The Manitoba Moose (26-16-3-3) battled with the Grand Rapids Griffins (21-23-2-2) on Sunday evening at Canada Life Centre. Manitoba was coming off a 2-1 win over the Iowa Wild on Friday evening.
Grand Rapids opened the scoring 53 seconds into the contest. Danny O’Regan drove into the Moose zone and fired a shot up and past Arvid Holm. Manitoba tied the contest 64 seconds later, as Kristian Reichel streaked down the ice on a two-on-one with Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, before the latter found twine past Victor Brattstrom. The Griffins reclaimed the lead a few minutes later as Joel L’Esperance cleaned up a rebound on a two-on-one. The Griffins edged further ahead with five to go in the period as Matt Luff found the back of the net off a high shot. The goal brought an end to Holm’s night and Oskari Salminen took over between the pipes. Manitoba pulled within a goal with one second left in the frame. Declan Chisholm found Leon Gawanke, who quickly sauced the puck to Jansen Harkins. Harkins took a knee and blasted it past Brattstrom on the power play. Manitoba was within a goal as the horn sounded and trailed 15-12 in the shot department.
The Griffins restored the two-goal lead early in the second, as Jasper Weatherby knocked home a rebound. Manitoba pulled within a goal with a power play marker from Gawnake, as the defenceman finished off a pretty pass across the seam from Harkins. The Moose tied the contest 45 seconds later with a third goal on the man-advantage. This time it was Wyatt Bongiovanni snapping a shot past Brattstrom from the top of the dot. Manitoba took a 4-4 draw into the second intermission and outshot Grand Rapids 9-8 in the middle stanza.
Neither side was able to find twine in the third period. Manitoba outshot Grand Rapids 7-4 in the final frame, which shifted to overtime with the two squads locked at 4-4. The extra frame solved nothing, with the Moose killing off a pair of penalties. Oskari Salminen made 10 saves in the overtime period. The contest hummed into the shootout and the Griffins received goals from Austin Czarnik and Elmer Soderblom which proved up to be the eventual winner. Salminen took the loss, making 21 saves on 22 shots. Brattstrom captured the win on the back of 26 saves.
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