Apparently all the Manitoba Moose needed was a visit from a North Division rival to get their mojo back.
When the Moose returned home last Sunday from a three-game trip to Texas, they were tired, banged-up, offensively challenged and in the midst of a five-game losing streak.
The good news was the Moose had four full days to prepare for the Toronto Marlies and used the time wisely.
All week they preached about paying attention to detail and getting back to basics in an attempt to emerge from an offensive funk.
By the time the weekend was over, the Moose were feeling better about themselves after a two-game sweep over a team that'd been breathing down their necks in the standings.
Though goaltending had been an area of strength during the losing skid, the return of Cory Schneider from the Vancouver Canucks was an obvious boost for the Moose.
Schneider wasn't overworked, but his presence seemed to give the Moose a much-needed boost.
The reigning AHL goalie of the year came up with timely saves and was dripping with confidence as he gave up just two goals in two games.
As for the goal-starved offence, the Moose got five goals from five different players in a 5-1 win Friday night.
That matched a season high and was one more goal than the Moose scored during the five-game losing streak.
The outburst was cause for celebration and you could see the relief on the faces of head coach Scott Arniel and players in the locker-room.
Arniel was hoping for a similar onslaught in the rematch, but that didn't transpire.However, the Moose were able to generate plenty of chances and launch 35 shots on goal before gutting out a 2-1 shootout victory.
Since there was no offensive help coming from the Canucks or the injured list last week, the players in uniform understood they needed to contribute more.
Manitoba's top two centres, Marco Rosa and Marty Murray, combined for two goals and five points, while Russian rookie Sergei Shirokov continued his push for consistency by producing a goal in each game against the Marlies.
The defence corps stepped up big-time and the Moose showed they weren't going to back down or be pushed around by the more rough-and-tumble Marlies.
Until the Moose get closer to full health, they're going to continue to face some challenges (scoring being one of them) but the importance of the sweep can't be discounted.
The next challenge is to see if the Moose can follow up the victories with a solid effort next Friday, when the Hamilton Bulldogs come to town.
That means there's nearly another week left to work on the struggling power play, which is 0-for-31 during the past seven games and dropped to 27th overall at a woeful 10.6% efficiency rating (10-for-94) through 21 games.
ken.wiebe@sunmedia.ca
