The Manitoba Moose ran into a wall in Milwaukee.
After spending much of the night generating chances and owning the shot clock, the Moose were blanked 3-0 by the Admirals on Wednesday for their first shutout loss of the season. It also marked Manitoba’s first back-to-back defeats of the year, and the power play never found a way to change the script, finishing 0-for-7.
This was the kind of matchup that looked worth circling before puck drop. Manitoba arrived with the league’s most dangerous offence, already sitting on 41 goals, while Milwaukee had been the AHL’s toughest team to score against, allowing just 14.
The Admirals had also played three fewer games, but the defensive numbers still stood out. Something had to break.
Instead, it was Milwaukee’s goaltender who stole the night.
Matt Murray was sharp from the start and only got better as the game wore on. He stopped 17 shots in the opening period alone, then kept Manitoba from turning its territorial edge into anything tangible. By the time 40 minutes were in the books, the Moose had outshot the Admirals 26-18 and still trailed 2-0.
Manitoba’s best opening came early in the third period, when it was handed a 5-on-3. That chance came and went without a goal. Later, the Moose had another power-play opportunity, but a penalty of their own wiped it out and Milwaukee cashed in with its third goal to put the game out of reach.
From there, it was just a matter of whether the Moose could spoil the shutout. They never did. Murray kept turning everything aside, and the final seconds carried a bit of extra edge when Nikita Chibrikov was “being Nikita Chibrikov” right to the horn.
There were lineup changes for Manitoba before the game, though Walker Duehr still remained out after joining the club in Chicago without making his season debut. The blue line stayed intact, though the pairings were adjusted from the previous game, and Fabian Wagner drew in for Tyson Empey.
The loss drops Manitoba to 7-4-0-0 on the season. It also trims the team’s record on this six-game road trip to 2-3-0-0, with one game left on the swing.
The Moose head to Rockford next, where they’ll face the IceHogs on Friday night to close out the trip.
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