The Manitoba Moose (28-17-2-1) faced off against the Rockford IceHogs (22-21-3-1) for a Thursday evening clash at Canada Life Centre. The Moose were coming off an 4-3 shootout win against the Chicago Wolves on Feb. 27.
Manitoba got the scoring started less than two minutes into the first period. Greg Meireles opened space and found Declan Chisholm in the circle. The defenceman ripped a bullet past Collin Delia for a 1-0 Moose lead. Manitoba added to their lead with a tally from Todd Burgess. Nick Hutchison sped into the offensive zone and fed Burgess who fired home the goal for a 2-0 lead. Rockford cut into the lead 38 seconds later with a goal from Mike Hardman. The forward popped a bouncing puck through traffic to make it 2-1. Rockford tied the contest with seven minutes left in the period with a goal off the rush from Garrett Mitchell. Manitoba fired back on the power play with 49 seconds to play in the frame. Mikey Eyssimont chipped the puck up and past Delia for the go-ahead marker and a Moose 3-2 lead. Berdin ended the frame with six saves while Delia finished with 12 of his own.
The second period saw the Moose power play strike late again. With Manitoba on the power play, Johnathan Kovacevic sauced the puck to the far wing where Meireles was waiting. The forward snapped a shot past Delia for his third point of the game and a 4-2 Moose lead. Both Manitoba and Rockford tallied 14 shots on goal in the middle frame.
The Moose added to their lead in the third with a goal from Evan Polei. Chisholm fired a shot from the half-boards that Polei neatly tipped past Delia to push the Moose ahead 5-2. Manitoba continued to pour on the pressure and were rewarded with goals from David Gustafsson and Cole Maier to ice the game by a score of 7-2. Berdin ended the contest with the win and finished with 25 saves. Delia was tagged with the loss and recorded 39 stops of his own.
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