Game Story

The Manitoba Moose (28-22-5-1) were blanked 4-0 by the Milwaukee Admirals (25-25-4-3) on Wednesday morning at Canada Life Centre. They were coming off a 4-2 win over the Calgary Wranglers on Sunday. 

Milwaukee started the game firing, taking an early 2-0 lead. Tanner Molendyk beat a downed Thomas Milic to give the Admirals a 1-0 edge. Oasiz Wiesblatt drove the net hard, shoving a loose puck into the net to make it 2-0 three minutes later. Though the Moose owned an 11-7 advantage on the shot clock, they couldn’t trim the lead, as Matthew Murray was perfect through 20 minutes.

The same was true in the middle stanza. Manitoba outshot Milwaukee 13-10, but Murray was up to the task, not allowing a goal through 40 minutes. Tyrel Bauer nearly broke through late in the frame, but ripped a point shot off the crossbar. The Admirals were unable to best Thomas Milic in the second, as the 2-0 scoreline remained intact into the intermission.

The Moose opened the third period with multiple chances, but found iron again off the sticks of Samuel Fagemo and Phil Di Giuseppe. With 7:30 left to play, Jordan Oesterle made it 3-0 Milwaukee, before Wiesblatt polished off a 4-0 win for the visitors on a power play goal with 11 seconds on the clock. Murray turned aside all 32 shots he faced for the visitors. 

Quotable

Moose forward Walker Duehr (click for full interview)
“I think (Matt Murray) played a good game, but when it boils down to it, we need to be sharper from the get-go. I think we got better as the game went on, but execution wasn’t there for us to start the game.” 

Statbook

• Tyrel Bauer, Mason Shaw, and Walker Duehr each had four shots
• The Moose outshot the Admirals 32-23
• The game was attended by over 7,000 students from Winnipeg and the surrounding rural communities