As it almost always is in hockey, it’s a little of both. Shirokov’s touch continued Thursday night at the MTS Centre.
He assisted on captain Nolan Baumgartner’s first-period power-play goal, helping the Moose to a 3-0 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals before 6,211 fans at the MTS Centre.
That extended a points streak to 11 games to tie the Moose franchise record that’s stood for nearly 13 years.
“It works with a combination of both,” Moose coach Claude Noel said Thursday night. “When a player gets on a streak, it’s really good motivation. It brings your level up, you want to do well and what’s happened with him, with us having 11 forwards, he gets a lot of double ice time because he gets put in on that other line.
“So you get double the opportunity. But he’s played well, he’s earned it, and that’s helped our team.
“Now we can play the 1-0, 2-0 game and if he makes a contribution, it might be enough to get us a win.”
Centre Bill Bowler set the Moose points-streak mark in 1998 and the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, defenceman Brett Hauer, matched it later in the same year.
Shirokov’s streak began Dec. 17 at home against Houston and continued Thursday when he rushed the puck up the ice on his right wing.
The zone gained, the puck came back to defenceman Mark Flood, who relayed it across the blue-line to Baumgartner, who shot it through traffic and behind Admirals goalie Mark Dekanich at 15:18.