The Manitoba Moose (14-23-1-0) clashed with the Chicago Wolves (15-18-3-2) on Sunday afternoon at Allstate Arena for a weekend road contest. Manitoba was coming off a 5-3 victory over the Rockford IceHogs yesterday night.
Chicago opened the scoring with 3:55 left in the first period with a goal from Rocco Grimaldi. Cavan Fitzgerald bounced the puck up and off the wall. Grimaldi took advantage of open ice to skate down the wing and beat Thomas Milic with a wicked wrist shot from the dot. The tally was the lone scoring play of the opening frame. The Moose ended the period down by a score of 1-0 despite outshooting Chicago 13-3.
Manitoba tied the contest at the 7:31 mark of the middle frame with a goal from Dean Stewart. Brett Kemp fed the puck to the point. Stewart came across to keep the pass alive and launched a shot that went off a skate and eluded the pad of Keith Kinkaid. Manitoba found the go-ahead goal later in the stanza off the stick of Kyle Capobianco. With the two sides skating four-on-four, Kristian Reichel found Capobianco in neutral ice. The defender danced into the zone, made a pair of slick moves and ripped it past the glove of Kinkaid. Manitoba outshot Chicago by a count of 9-6 in the period and carried a 2-1 lead into the final 20 minutes of action.
With 6:18 remaining in the third, the Wolves attacked down the ice. Grimaldi got the puck across to Max Comtois, who was robbed by the toe of a sprawling Milic. With time winding down and the Wolves down a goal, the decision was made to summon Kinkaid to the bench in favour of the extra attacker. The call didn’t pan out, as Manitoba was able to prevent any further scoring opportunities to secure the 2-1 road victory. Milic captured the road win and ended with 18 stops, while Kinkaid suffered the loss while making 27 saves of his own.
