Manitoba Moose deal AHL-leading Grand Rapids Griffins first regulation road loss

The Moose and AHL-leading Griffins did battle on Friday night and it was a tight game ultimately won as a result of a special teams breakdown leading to a Grand Rapids shorthanded goal which proved to be the game winner.

Lineup news:

As per play-by-play voice of the Moose Daniel Fink no Walker Duehr today. He is listed as day-to-day which meant prospect Jacob Julien gets to make his home debut in antlers. Isaak Phillips moved over to the right side for the first time this season.

Moose lineup:

Lambert – Ford – Di Giuseppe
Shaw – Gustafsson- Chibrikov
Julien– Yager – JAD
Barlow – Zhilkin – Fagemo

Heinola – Phillips
Anhorn– Clague
Sautner – Bauer

DiVincentiis

Notable:

Moose opened the scoring in the 1st as Kale Clague gets a fortunate bounce off captain Mason Shaw to put the home team up 1-0. That’s his 7th of the season with assists to Shaw and Isaak Phillips.

Late goal against allows the Griffins to tie the game. Too many chances for Manitoba to give up to a team like Grand Rapids.

This was a crazy sequence as Jets goalie prospect Domenic DiVincentiis was without his stick for some time (few minutes). The Moose had possession and you’d think they’d try to get a whistle but play continued. Griffins got a breakaway but he made a stop to keep the game tied.

Jets prospect Nikita Chibrikov may not be a blocking specialist but this was a critical one with the Moose D pair having been on the ice for some time and needing a whistle.

Just like Friday the Moose and Griffins were tied 1-1 heading into the 3rd period. Both Manitoba and Grand Rapids have gone 0/1 on the power play. Shots were 21-19 in favour of the visitors.

A miscue by Ville Heinola at the blueline gives the Griffins a chance to go the other way. It appeared Grand Rapids has taken a 2-1 lead but they wanted to review it. After a quick look they called it a good goal by John Leonard just 55 seconds into the final frame. He has 26 goals in 30 games.

Jets prospect Jacob Julien in his first pro game here in Winnipeg leads the rush. He gets it over to Brayden Yager who slides it across but the attempt to get it back to him = one too many passes and a dangerous chance goes amiss.

Big goal for Jets prospect Danny Zhilkin who tied the game for the Moose with this sneaky backhand. That’s his 8th goal of the season.

A late goal and it’s the Moose who get it as Jets prospect Brad Lambert puts home his fifth of the year to make it a 3-2 lead over the AHL leading Griffins with 27 seconds left in the 3rd. Lots of good work by Phil Di Giuseppe to get the play into the Grand Rapids end and good work by Parker Ford to cause some chaos/disruption in front of the net.

A massive win by Manitoba knocking off Grand Rapids to hand AHL’s top team their first regulation loss of the season on the road. Moose outshot them 18-7 in the final frame (overall 37-28) and win 3-2.

Impressive game by home team.

Multi-point game:

None.

Highlights:

Player media:

Coach media:

Up next:

The Moose will have another week of practice coming up as they get set to welcome Rockford to town next weekend in a pair of matinees.