The Manitoba Moose (1-2-0-0) fell short in their comeback effort on Friday night, dropping a 5-2 decision to the Grand Rapids Griffins (3-0-0-0). The Moose previously took a 5-2 loss at the hands of the Laval Rocket on Oct. 12.
It took about seven minutes for either offence to find their footing, but when they did, it was a fireworks show. Grand Rapids rang the bell first, as Austin Watson finished off a two-on-one with a quick snapshot at 7:14. The Moose weren’t long in responding, however. Samuel Fagemo fired a shot through traffic from the top of the circle, beating Sebastian Cossa on the glove side to level the score. Just 74 seconds later, Sheldon Dries took advantage of a partial break, deking around Domenic DiVincentiis for a shorthanded goal. Grand Rapids added another, as Dominik Shine picked the top corner, extending the lead to 3-1. In the Manitoba goal, DiVincentiis stopped 14 shots, while Cossa turned aside 12 in the opening frame.
The defences owned the second period. DiVincentiis stopped all 10 shots he saw in the stanza, while Cossa stopped five. The lone goal of the frame came off the stick of Danny Zhilkin, who played in his 100th AHL game on Friday night. On the power play, Zhilkin fired a shot from just above the dot past the glove of Cossa, bringing the Moose within one. The 3-2 scoreline held into the intermission.
The Griffins clamped down as Manitoba was limited to four shots on goal in the third period. Cossa turned each of them aside in the Grand Rapids goal, and the Griffins added some security nearly 14 minutes into the period. Alex Doucet was in the right place at the right time, and a rebound squirted to him on the doorstep. He made no mistake, tapping home his first of the campaign. Carter Mazur added his fourth goal of the season soon thereafter, securing a 5-2 victory for Grand Rapids.
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