The final regular season home game of the Manitoba Moose’s 2023-24 AHL season has come to an end. The Moose are in an AHL Calder Cup playoff spot, but home playoff games played remains to be seen. The Canada Life Centre came alive for the Manitoba Moose as they welcomed the Iowa Wild for game two of the weekend series. In addition to the Moose playing their final home game of the season, they welcome Colby Barlow and Dylan Anhorn into the lineup for their AHL debuts.
Manitoba looked to pick up a couple of points as they have two games in hand on the Texas Stars as they trail them by five points. Manitoba is currently ranked fifth in the Central Division.
Did you miss the game? Don’t worry! We got you covered with this game recap exclusively at Inside The Rink.
Iowa Takes Command of First Frame, but Moose Keep It Close
The first period saw the first-ever AHL shifts for the debuting Colby Barlow and Dylan Anhorn. Both players were highly anticipated to join the Manitoba Moose lineup at some point before the Manitoba Moose make their 2024 AHL Calder Cup Playoff run.
Barlow found himself paired with Henri Nikkanen and Daniel Torgersson while Anhorn was paired with Ville Heinola. Anhorn was the first of the two debuting players to take a shift, Anhorn received applause from the Canada Life Centre crowd and once Barlow touched the ice, he also got a thunderous cheer.
Iowa opened the scoring at the 10:37 mark as Luke Toporowski scored on the power play. While Moose goaltender Collin Delia stopped Daemon Hunt’s shot, Toporowski netted the rebound. This was the lone goal in the opening frame, but Manitoba wasn’t out of the contest by any means.
Wild Strike Twice but Moose Continue to Pound Shots on Net
Opening up the second, there was a lot of back-and-forth action, but Manitoba couldn’t find the back of the net even though they dominated the shot category. Iowa played a simple, yet effective game, scoring twice in the second frame.
Kevin Conley found himself on an odd-man rush and managed to make a sneaky pass through the lone Moose defender. Simon Johansson barreled down the right side and buried Conley’s pass past Delia. Iowa would later push as there was an offensive zone draw for the Wild which they won and Steven Fogarty scored his first goal of the game to put Iowa up 3-0. Manitoba was outshooting Iowa 15-6 in the second period, but Peyton Jones continued to keep a goose egg on the board for the Moose.
Moose Show Signs of Life, but Can’t Complete the Comeback
Steven Fogarty would post his second goal of the game early in the third period, and there were clear signs of frustrations from Manitoba’s end. Down 4-0 in front of your home crowd in your final home game of the season wasn’t great, but the Moose did what they did best and pushed back incredibly hard late in the game.
Kyle Capobianco didn’t waste much time as he spoiled Iowa’s four-goal lead mid-announcement in the Canada Life Centre. As the defensemen gained the zone, he would calm down the zone entry and snap a nice shot on net which finally solved the Iowa netminder Jones. Ville Heinola didn’t waste much time after Capobianco’s goal, Heinola dropped back to the blue line to receive a pass from Capobianco. Heinola successfully settled down the puck and snapped it just above Jones’ left shoulder after the Moose set up a successful screen.
With 3:30 left to play in Manitoba’s game, they called Delia to the bench to have the extra attacker. Jeff Malott battled hard through a crowd of Iowa defenders and got the puck out of a dangerous area to the front of the Iowa net. CJ Suess ate up a rebound as he battled multiple other defenders to try and get a Manitoba goal. Finally, after a few seconds of sticks flying and chaos ensuing, Suess successfully smacked the puck out of the pile and past Jones. The Canada Life Centre erupted as the Manitoba Moose trailed 4-3 in the final minute. However, Iowa successfully defended the final minute of play and defeated the Moose 4-3.
