The Manitoba Moose (23-15-3-2) battled the Grand Rapids Griffins (19-21-2-2) on Friday evening at Van Andel Arena. Manitoba was coming off a 5-4 overtime defeat against Milwaukee on Saturday night.
Grand Rapids opened the scoring in the first frame with a power play goal. Defenceman Steven Kampfer sent a low shot that went in off the post by a screened Arvid Holm. The tally was the lone marker of the opening 20 minutes of play. Both goaltenders made made nine stops as the Griffins took the 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
Neither side was able to find twine in the middle stanza. The Griffins had a pair of chances to Manitoba’s one on the power play in the frame. Manitoba outshot Grand Rapids 11-8 in the middle interval, but trailed 1-0 as the horn sounded to draw the period to a close.
Manitoba tied the contest 62 seconds into the third. Dominic Toninato whipped the puck from the top of the zone to down to Alex Limgoes, who sent it home for the tying goal. Manitoba pulled ahead less than five minutes later. Dean Stewart fired a point-shot that Jansen Harkins tipped past Nedeljkovic from the slot. As time ticked down, the Griffins searched for the equalizer and pulled Nedeljkovic in favour of the extra attacker. After a spurt of Moose pressure, Ville Heinola found Kristian Reichel, who tumbled the disc into the empty net for a 3-1 lead. With 45 seconds remaining, the Griffins pulled the netminder again. Heinola grabbed the puck and as he fell to the ice, sent it into the open net for his second point of the frame. Holm notched the 4-1 victory and ended the game with 23 stops, while Nedeljkovic was hit with the loss and ended with 29 saves of his own.
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