What was so noticeably missing in Game 3 -- a little hockey sense -- came rushing back to the Manitoba Moose in Friday night's Game 4.

The Moose suddenly found themselves flush with goals in the second period, getting three in one minute 52 seconds, and roared to a 5-2 victory over the Syracuse Crunch to knot the AHL's North Division best-of-seven playoff series at 2-2.

The MTS Centre lower-bowl capacity crowd of 8,800 roared with approval as Alexandre Bolduc, Game 4 insert Jason Jaffray and then rookie Michael Grabner deposited pucks past Syracuse goalie Karl Goehring in quick succession, turning a 1-1 saw-off into a 4-1 lead.

"Those goals in the second, that made our tempo go up and the crowd go up," said Moose defenceman Max Fortunus, who found Bolduc unchecked near Goehring's crease and sent an accurate pass.

"As soon as that first one went in, I saw the look on everybody's face at the bench," said Jaffray, who followed it up just 27 seconds later. "Everybody was up. My goal, everybody was standing on the bench again and we felt like we should put the pressure on these guys now. When we've scored, we haven't much put our foot to their throat. Instead we try to weather the storm.

"Give our guys a lot of credit, we kept pushing and pushing in that second period."

Each of the three goals had its own skill package. Puckhandling was a worry point for Manitoba's coaching staff after Game 3's overtime loss.

"We held onto pucks better, we were a lot smoother with our system and better at how we played our game," said Moose coach Scott Arniel.

Bolduc wasted no time with the puck on his stick. It was in the back of the net in an instant.

Jaffray wasted no time pouncing on a puck fumbled by Crunch defenceman Clay Wilson, simply firing into the top of the net before Goehring could have been expecting anything.

And then with a power play in the next minute, Grabner grabbed a rebound at an acute angle but showed off his gifted hands by pulling it back and threading the needle to the roof of the net. That assembly of plays was the best of the Moose during the regular season, especially that they could be industrious enough to warrant the opportunities.

"It (started) with two faceoff goals," Arniel said. "The guys tried some different things. I thought we were doing a good job in the first but there was a lot of special teams stuff so it was hard to get really into the rhythm of five-on-five hockey. In the second, it was more of that even game and we got to roll our lines and get ourselves moving.

"We started to do some good things."

The three-goal decision did not end peacefully. Syracuse forward Tom Sestito sucker-punched Moose goalie Cory Schneider -- sharp in making 30 saves -- with 1.9 seconds remaining and Sestito received a match penalty for attempt to injure. That means an automatic review by the league before he will be eligible to play again.

Game 5 is tonight at MTS Centre and as of last night, tickets were moving quickly to another sell-out. It will determine who has the first shot at ending the series Monday night (Game 6) in Syracuse.

The Crunch had the better start last night, but penalties tore away at their momentum.

"I thought it was our best period of the playoffs so far for 18 minutes or somewhere around there," Crunch head coach Ross Yates said. "Then we lost our composure. We were more disciplined than them up to that point. We had chances to be up more than 1-0."

As the game wound into the second period, Manitoba's addition of veteran defenceman Nolan Baumgartner, Jaffray, and big rookie forward P.C. Labrie had more and more effect.

"All three were very instrumental in our win," Arniel said.

Jaffray hadn't played since mid-March due to injury.

"After a few shifts, I kind of forgot about it and it went really well," Jaffray said.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca