The Manitoba Moose (12-21-1-0) rematched with the Grand Rapids Griffins (16-15-4-1) on Saturday evening at Canada Life Centre for the final of two straight contests. Manitoba was coming off a 5-4 overtime defeat against Grand Rapids on Friday night.
Manitoba opened the scoring 58 seconds into the contest with a goal from Nikita Chibrikov. Ville Heinola slid the puck across the seam to the forward. The winger went hard to the net and banked the puck home past Michael Hutchinson on his backhand. Manitoba edged further ahead at the 3:46 mark with the second goal of the period from Chibrikov. Jeff Malott intercepted an offensive zone pass and found Chibrikov, who skated in and froze Hutchinson before beating him with a shot through the five-hole. Oskari Salminen took to the dressing room with 12 total stops, while Hutchinson finished the frame with eight stops of his own.
Following a Moose power play midway through the second, Grand Rapids rolled down the ice on a three-on-one. The Griffins were foiled by a brilliant stick save by Salminen. Manitoba rewarded its netminder at 13:01 of the middle stanza with a goal from Thomas Caron. Brett Kemp sauced the puck to Caron, who’s initial shot hit the end boards. The forward followed the disc and quickly banked it from the behind the cage off the skate of Hutchinson and into the net. The tally was the lone goal of the second period. Despite being outshot 11-6 by the Griffins in the frame, Salminen kept the Moose up by a trio, heading into the final 20 minutes of play.
Grand Rapids got on the board 1:02 into the third frame with a goal from Marco Kasper. The forward darted into the zone and rifled a shot from the dot past Salminen. The Griffins pulled within a goal with the second tally of the period from Kasper. The forward’s shot from the near boards eluded the padding and handcuffed Salminen. Grand Rapids tied the contest with 42 seconds left as Austin Czarnik found twine with the extra attacker on the ice. The Griffins then pulled ahead 4-3 with 12 seconds remaining with a goal off the stick of Zach Aston-Reese. The horn sounded shortly after to conclude the game with the Moose dropping the home contest. Salminen was hit with the loss and ended with 32 saves, while Hutchinson picked up the road victory on the strength of 17 saves of his own.