Moose Invade Springfield

At this point in the season, each game has significant playoff implications and the Moose have to treat every game with a playoff mentality.

After a short bus trip from Coney Island, the team arrived in Springfield looking to continue their recent string of wins.  The Moose jumped all over the Pics right away and peppered their goaltender with 12 shots in the first period.  Defenseman Patrick Mead struck first with a goal off a feed from KC Krober.  The Moose’s second goal was a power play tally from AJ Carazo, with the assists going to Keegan Travers and Kevin Drudy.  The second period was all Moose as they put three more on the board with goals from Joe Gilhooly, Mike Biagioni and Krober.  The assists went to Drudy (2), Travers, Carazo, and Willy Manchester.  Springfield opened the third period with their first tally of the game before the Moose answered back with two more goals of their own with Krober picking up his second of the game and Anthony Alloggio breaking out of a recent slump.  The assists in the period went to Manchester (2) and Drudy (3).  The Moose out shot the Pics 50-7 and the final score was 7 – 1 Moose.  Sam Mignoli was in net for the victory.

On Sunday, the Moose returned to Olympia Ice Center hoping to complete the weekend sweep.  The team got off to another quick start with Patrick Mead again opening the scoring off passes from AJ Carazo and Mikey Biagioni.  Matt Galeano kept the momentum going by getting an unassisted goal.  Springfield cut the lead in half with a goal just 19 seconds later, but the Moose recaptured control of the game with two more goals.  John Quinn responded from being scratched on Saturday with a tally on assists from his line mates Stephen Kelly and KC  Krober.  Mead continued his recent hot streak with his third of the weekend on a power play pass from Willy Manchester.  The Moose came out lazy in the second period and allowed Springfield to control the game at times.  Springfield got their second tally before the Moose tacked on two more of their own.  Krober continued his stellar weekend with another goal off a pass from Quinn.  Galeano added a shorthanded tally off a pass from Manchester (2).  Springfield added their third of the game before the Moose got one more before the intermission from Quinn (2) with Krober and Drudy picking up the helpers.  The third period was quite a period with the Moose getting 2 more goals from Manchester and Galeano (2) with the assists going to Galeano and Drudy.   Steve Laris picked up the win with the Moose outshooting the Pics 52-14.  The final score was Moose 9-3.

The Moose head into the month of February with a record of 25-4 - good for 50 points.  The team is battling for first place overall and the automatic bid to USA Hockey Junior B Nationals.  The Moose power play is tops in the league with 51 power play goals (28%) .  The Moose also lead the league in penalty killing at 91.8 % with an impressive 17 shorthanded goals for.