It was deja vu for the crowd at the Canada Life Centre as the Manitoba Moose gave up a second consecutive three-goal lead to the Belleville Senators in their 4-3 loss on Saturday evening.
The Moose fell to 6-12-0-1 while the Senators improved to 11-4-0-4 on the season in the contest.
Manitoba didn’t waste time in the first period as the fourth line got things started. Mark Liwiski showed his patience and floated for a bit before finally pouncing when Malcolm Subban tried to play the puck behind the net but unfortunately turned the puck over to Liwiski. He then passed the puck to Kevin Conley who shot it into the empty net for his second of the season.
“Chibrikov is feeling it” was said in the press box by a scout as Nikita Chibrikov got a great look on the net, unfortunately, whiffed but recovered the puck and got the puck over the Simon Lundmark who hit the post on the open net. Ashton Sautner got the rebound, but Subban got his pad out to make the stop and keep Manitoba at bay.
Lundmark made a simple dump-and-chase play that Axel Jonsson-Fjallby picked up behind the net. Jonsson-Fjallby battled hard against the boards and got the puck to Chaz Lucius for Lucius’s second goal of the season.
Chibrikov joined the scoring party for Manitoba after Zack MacEwan tried faking a shot into a pass, but turned the puck over instead. Ben King picked up the puck and passed it up the ice to Mason Shaw who fed Nikita Chibrikov the one-timer for Manitoba’s third goal of the game and Chibrikov’s fifth of the season.
Deja vu started to settle in for the Winnipeg crowd as Zack MacEwan scored his first of the game. MacEwan broke up a pass, got free from defenders and found himself on a breakaway where he shot low blocker side on Milic to make it 3-1 Manitoba.
“I could sense the bench was affected by one or two goals. Today we talked about that this morning during video session to not let one goal effect your performance or next shift. You know, let’s reset as quick as possible. That’s built on what we’ve been doing good as a team so far, forget the past, the goldfish memory, it has to be useful and good teams, that’s what they do, they forget quick, move on and push hard to gain momentum back. We’re not there yet, but that’s what we’re working toward.” Eric Dubois on the Moose’s leads and overall confidence.
Mark Liwiski found a great scoring chance in front of Subban where Liwiski drove the net and was barely turned aside by Subban’s pad. In a similar scoring chance to put the Moose back up by three, Chibrikov displayed his puck patience and nearly scored, he beat Subban’s glove side but shot the puck just wide of the net.
As the temperature heated up, Donovan Sebrango and Ben King were given offsetting roughing minors as a scrum broke out. Both teams were successful throughout the game on the penalty kill but were undisciplined throughout the majority of the game.
Wyatte Wylie found the puck on his stick with less than 90 seconds left in the game, he shot the puck into heavy traffic where Zack MacEwan tipped it in for his second of the game. Manitoba’s lead was slowly vanishing, but their aggressive forecheck wasn’t.
“Forecheck is our bread and butter. If you look at the stats, I’d say most of our scoring chances come from the forecheck. It’s always been like that since I’ve been here. We create a lot of scoring sense from it, and it is obviously the main reason why create offense, especially this year.” Eric Dubois on the forecheck playing more aggressive against Belleville.
It seemed later in the third period that Manitoba would come out in the win column with battle scars, but with 59 seconds left in the game, former Manitoba Moose Wyatt Bongiovanni scored the tying goal.
Bongiovanni’s fifth of the season was a beautiful wrist shot that beat Milic on the high blocker side. The tying goal was enough to even the game, but not enough to end things in regulation.
In overtime, Thomas Milic was the story of the night. He stopped seven shots faced, including one breakaway and two high-danger chances by Belleville. The calmness gave Manitoba confidence as both teams headed into the shootout, but it wasn’t enough in the end.
“He had a slow start of the year, it happens sometimes in the second year of a player, but I think he’s been really good in the last few games. In overtime, he probably saved our a**, gave us a fighting chance, and helped us get another point in the shootout. He’s been playing really well and I like him as a competitor. He’s got the attitude that he needs to have to have success and it’s been there the last few games.” Eric Dubois on Thomas Milic’s steady performances.
Ultimately, the game was decided in round one of the shootout as Belleville’s Stephen Halliday scored the lone shootout goal.
Milic’s gutsy performance earned him the third star of the game as he stopped 32 shots of the 35 he faced. There wasn’t any Moose player who recorded multiple points in the game.
Manitoba is back in action on Tuesday, December 10th as travel to face the Calgary Wranglers at 8:00 pm CST.
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