The Lake Erie Monsters travel to Manitoba on Monday to play the Moose on back-to-back nights at the MTS Centre. The games will be Lake Erie’s first and last appearance in Winnipeg this season. In their only game against Manitoba this year, the Moose won, 1-0, on January 17th at Quicken Loans Arena. Lake Erie goalie Jason Bacashihua made 27 saves, including stalling Moose forward Alexandre Bolduc on a penalty shot. Last season, the Monsters were 2-5-0-1 against the Moose.

The Monsters have been playing some of their best hockey to date this year, as they are winners of four of their last five games. The duo of Tyler Weiman and Jason Bacashihua have teamed up to yield just seven goals in the past five games. With a shutout on January 30th at Syracuse, Weiman leads all AHL goalies with six shutouts. Weiman is fourth in the league with a 2.19 GAA and seventh with a 0.926 save percentage and has won five of his last seven games.

In Lake Erie’s most recent game, a 3-1 victory over the Hamilton Bulldogs at The Q on Saturday night, the team was led by a trio of forwards, as Phil Dupuis, T.J. Galiardi and Matt Hendricks all recorded multiple points in the win. Dupuis registered two power play goals, including the game winner. Hendricks and Galiardi assisted on each Dupuis score. The third and final goal, an empty netter, was scored by Hendricks with Dupuis picking up the lone assist. Weiman picked up his 14th win of the year, making 22 saves on 23 shots.

Since coming back from Colorado, Dupuis has put up seven points (4G, 3A) and a plus/minus rating of +4 in the past five games. Hendricks has been a spark plug for the team, putting up seven points (3G, 4A) in the past five games and compiling 11 penalty minutes to go along with a plus/minus rating of +5 in that span.

After their two-game swing in Manitoba, the Monsters will return home to play Syracuse on Friday, February 6th and go back out on the road, traveling to Grand Rapids on Saturday and Hamilton on Sunday.