Preview: Last Stop, Chicago
By: Manitoba Moose Staff | Published: November 18th 2018
Nov. 18, 2018 at Chicago Wolves
The Manitoba Moose (8-7-1-0) wrap up their four-game road swing in Chicago against the Wolves (8-5-1-1) today at 3 p.m. CT. Today’s game is available on the Moose App, moosehockey.com/listenlive, or stream it live on AHLTV.
Both the Moose and Wolves played games last night against Central Divison opponents, and both lost in overtime.
Manitoba lost 3-2 to the Grand Rapids Griffins after fighting back to tie the game with 35 seconds left. Tye McGinn tipped a Michael Spacek point shot to draw the teams even and secure the point for the Moose.
Chicago also tied their 4-3 loss to Iowa late with a powerplay goal from Brandon Pirri. Both Pirri and Chicago’s powerplay will be circled on Manitoba’s coaching board for today’s game. The Wolves scored all three of their markers yesterday when up a man. Manitoba’s penalty kill will counter with a perfect five-for-five performance against the Griffins Saturday.
In the back-to-back games in Winnipeg two weeks ago (Nov. 2/Nov. 3) Pirri notched a total of three points (1G, 2A). Since those games, Pirri has put up six points (2G, 4A) in four outings.
For Manitoba, Seth Griffith may be happiest about playing Chicago again. Griffith put up a four-point night (Nov. 2) and five points overall (2G, 3A) in the matchups with the Wolves.
One focus for the Moose will be getting more pucks to the net. Manitoba hasn’t registered more than 20 shots in any game since they started this road swing, while Chicago had 18 shots on net in the last night’s third period. The lack of shooting hasn’t exactly hurt Manitoba. In the last two games they’ve scored seven goals on 36 shot attempts, good for a 19.4 shooting percentage.
The Moose head home to play a two-game set against the Iowa Wild at Bell MTS Place next weekend. That series starts Friday (Nov. 23) at 7 p.m. CT, and wraps up with the team’s Hockey Fights Cancer game in support of Camp Quality on Saturday (Nov. 24) at 2 p.m. CT. Check out moosehockey.com/tickets for tickets to the games.
