The Manitoba Moose (12-17-0-0) rematched with the North Division’s Belleville Senators (16-11-2-2) on Sunday afternoon at Canada Life Centre for the second of three consecutive games between the clubs. Manitoba was coming off a 3-1 defeat against Belleville on Saturday afternoon.
Neither side was able to find twine in the opening 20 minutes of play. Manitoba was granted three chances on the power play, but was unable to solve Belleville netminder Kevin Mandolese. Jeff Malott led the Moose with three shots on goal in the frame, while Cole Reinhardt answered for the Senators with two of his own. Collin Delia, making his second consecutive start for the Moose, took to the dressing room with seven saves, while Mandolese ended with 10 stops of his own.
Belleville opened the scoring 2:48 into the middle frame with a goal from Brennan Saulnier. Kyle Betts gained the zone and found Saulnier at the dot. The quick wrist shot beat Delia high on the blocker side. Manitoba tied the contest six minutes later with a goal from Nikita Chibrikov. Kyle Capobianco held the line and danced through traffic. He dropped the puck to Chibrikov in the slot and the forward rifled the disc past Mandolese. Manitoba held a 17-12 shot advantage after 40 minutes and headed into the second intermission tied 1-1.
Belleville pushed ahead with a late goal on the power play from Zack Ostapchuk. Roby Jarventie pulled up at the far dot and sent the pass into the slot, where Ostapchuk got a piece of the puck and redirected it past Delia with 68 seconds remaining. Manitoba opted to pull Delia in favour of the extra attacker, but the Moose were unable to find the equalizer as the horn sounded. Delia was hit with the loss and ended with 19 stops, while Mandolese captured the road victory and made 19 stops of his own.
