Manitoba Moose

MANITOBA BEATS GRAND RAPIDS 2-1 TO CLOSE-OUT ROAD TRIP

By Christina Caligiuri

The Manitoba Moose closed-out their road trip in Grand Rapids with a 2-1 victory against the Griffins in front of a sell-out crowd of 10,834 spectators at the Van Andel Arena. Sergei Shirokov scored Manitoba’s only goal in regulation time, while Mario Bliznak celebrated his 23rd birthday by netting the overtime winner. Cory Schneider stopped 42 of 43 shots in the victory.

Cory Schneider and Daniel Larsson manned opposite ends of the ice as the Moose and Griffins clashed for the second time this regular season.

The Moose were the first to light the lamp half way through the first frame. A defensive slip up in front of Larrson’s crease allowed rookie sniper Sergei Shirokov to steal the puck and smack it into the mesh for a one-goal lead.

Back-to-back penalties handed to Manitoba gave Grand Rapids two consecutive powerplays to end the first period. Despite bringing their shot count to nine on the advantage, the hometown Griffins couldn’t beat Manitoba’s penalty kill unit.

Schneider stood on his head in the second period, making save after save, as the Griffins were outshooting the Moose 15-4 in the middle frame alone. After 40 minutes of play, the Moose were still leading the game by one-goal but the Griffins lead the shot clock 24-13.

A mere 20 seconds into the third period, Justin Abdelkader flew in down the left wing and snuck the puck between Schneider’s goal pad and goal post to knot the game at one.

Manitoba received a four-minute man-advantage when Paul Crosty was penalized with a double-minor for high-sticking at 3:18. The Moose fired a trio of shots during the powerplay but were denied all three times by Larsson.

At 18:23 Geoff Waugh suffered a roughing penalty, giving the Griffins their seventh powerplay of the night. The home team planted themselves in the Moose zone and fought to break the tie, but time expired and the teams headed into overtime.

Overtime

With 65 seconds left in the overtime period, Mario Bliznak stuffed the puck into the net, on his birthday, to win the game 2-1.