Manitoba Moose Awards, Playoffs, And Other Crap Like That...

[fergo]

The Manitoba Moose handed out their awards at their final regular season game at the MTS Centre last Saturday. The winners were:

Most Valuable Player – Ryan Kesler
Leading Scorer Award – Peter Sarno
Best Defenceman – Nolan Baumgartner
Community Service Award – Lee Goren
AHL Man of the Year Nominee – Lee Goren
Unsung Hero Award – Joe DiPenta
Hardest Working Player – Alexandre Burrows
Three Star Champion – Alex Auld
Most Popular Player – Ryan Kesler

Now onto the playoffs...

The Manitoba Moose, who finished third in the North Division, will face off against the second place St. John's Maple Leafs (who had the same number of points, but had more wins). Both teams split their season series 4-4, with St. John's outscoring the Moose 32-24. Leaf players Kyle Wellwood, David Ling, and former Canuck Harold Druken have had their way with the Moose this season. Wellwood had 19 points (6-13-19) in eight games against Manitoba, Ling had 14 points (6-8-14) in eight games, and Harold Druken had 8 points (4-4-8) in five games. Wellwood and Ling are healthy, but Druken is out for the season.

The highest point-getter for the Moose in their eight games against the baby Leafs was Peter Sarno with nine points (1-8-9). Jason King is still out with a concussion suffered back in early March. Jimmy Roy (Leg) and Ryan Kesler (Flu) will be game time decisions, but should suit up for the Moose tonight.

Here are the dates and times for the seven-game series:

April 20, 2005: Manitoba at St. John's, 5:00 p.m. CT
April 22, 2005: Manitoba at St. John's, 5:00 p.m. CT
April 25, 2005: St. John's at Manitoba, 7:30 p.m. CT
April 27, 2005: St. John's at Manitoba, 7:30 p.m. CT
April 29, 2005:* St. John's at Manitoba, 7:30 p.m. CT
April 30, 2005:*+ Manitoba at St. John's, 6:00 p.m. CT
May 2, 2005:*+ Manitoba at St. John's, 6:00 p.m. CT

* -- If necessary
+ -- Played at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario

For those who hope to see any of these games on TV...you might have a hard time doing so. None of the three major sports networks in Canada (TSN, Sportsnet, The Score) will carry any of the games.

There will be two games televised, but you have to have the right channels to watch it. For those of you who have Leafs TV, you're in luck, as they will broadcast the first two games from St. John's today and on Friday. Sounds like they will have Games six and seven on there as well.

Manitoba residents who have Shaw Cable (like me) will have the opportunity to watch those same two games on Channel 82 (which normally has nothing on it), plus the two games from Air Canada Centre on April 30 and May 2...if the series goes that long, and I'm willing to bet it will.

For everyone else...you're **** outta luck ...or you're forced to listen to the game on the internet through www.cjob.com.

Update: I heard on the radio that apparently MTS TV subscribers will be able to watch tonight's and Friday's games on Channel 9.

[Seth]

Hey fergs, how's Bieksa doing? Gimme an update why dont ya.

[fergo]

Ah geez, do I have to?



Final regular season statistics for Bieksa:

Player            POS  GP   G   A PTS +/- PIM PP SH GW    S  PCT
Kevin Bieksa       D   80  12  27  39 +21 192  4  0  3  189  6.3

-- Bieksa finished tied for 7th in team scoring
-- He finished tied for 1st in team defensive scoring (with Nolan Baumgartner)
-- His +21 rating ranked him 3rd on the Moose (behind Lee Goren and Ryan Kesler)
-- His 12 goals were the most by a Moose defenceman
-- His 27 assists ranked him 2nd among Moose d-men (3 behind Nolan Baumgartner
-- His 192 penalty minutes ranked him 2nd on the Moose (93 behind Wade Brookbank
-- He won Best Defenceman and Top Rookie awards on my Moose website.

League wise...

-- His 39 points placed him tied for 11th in points by a rookie
-- His 27 assists placed him tied for 7th in assists by a rookie
-- His +21 rating was tops among all rookies in the AHL
-- He won Rookie of the Month honours in March 2005
-- He was named to the AHL's All-Rookie Team

As for the playoffs:

Player            POS  GP   G   A PTS +/- PIM PP SH GW    S  PCT
Kevin Bieksa       D    2   1   0   1  -2  23  0  0  0    8 12.5

He scored a goal in Manitoba's 5-3 win over St. John's on Wednesday, but struggled (along with most everyone else on the Moose) in Manitoba's 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the mini-Leafie bastids...er, the baby Leafs. He did get into a pretty good fight with Ben Ondrus late in the second game, if that means anything to you.

[Korczyk]

Sarno, Goren, and DiPenta look like pretty damn good investment

[SlapShot]

Go Danny Groulx.

[fergo]

Originally Posted by Korczyk

Sarno, Goren, and DiPenta look like pretty damn good investment

The latter two I would agree with. Sarno...is alright when he's putting up points, but he becomes invisible when things get tight and he's forced to contribute in other ways besides offensively.

[Rash]

I agree, how could not Bieksa win any award.