Winnipeg, MB—The Admirals and Moose will need a decisive game five in their Central Division Semi-final match-up as Manitoba pulled out a 7-3 win over Milwaukee on Friday night in Winnipeg.
Game five will be on Sunday afternoon at 2 pm at the Canada Life Center.
Manitoba got on the board first, scoring at the 6:22 mark when Morgan Barron found a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot over Connor Ingram’s shoulder.
The Admirals responded in short order, however, when Brayden Burke got his third of the playoffs just 61 seconds later. Manitoba goalie Mikhail Berdin went behind his own net to play the puck and pass it right on the stick of Burke, who had a wide open net to tie the game.
The Moose went up a goal again at 12:41 of the opening period on an Evan Polei marker that came when former Admiral Jimmy Oligny hustled to keep the puck in the zone before finding an open Polei in front of the Milwaukee net.
Once again the Admirals tied it, this time on a power-play tally by Cole Smith with 4:10 left in the first. Tommy Novak had the puck near the right face-off circle and passed it to Cole Schneider on the goal line. Schneider one-touched a pass to Smith in the slot and he got just enough on the shot to get to trickle over the line.
Manitoba took control of the game in the second period, scoring three times in a 13:02 timeframe to give the a 5-2 advantage. Nicholas Jones’ goal at 4:33 gave the Moose a lead they wouldn’t relinquish and Vinne Heinola and Declan Chisholm scored at 15:33 and 17:35, respectively, to make it a three-goal lead.
Joseph LaBate pulled the Ads back within two on his first career playoff goal at 8:38 of the third period, but Manitoba would counter with two more to make the final score 7-3.
Milwaukee finished the night 1-for-4 on the power-play, while Manitoba was 2-for-5.
This will be the second consecutive playoffs for the Ads that they will go to a decisive game five in the opening round. In 2019, Milwaukee trailed Iowa two games to zero before winning games three and four, but then dropped game five 2-1.