The Manitoba Moose have moved out of the basement with a strong week of play capped by a Saturday night shootout victory.
The Manitoba Moose improved to 5-1-1 in their last seven games with a weekend series split against the Grand Rapids Griffins from Van Andel Arena in Michigan.
Taking three of the six points awarded over the two games, the Moose helped maintain their crawl out of last-place, league-wide and pull within three wins of 27th-place Rockford.
Busting out of the season-high, 11-game losing streak that plagued the team from December 29 to January 27, Manitoba has bounced back for wins over Rockford (three), Chicago and most recently, Grand Rapids.
The Friday/Saturday weekend series saw the Moose fall in a shootout to the Griffins 4-3 on Friday, before flipping the score the following night - once again by way of shootout.
Recent ECHL call-up Thomas Milic was between the pipes for both games of the back-to-back, as he made 54 stops on the 60 shots he faced in two nights' worth of work.
Foxwarren's Dawson Barteaux, Nikita Chibrikov and Kristian Reichel each scored for the Moose on Friday night, before Tim Gettinger potted the 10th-round shootout victory for the home team.
On Saturday, it was Brad Lambert, Ville Heinola and Jeffrey Viel who scored Manitoba's goals, before Reichel scored the lone goal of the 12 attempts in the mini game to seal the deal for the Moose.
Both games featured comebacks from Manitoba, but it was Friday's tilt that was most impressive. Falling behind 3-0 early in the third period, the Moose scored twice in just 10 seconds to make it 3-2, before Barteaux's point shot tied things up just five minutes into the third.
Grand Rapids also led entering the third period on Saturday, but just by one. This time, it was Lambert's power play goal that tied things up also near the five-minute mark of the third.
The Moose now travel to Calgary for a two-game set with the Wranglers on Tuesday and Wednesday. Both games feature 8:00 PM central start times and can be viewed live on AHL TV.