The Manitoba Moose leaned on their special teams and got the kind of response they needed Friday night, slipping past the Iowa Wild 4-3 at Casey’s Center.
After a 4-3 loss to Grand Rapids on Wednesday at Van Andel Arena, Manitoba bounced back to improve to 6-2-0-0. Iowa dropped to 3-4-1-1.
The game opened with a barrage of power play action, and the first period belonged to the man-advantage. Noah Gregor got the Moose started at 10:36 when he ripped a shot bar down.
Charlie Stramel answered less than four minutes later, and Justin Kirkland put Iowa in front 2-1 at 19:09 on a five-on-three. Manitoba spent much of the period killing penalties, taking five minors while Iowa was whistled once.
The Wild poured on the pressure, outshooting the Moose 19-4 in the frame, but Thomas Milic held the line with 17 saves.
Manitoba found its own special teams touch early in the second. On its first power play of the period, Danny Zhilkin scored by cleaning up a rebound beside the net to pull the Moose level.
Iowa punched right back, though, as Rasmus Kumpulainen jammed one home from the top of the blue paint to restore the Wild’s lead at 3-2 through 40 minutes. Milic added 10 more stops in the period, while William Rousseau turned aside 11.
The third period belonged to Manitoba’s pushback. Parker Ford delivered the kind of momentum swing that changes a game, finishing a big hit at centre ice to force a turnover. The Moose carried that into the offensive zone, where Zhilkin worked the puck behind the Iowa net and fed Ford in front for the tying goal early in the period.
Ford wasn’t done. Late in Manitoba’s sixth power play, Colby Barlow found Kevin He, who sent the puck across to Ford. The Wakefield, R.I. native buried it for his second goal of the night, giving him three points and pushing the Moose back in front for good.
Milic also came up with the save of the night midway through the third, spinning to deny a wrap-around attempt with his backhand. He finished with 15 stops in the period and helped Manitoba close it out.
“Lots of penalties on both sides, which is always tough with the flow of the game. That happens sometimes; that’s why you want your special teams to be good.
We were clicking. Just a very resilient game.”
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