‘Everybody has bought in’

The Manitoba Moose recognize they can’t afford to get in a track meet with the Grand Rapids Griffins in order to advance in the Calder Cup playoffs.

So, as this best-of-five series — which is tied 1-1 — resumes on Wednesday at Van Andel Arena, the Moose will be trying to thread the needle between finding a way to generate more offence while not sacrificing anything defensively.

These two teams have combined for just three goals through two games, with each team pitching a shutout so far — 1-0 for the Moose on Saturday and 2-0 for the Griffins on Sunday.

Two of the three goals have come on the power play, while the Griffins have tallied the lone marker at even strength, and that came with just over five minutes to go in Game 2.

“The only way that we have a chance to beat these guys is to defend. And we’ve done a good job with that for the most part,” said Moose head coach Mark Morrison. “I thought they had one or two too many chances in the slot (on Sunday). But we’ll clean that up and we’ll go after them again.”

Morrison is bang on in his assessment as the best chance of success for the Moose is to continue to be sound defensively while limiting the secondary opportunities in front of Domenic DiVincentiis. The netminder has turned aside 71 of 73 shots he’s faced in the series and is sporting a 1.02 goals-against average and .968 save percentage through four starts.

It’s clear DiVincentiis benefited from his time up with the Jets, even though Connor Hellebuyck’s speedy recovery prevented him from making his NHL debut.

The goaltending has been stellar for the Griffins as well with Michal Postava making 52 saves on 53 shots on the goals he’s faced.

“They were top five in offence, so I think we’re doing a good job. Obviously, we’ve got to get more pucks on their net and bury our chances,” said Moose forward Phil Di Giuseppe. “But I’m proud of the effort and compete level. I thought our goaltending has been outstanding and everybody has bought in. So, I like where we’re at.”

The Manitoba club’s personnel have plenty of reasons to like where they’re at, but they’ll likely need to find an even higher level in order to secure the two road victories that will be required to move on to the next round.

The Griffins set a franchise record in their 30th season — and 25th in the American Hockey League — by going 51-16-4-1, which left them second overall and on top of the Western Conference. The club is a juggernaut that went 29-1-1-1 to start the 2025-26 campaign and 24-9-3 on home ice during the regular season.

Though it’s been clear so far as to why the Moose didn’t exactly embrace the underdog role going into this series. At this stage of the season, most of the stats and trends go out the window and it all comes down to which team is able to execute best under pressure.

And when two teams are about to battle for the 11th time (with as many as two more games to go if the series goes the distance), the intensity is sure to ratchet up even more.

“As the rounds go on, it gets chippy. Obviously there’s emotions,” said Di Giuseppe, who helped the Abbotsford Canucks capture the Calder Cup last spring. “For us, I don’t expect it to change.”

With just six goals for and eight against (though four of the against came in Game 1 against the Milwaukee Admirals) in five games so far, the Moose will be searching for ways to make life a bit more difficult on Postava.

“We want to get bodies to the net, we want to get pucks there,” said Moose defenceman Tyrel Bauer. “When we have plays to make, make our plays and find a way to beat the goaltender. We’re going to keep working hard though.”

Moose captain Mason Shaw is the only guy to bulge the twine this series so it’s clear a number of different players need to get going offensively.

The Moose are a four-line team that isn’t reliant on one or two players to carry them, but Brad Lambert is one of the guys on the roster with game-breaking potential and he’s been held off the scoresheet in each of the five Calder Cup playoff games he’s suited up in this spring.

Morrison made some tweaks to his lines in the second and third periods in Game 2 in an effort to try and help spark a bit more offence from Lambert, who also went without a point in his final five NHL games of the season with the Jets.

Lambert was praised by Morrison earlier in the playoffs for his puck management and he’s worked hard this season to round out his overall game. But in a series with the slimmest of margins, Lambert is someone to keep a close eye on.

Meanwhile, Postava doesn’t have the first round draft pick pedigree that Sebastian Cossa (chosen 15th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in 2021) has, but the unsigned free agent was solid down the stretch for the Griffins and he’s performing like he did when he helped his Czechia league team to a championship last spring.

“He’s our backbone right now,” Griffins head coach Dan Watson said in a post-Game 2 interview posted to the team’s website.

“He made another breakaway save (on Brayden Yager) and a couple of big sprawling saves when they go east-west with quick shots. They’ve got guys that can score. But he’s very confident in himself right now and our team is very confident in him in the net. He’s playing extremely well right now.”

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