 shots in the first period, was replaced by Brad Thiessen. The Pens seemed to respond to the goalie change and outmatched the Moose out shooting them by a 20-7 margin. All that was missing was the goal.

The Pens started the 3rd period with a power play that was left over from the second frame. Brett Sterling would be denied on another nice chance and continue to out work the Moose. It wasn't until almost 12 minutes into the final frame that the Pens got the equalizer. Bryan Lerg's backhander would only springboard the Pens to an offensive fury.

A puck went in off Zach Sill's skate to give the Pens a lead they would never look back on. Just 32 seconds later, Corey Potter blasted a shot past Eddie Lack to give the Pens a two goal lead. Tim Wallace sealed the deal just two and a half minutes later and gave the Pens the 4-1 lead.