The Manitoba Moose (7-9-0-0) rematched with their Central Division foe, the Grand Rapids Griffins (5-8-1-1), on Sunday afternoon to end Manitoba’s six-game road swing.
Grand Rapids opened the scoring with 8:08 left in the first period. Jonatan Berggren spun off the wall and fired a shot from inside the dot. The blocked shot bounced to the side of the net and Austin Czarnik was able to stuff it inside the post. Manitoba tied the contest at the 16:28 mark of the frame. A Wyatt Bongiovanni shot came from the wall and was redirected in front. Chaz Lucius tracked the puck and roofed the backhand past Michael Hutchinson as he slid across on his knees. Manitoba fell into penalty trouble as the period wore on, but Salminen was up to task and kept the Griffins off the board. Manitoba was tied 1-1 heading into the first intermission, despite being outshot 13-6.
Manitoba began the second by successfully killing off 1:50 of Griffins five-on-three power play time. Manitoba then gained lead halfway through the period on a power play of its own. Brad Lambert threaded a perfect pass across the seam to a driving Nikita Chibrikov, who tapped it home past Hutchinson. The Moose added to the lead three minutes later. Lucius stretched the puck across the ice to Bongiovanni. The forward moved into the zone and picked the far corner with a gorgeous shot for his second point of the afternoon. The horn sounded to draw the period to a close with the Moose ahead by a count of 3-1. Shots in the middle frame favoured Manitoba 13-7.
Grand Rapids pulled within a goal at the 3:22 mark of the stanza. The Griffins caught the Moose in the midst of a change, which allowed Berggren to seize the puck with time and space before deftly flicking it past Salminen. With time dwindling, the decision was made to call Hutchinson to the bench in favour of the extra attacker. The gambit was unsuccessful, as the Moose held on and captured a 3-2 win. Salminen notched the road victory and made 29 stops, while Hutchinson picked up the loss on the back of 18 saves of his own.
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