Once on pace for their worst season in franchise history, the Manitoba Moose find themselves back in the Calder Cup playoff race.
Moose On a Heater After Franchise-Worst Losing Streak
Less than two months ago, the Jets’ American Hockey League affiliate was lost in the wilderness. Through 36 games of the 72-game schedule, the team had a 12-23-1 record and sat last in not only the Central Division, but last in the entire league. Their forwards were struggling to score, their defense was suspect, and their goaltending was downright awful. Between Dec. 23 and Jan. 27, they lost a franchise-worst 11-straight games, many in embarrassing fashion.
Related: Manitoba Moose Had Serious Struggles in First Half of AHL Season
Since snapping that streak with a 5-3 win over the Rockford IceHogs on Jan. 27, they’ve turned things around in a big way and gone 15-6-1. Especially over the past 10-game stretch, where they’ve gone 9-1-0, they have begun to play with with drive, pride, and confidence, three things they utterly lacked in the first half.
As a result, they now sit in fifth in the Central at 27-29-1-1. After the first half, they were on pace for just 22 wins, so it’s safe to say the script has really flipped.
Rookies, Veterans Finding Scoring Touch
The Moose forward core, bolstered by the return of Axel Jonsson-Fjallby (eight goals and 11 assists for 19 points in 26 games) and Dominic Toninato (three goals and nine assists for 12 points, 23 games,) has been much more dangerous and consistent. Young prospects and AHL veterans alike have gotten in on the scoring.
2022 first-round pick Brad Lambert now leads the team in goals with 19 and points with 46. The 20-year-old, who has struggled with consistency in the past, is starting to truly excel in the top-line centre and top power-play role head coach Mark Morrison has entrusted him with; he’s found another gear in the past 10, especially, with 14 points (four goals, 10 assists.) His return to juniors last season seems to have done him a ton of good.
One goal behind Lambert with 18 is 27-year-old Jeff Malott. The feisty winger has been on fire as of late and not only seems poised to break his previous season-high goal total of 23 — a mark he has reached twice with the Moose — but is also three points away from setting a career-high with 45. Malott, who has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in the past 10 games, scored the first hat trick of his AHL career on March 7 against the Milwaukee Admirals in a 5-4 barn burner.
Nikita Chibrikov, arguably the other highest-profile Jets prospect on the club, sits fourth in points with 38 (16 goals, 22 assists.) The 2021 second-rounder doesn’t have a lot of size but his offensive awareness and ability to quickly adjust to the smaller ice surface — this is his first season in North American after three in the KHL — both bode well for the future.
The Moose’s so-called “identity” line of Parker Ford, Kristian Reichel, and Jeffrey Viel has also made its mark regularly and is often the line Morrison turns to to gain momentum or start a period. Ford is fifth on the team in points with 32 (14 goals, 18 assists) while Reichel has set new career-highs in goals (16) and points (28.) That’s even more impressive considering he got off to an awful start, with no goals and just one point in his first 18 games.
Viel also has 29 points (12 goals, 17 assists) and is proving he is more than just an enforcer (but does lead the Moose with 115 penalty minutes and has dropped the gloves seven times.)
The defense has been chipping in on offense to a greater degree, giving another dimension to the overall offensive attack. Kyle Capobianco has shown off his puck-moving skills throughout the campaign and is second on the team in points with a career-high 43 (8 goals, 35 assists.) Ville Heinola, who missed the first three months of the season with a broken ankle he suffered during Jets preseason, is now up to 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in 27 games.
Milic Has Stolen the Moose Crease
The biggest factor in the Moose’s return to competitiveness has been better goaltending. Thomas Milic, the undersized-by-modern-standards but nonetheless compelling 20-year-old has cemented himself as the starter.
Milic, who was just named the AHL Player of the Week, has been a vast improvement Collin Delia and Oskari Salminen, a tandem that was the team’s biggest Achilles heel through the first half. With Delia and Salminen both owning goals against averages (GAA) well above three and save percentages (SV%) well below .900, something desperately had to change if the team wanted any chance of changing their fortunes. Indeed, things have changed drastically since Milic was called up from the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals in late January.
Milic, who the Jets drafted in the fifth round in 2023 after he was passed over in two prior drafts, has a 12-5-1 record, .909 SV%, 2.55 GAA, and one shutout in 20 games played. Delia is now his backup and Salminen has been reassigned to the ECHL Admirals.
“He’s a very smart goaltender,” Drew MacIntyre, the Moose’s goaltending coach, said last month. “He’s extremely patient on his feet and that correlates into him reading the play well. He’s an undersized goalie in today’s game, but he’s fought that label hard and it’s made him better because his strengths have allowed him to overcome that challenge.”
“He’s more skilled than me for sure,” MacIntyre, an veteran of 440-career AHL games and former Moose backstop, continued. “He’s more patient on his feet. You combine all those things with his calm demeanour and his battle. He really battles and when he has to kick it into high gear, he can use his athleticism. His efficiency is very good.”
One has to wonder just how much better a situation the Moose would be in if they had kept Milic instead of sending him down after his first stint with the team in November. Fruitlessly banging the Delia/Salminen drum for the entirety of the 11-game losing streak is an even worse decision in retrospect considering how well Milic has played since coming back up.
Moose Have Crucial Games Ahead; May Benefit From AHL’s Expanded Playoff Format
The Moose have 14 games left and currently sit fifth in the Central with 56 points, eight points up on the Chicago Wolves and nine up on the Iowa Wild (the Wolves have one game in hand on the Moose, while the Moose have one game in hand on the Wild.) The Moose will face the Wolves twice more (on April 6 and 7) and the Wild twice more (on April 13 and 14) before the campaign wraps up.
In most leagues, finishing fifth in the division isn’t good enough for a postseason berth. However, in the AHL’s Calder Cup Playoff format, the fourth and fifth Central seeds play a three-game first-round series to determine who will face the number-one Central seed in the five-game second round (currently, the Milwaukee Admirals.) Last season, the Moose finished third and got a bye to the second round, but lost to the Admirals in five games. They also lost to the Admirals in five games in the second round in 2022.
The Moose still have business to take care of if they want to make the playoffs, and would be the underdog for the entirety of any postseason experience. However, the fact they’re in the conversation after the first half they had is remarkable and speaks to how hot they’ve been. If they keep playing well and make the dance, they could surprise some teams.