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HAMILTON, Ont. - Matthieu Darche had two goals as the Hamilton Bulldogs beat the Manitoba Moose 4-1 in American Hockey League action Tuesday night.

It only took 23 seconds for Darche to open the scoring. Manitoba goalie Cory Schneider gave up a juicy rebound off Hamilton's first shot of the game, and Darche scored his third of the season with Schneider caught out of position.

Manitoba replied three minutes later with a power-play goal after left-winger Matt Pettinger tipped a Sergei Shirokov shot through goalie Cedrick Desjardins' pads.

Hamilton regained the lead six minutes into the first period on their second shot of the game. Schneider coughed up the puck behind the net to Bulldogs winger J.T. Wyman. He quickly passed out in front to Ryan White, who scored in the open net.

Schneider, last year's AHL goaltender of the year, looked suspect early on having played the night before. But his team didn't help him out, only managing 15 shots against Desjardins the entire game.

Darche scored Hamilton's third goal when he deflected an Andre Benoit point shot past Schneider 12 minutes into the second period.

Darche was a free-agent signing by Hamilton's parent club, the Montreal Canadiens, in the off-season. He had 22 points in 73 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2007-08 and was the leading scorer for the Portland Pirates in the AHL last season with 31 goals.

Pyatt added Hamilton's fourth goal, crashing to the net on the power play with 35 seconds left in the game. The win provides a bit of redemption for the Bulldogs (4-0-2), who lost to the Moose (6-4-0) 2-1 in overtime on Monday night despite outshooting the visitors 32-18.

Like Monday night's game, the attendance was sparse on Tuesday with a reported crowd of 2,547 at Copps Coliseum.

Both teams head out on the road for their next game. The Bulldogs head to Texas for games against San Antonio, Texas and Houston starting Oct. 23. The Moose visit Chicago Wolves on Oct. 23.