Facing a do-or-die scenario in Michigan, Manitoba must summon another comeback to force a decisive Game 5 after a narrow loss left them trailing the Griffins.
The Manitoba Moose have fallen behind two games to one in their best-of-five Calder Cup Playoffs series with the Grand Rapids Griffins.
After opening the AHL playoffs with a come-from-behind, two games to one first round victory over the Milwaukee Admirals, the Moose will once again need to pull out all the stops in order to move on to the next round of the postseason.
Photo by Steve Sasaki/Game On MagazineHaving begun their second round matchup against Grand Rapids with a 1-0 victory on the road on Saturday, Manitoba fell 2-0 the following day to even the series at one game apiece through the home portion of the five-game schedule.
The series shifted to Michigan for the final three games of the series, to which the Griffins pulled ahead 2-1 with a 4-2 victory on Wednesday evening.
Falling behind early, the Moose battled back, but their comeback bid fell short, ultimately sending the teams to what could be the final game of the series on Friday evening.
But if Manitoba has it their way, there will be a decisive Game 5 on Saturday night in Grand Rapids.
Jakub Rychlovsky gave the hosts an early 1-0 lead just 12 minutes into the game, before Erik Gustafsson and Carter Mazur helped the Griffins to a 3-0 lead just prior to Manitoba's first goal of the game.
That goal came off the stick of Mason Shaw, who deflected a Dylan Anhorn shot into the net, making it 3-1 after 40 minutes of play.
The Moose struck again late in the third period, with Samuel Fagemo making it 3-2 with just over three minutes left in the game. But Mazur found an empty netter to seal the deal off a strong Moose offensive zone set.
“We've been in this spot before, where we had to win two games. That's why you use those experiences in the past to lean on. But we haven't made things easy on ourselves all year. Why would we not go to five games and try and beat these guys?"
David Gustafsson is now up to four points in the playoffs for Manitoba, while Brayden Yager has three points.
Game 4 will take place at the Van Andel Arena on Friday night at 6:00 PM central time.