Moose Weekly Recap: Manitoba brings back-to-back games to Iowa

Saturday, February 21 – Iowa 3, Manitoba 2 (OT)

After a 3-2 shootout loss to the Calgary Wranglers at Louis Riel Day, Manitoba looked to bounce back.

Riley Heidt broke the scoreless tie at 9:24. Carson Lambos’ shot was stopped by Thomas Milic, but the rebound went to Heidt, who fired a backhand shot through Milic’s legs for his fourth of the campaign.

Zhilkin continued to produce just 2:03 later, giving Manitoba its first lead. He cut into the slot of his backhand, slid down low and instead of forcing a turnover, quickly switched to his forehand and tucked the puck just inside the near post for his 10th of the year, making the score 2-1.

Despite being outscored 13–9, Manitoba had a one-goal lead after 20 minutes.

After a quiet mid-frame, Tyler Pitlick tied the game 4:26 into the third period. He bypassed Phillips, cut to the net and slid the puck through Milic’s five-hole with a backhand-forehand move for his sixth of the year.

The score remained 2-2 after 60 minutes, with Iowa holding a 33-27 advantage in shots.

Former Winnipeg Ice captain Lambos scored the overtime winner 1:55 into overtime. Oskar Olausson found him wide open in the right circle, and he beat Milic for his sixth of the year to give Iowa the win.

Milic stopped 33 of 36 shots as Manitoba fell to 23-17-5.

Sunday, February 22 – Iowa 5, Manitoba 1

Defenseman Tyrel Bauer played his 200th career game for the Moose.

Manitoba struck just 1:32 into the game. Parker Ford recovered an offensive zone faceoff from Kale Clague, who fired a wrist shot past Cal Petersen for his eighth, making it 1-0.

Pitlick responded at 5:04, beating DiVincentiis with a shot from the slot that deflected off Barteaux’s skate.

At 12:57, Pitlick scored again, getting the puck behind the Moose net and squeaking a detour past DiVincentiis to give Iowa the lead.

Nicolas Aube-Kubel made it 3-1 late in the period, beating DiVincentiis on a breakaway at 18:39 for his 10th of the season.

Manitoba trailed by two after 20 minutes despite leading 10-7 over Iowa.

Heidt scored Iowa’s fourth at 11:13 of the second period on a partial breakaway, and Jack Peart fired in his fourth at 15:29 to make it 5-1.

The Wild led by four after 40 minutes while outscoring Manitoba 19-17.

No goals were scored in the third, but there was one notable error. Bauer was given five minutes for elbowing and a 10-minute misconduct, but no one served the major penalty. After the five minutes were up, Manitoba briefly trailed as no one left the penalty area, something surprising given the length of the call.

Iowa held Manitoba and handed Manitoba its third straight loss by winning 5-1.

DiVincentiis made 30 saves and the Moose fell to 23-18-5.

The Moose now hit the road for three straight games, starting Wednesday in Grand Rapids against the league’s top Griffins. Puck drop is scheduled for 6pm CT on FloHockey.