What a difference a week made for the Manitoba Moose.
After going through wild stretches of up-and-down play on the opening weekend of the AHL season against the Houston Aeros, the antlered ones came to the realization they still had plenty to work on if they wanted to hang out in the high-rent district.
Fortunately, the Moose had nearly a week between games and put on a defensive clinic during a two-game sweep over the Chicago Wolves.
The commitment to playing hard in all three zones was evident and their goaltending was excellent in both contests.
On Friday, Cory Schneider came up with his best effort so far in a 4-1 win. It was reminiscent of the play that made him the AHL's goalie of the year last season.
Saturday, backup Daren Machesney made 30 saves in a 2-1 win.
The upgraded defence corps demonstrated the greatest improvement and benefited from the inclusion of veteran Lawrence Nycholat, who logged 20-plus minutes in each game despite missing most of the final period Saturday after being checked from behind.
Talk of improvement wouldn't be complete without mentioning the strong showing by the new top line of Marco Rosa, Michael Grabner and Sergei Shirokov - which connected for four of Manitoba's six goals.
Rosa's vision, creativity and grit meshed with the two skilled Europeans and he's recorded at least a point in each of the four games to date.
Grabner's speed was on full display as he scored his first three goals of the campaign, while Shirokov (one goal, two assists) demonstrated the skill package.
