The Manitoba Moose and Grand Rapids Griffins fire up their best-of-five Central Division Semifinals series this afternoon at Canada Life Centre. The Moose claimed their best-of-three First Round set with a 2-1 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals in the decisive third game on Sunday. The Griffins haven’t played since a 6-4 loss to Cleveland on April 19 to close the regular season with a 51-16-4-1 record.

Tickets are available for tonight’s game at moosehockey.com/tickets. Coverage of today’s matchup gets going at 1 p.m. CT on CJOB.com, the Winnipeg Jets App and AHLTV on FloHockey. Puck drop is slated for 2 p.m. CT. 

Walk Hard

Walker Duehr is no stranger to the Calder Cup Playoffs with 29 games under his belt in the post-season. That mark ranks second on the Moose next to Phil Di Giuseppe’s 39 AHL playoff games. Duehr comes into the Central Division Semifinals with points in two straight games. He helped to set up David Gustafsson’s winner in Game 2 and then opened the scoring in Game 3. The tally was the Sioux Falls, S.D. native’s first post-season tally since Game 5 of the 2022 Western Conference Finals with the Stockton Heat. Duehr wrapped the regular season second on the Moose with 17 goals and fifth on the squad with 34 points. 

Home Ice Heroes

The Moose are just the second team to open the Calder Cup Playoffs with five consecutive home games since the AHL adopted its current playoff format in 2022. The Charlotte Checkers were the only other team to play their first five games at home during the 2023 Playoffs. Manitoba has been cruising at home of late, winning four of its past five contests at Canada Life Centre. All four of those victories have come by just one goal. The Moose were 10-2-2-1 in one-goal games at home during the regular season. 

It’s Been A While

This latest post-season matchup is the first meeting between the Moose and Griffins since the 2018 Central Division Semifinals. The Moose took that best-of-five series in a deciding fifth game. Chase De Leo led the Moose with seven points (2G, 5A), while Ben Street posted eight points (4G, 4A) for the Griffins. Overall, the two teams have met four times in the Calder Cup Playoffs, with the Moose claiming three series (2007, 2009, 2018) to the Griffins’ one (2006). Manitoba holds a 14-9 record in 23 all-time post-season games against Grand Rapids.

Tight Contests

The Moose captured a pair of one-goal victories to secure their comeback series win in the First Round. That shouldn’t come as a surprise as 18 of Manitoba’s 35 regular season wins were decided by one goal. That mark was tied for fourth in the AHL. On the other side, the Griffins picked up 17 wins separated by one goal. Expanding to games decided by two or less goals, the Moose were 22-5-5-3 throughout the season while the Griffins were 25-8-4-1. Four games between Manitoba and Grand Rapids were decided by two or less goals this season. The teams split the games, with Manitoba claiming the only overtime win.

Who’s Trending?

Samuel Fagemo scored the series-winning goal on Sunday for his first tally of the playoffs. The strike was Fagemo’s sixth career Calder Cup Playoffs goal in 20 post-season outings. The goal was also Fagemo’s first game-winner in the playoffs. The Gothenburg, Sweden product led the Moose with 19 goals while playing all 72 regular season games.