The Manitoba Moose (37-20-4-2) faced off with the Milwaukee Admirals (34-26-4-4) Wednesday morning at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. The Moose were coming off a 4-3 win over the Toronto Marlies on Sunday afternoon.
Manitoba opened the scoring just shy of five minutes into the first. Nicholas Jones found a loose puck in the offensive zone and fired it on net. The disc ricocheted over to Evan Polei who redirected the puck past Connor Ingram for the 1-0 Moose lead. The early tally was all the offence in the opening frame as the Moose took a 1-0 lead into the break. Mikhail Berdin ended the period with seven saves, while Ingram finished with 10 of his own.
Manitoba added to their lead in the second. Manitoba entered the offensive zone and Jones found Bobby Lynch with the puck. The forward delayed before throwing a shot on net from the wing and beat Ingram low to push the Moose ahead 2-0. Manitoba controlled the pace of play the rest of the frame with a 16-6 edge in shots and took a 2-0 lead into the second intermission.
Manitoba pushed their lead to 3-0 in the third. With the Moose on the power play, Kristian Vesalainen fired a hard shot on Ingram. The netminder got a piece of the puck but the rebound dropped for Jeff Malott. The forward swatted it home for his 21st of the season and a 3-0 lead. The Admirals broke up the Berdin shutout bid with 11 minutes to go in the third. Graham Knott scored his 11th of the season, shorthanded, to make it 3-1. With the net empty, the Admirals pressed and pulled within one. Tommy Novak’s shot redirected off a defender and into the net to close the gap to 3-2. Milwaukee pushed with under a minute to go, but Berdin and the Moose held off the attack until the horn sounded to close out a 3-2 Manitoba win. Berdin finished with 15 saves for the victory, while Ingram made 33 stops in defeat.
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