The Manitoba Moose (29-17-2-1) faced off against the Rockford IceHogs (22-22-3-1) for a Saturday afternoon clash at Canada Life Centre. The Moose were coming off an 7-2 win against Rockford on March 3.
Rockford got the scoring started in the opening frame. The puck was dished out from behind the net and found Josiah Slavin who fired it past Mikhail Berdin for a 1-0 lead. Rockford added to its lead three minutes later with a tally from Lukas Reichel off a shot from the slot. That pushed the IceHogs ahead 2-0. The Moose cut into the lead as C.J. Suess finished off a Greg Meireles pass on a two-on-one to get the Moose on the board. Berdin ended the first frame with five saves while Arvid Soderblom finished with nine of his own.
The second period saw the IceHogs add to their lead five minutes into the frame. A shot from the blueline was fired by Wyatt Kalynuk. Michal Teply redirected the dipping disc past Berdin and pushed the IceHogs ahead 3-1. Manitoba fired back and pulled within one on a late power play. David Gustafsson got a stick on the shot and knuckled it past Soderblom for his 10th of the season. 42 seconds later the Moose tied the contest. Johnathan Kovacevic threw the puck on net and found twine with his eighth of the year. The horn sounded to end the middle frame with the two teams tied 3-3 and the Moose leading 23-11 in shots.
Manitoba scored the go-ahead marker 35 seconds into the third courtesy of Jeff Malott. Austin Poganski took a shot and the rebound found Malott who slammed it home. Manitoba pressed and found some insurance from Austin Poganski. The forward tipped home a Ville Heinola shot to push the Moose lead ahead to 5-3. Rockford pulled Soderblom late in favour of the extra attacker, but was unable to find twine as the period wore down. Berdin ended the contest with 25 saves for the win. Soderblom was tagged with the loss and recorded 27 stops of his own.
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