Manitoba Moose continue their winning ways as they strike late to defeat Griffins 1-0 to win fourth straight game

In the 11 days since the clock turned the year to 2025 the Manitoba Moose just do not seem like the same team we watched in 2024. They ended the year with a tough 3-1 loss to the Stars and were scheduled to leave Manitoba to head out for five games on the road starting in Calgary against the best team in the AHL.

They lost the first game in OT which saw them tie the game late to force extra time and then winning the second one which gave them three of four points to start. They went to Milwaukee where they defeated the 3rd place club in the Central with less than a second left in OT to defeat the Admirals and run their points streak to three. They had another impressive win against the Griffins last night defeating them 3-2 which isn’t insignificant given Grand Rapids was 23 points ahead of them in the standings (1st in the Central) as the points streak extended to four (3-0-1) including three straight wins.

What would they do tonight?

Lineup news:

For the third straight game the team would be without Brad Lambert who is dealing with an illness. The Moose handed the net back to Kaapo Kahkonen who won last night. Only lineup changes came with Danny Zhilkin and Dmitry Kuzmin returning for Mark Liwiski and Graham Sward.

Lines & D pairs:

Shaw– JAD – AJF
Lucius – King – Chibrikov
Suess -Conley – Ford
Wagner – Zhilkin – Empey

Sautner – Lundmark
Anhorn – Barteaux
Kuzmin – Bauer

Kahkonen

Notable:

The game-winning goal came off the stick of Jets prospect Nikita Chibrikov (2021 2nd) with 35 seconds left in the game as the Moose power play struck when they needed it to after the faceoff was won by fellow Jets prospect Chaz Lucius (2021 1st). Both prospects are on good runs. Chibrikov has 3G 2A in his last four games while Lucius has 1G 3A in his last five games.

The Moose went 5/5 on the penalty kill which is huge.

It’s a shutout for Kaapo Kahkonen which is his first shutout in antlers making 26 saves in the game.

While Manitoba has a long way to go they are now sitting at 11-19-1 which puts them two points back of Iowa and eight back of Rockford. Worth noting that last year’s Moose team was also a last place club before they got their season turned around (actually later in the season that this version) and claimed a playoff spot. Might we see it happen again?

Multi-point game:

None

Highlights:

Post-game interviews:

Up next:

The Moose will be back in Manitoba after their impressive road trip where they will start to prepare this week for their upcoming four-game homestand which gets underway on the 17th against the Marlies. We shall also look for an update on Jets prospect Elias Salomonsson.