The Manitoba Moose (33-19-5-4) battled the Rockford IceHogs (30-23-5-4) on Wednesday evening at Canada Life Centre. Manitoba was coming off a 4-3 shootout win over Chicago on Sunday afternoon.
Manitoba opened the scoring with 4:34 to go in the first frame. Cole Maier forced a turnover at the offensive blue line, which allowed Jansen Harkins to pounce onto the loose puck and beat Arvid Soderblom with a quick release. Rockford tied the contest with 95 seconds left in the first, as Luke Philp knocked the centering feed past Oskari Salminen off the rush. Both sides were granted a single chance on the power play, but neither club could find twine on the opportunity. Manitoba took a 1-1 tie into the first intermission and lead 8-5 in the shots department.
Rockford pulled ahead with under four to go in the second. David Gust held off a Moose defender before depositing a backhand chance off the rush into the back of the net. Manitoba tied the contest with 29 seconds left in the frame. With the Moose on the power play, Harkins found Ville Heinola with a backhand feed. The defenceman rocketed a shot past Soderblom after a shooting lane opened up. The Moose were outshot 16-13 in the middle stanza, but were knotted up 2-2 after 40 minutes of play.
The IceHogs pulled ahead with 5:26 left in the third period. Rocco Grimaldi found open ice in the slot and beat Salminen with a hard shot to put Rockford ahead 3-2. As time ticked down, the Moose were granted a late chance on the power play. Salminen was pulled in favour of the extra attacker and Manitoba went ahead on a six-on-four attack. The move paid off and Harkins netted his second of the contest with 11 seconds left. The horn sounded shortly after and the two sides prepared for overtime. The Moose recorded six shots on goal in overtime and added a penalty shot taken by Dominic Toninato that was denied by Soderblom. The contest required a shootout and Rocco Grimaldi netted the only goal for either side to power Rockford to victory. Salminen was hit with the loss and ended the game with 33 saves, while Soderblom notched the win and made 43 stops of his own.