The weekend of February 6th and 7th took the Metro Moose to visit local
rival New York Apple Core. As always when these two teams get together
the weekend would prove to be a physical, intense battle.
On Saturday afternoon the Moose got the scoring started with Anthony
Alloggio scoring a breakaway goal off a beautiful pass from line mate
Greg Kubrak. Forward Gavin Grogan would add the second Moose tally just
twenty eight seconds later off a pass from his line mate Mikey Biagioni.
Apple Core got within one before the Moose would tack on two more with
Grogan netting his second of the game and Long Beach native Willy Manchester
adding one as well off a pass from defenseman Danny Honovic. Apple Core
would get their second of the game before Joey Gilhooly would close
out the first period off a pass from John Quinn. The score at the end
of the first was Moose 5 and Apple Core 2. The second period would be
all Moose as they picked up five more goals. Goal scorers were defenseman
Kevin Drudy, Keegan Travers (2), AJ Carazo, and John Quinn picking up
his second. Picking up assists in the period were Travers, Alloggio,
Drudy, Biagioni, Grogan, and Honovic. The third period was a much tighter
period but the Moose added on 2 more with Travers and Manchester each
adding their second of the game. Assists went to Honovic, KC Krober
and Stephen Kelly. Apple Core would add one more half way through the
third. The final score was Moose 12 and Apple Core 3. Sam Mignoli picked
up the win in net for the Moose.
Sunday morning picked up where Saturday night left off with the Moose
picking up the first 4 goals of the game. The first three came in the
first period. Keegan Travers continued his strong play getting the Moose
started off a pass from Willy Manchester. AJ Carazo added the second
Moose goal off passes from Joe Gilhooly and Dan Honovic. Matt Galeano
would add on another before the end of the first off passes from Gavin
Grogan and Greg Kubrak. Honovic would add his own tally in the second
off passes from Grogan and Carazo. Apple Core finally got on the board
late in the second to cut the deficit to 4-1. The Moose came out with
an edge in the third and took firm control of the game with 4 consecutive
tallies from Mikey Biagioni (from Kevin Drudy), Galeano his second (from
Carazo), Manchester (from Gilhooly), and Grogan (from Joe Fiori). Apple
Core picked up another late tally in the period but the Moose answered
right back with Travers closing out the scoring with an assist to defenseman
Sean Duffy who was mired in a season long slump. Steve Laris picked
up his league leading 17th win of the season.
The Moose took advantage of the Apple Core aggressiveness and capitalized
for 10 power play goals over the course of the weekend. The team did
a great job of keeping their composure for the most part. The team now
has a weekend off before heading up to face the Mass Maple Leafs for
a highly anticipated battle of two of the top teams in the CHA.