Manitoba Moose at Grand Rapids Griffins

It’s not often a hockey team begins a playoff run with five straight home games. But such was the case for the Manitoba Moose, who hosted the best-of-three play-in series against the Milwaukee Admirals, then entertained the Grand Rapids Griffins for the first two contests in their best-of-five series.

Now, they’ve taken the show on the road — and face a daunting task of having to win twice in enemy territory this week to keep the season going.

It starts with a pivotal Game 3 which will put the winner on the brink of advancing to the next round — where the Chicago Wolves await — and the loser on the cusp of elimination.

Manitoba took Game 1 by a 1-0 score, then dropped Game 2 by a 2-0 count. Sense a theme here?

“They were tight defensive battles. Not a lot of scoring. That’s what playoff hockey is all about,” Moose defenceman Ashton Sautner said in an interview posted to the team’s website following the morning skate in Michigan. “We know it’s going to be a tough three games here in this building and we’re ready for the challenge.”

The Moose played four times this season at Van Andel Arena and did manage to sneak one victory in a game where their lineup was severely depleted by injuries and call-ups to the Winnipeg Jets. More recently, of course, were splitting two hard-fought, intense playoff games this past weekend.

“It should instil a lot of belief in our group. Maybe from the outside people didn’t think we were going to have a chance, but there’s a lot of belief in our room,” said Sautner.

We’re not expecting any lineup changes for Manitoba, meaning goaltender Domenic DiVincentiis makes a fifth straight playoff start. You’d think Grand Rapids will go with the status quo as well, including Michal Postava in net.

“I’ve always felt as a player that when you go on the road, the environment might be rocking but you can use that to your advantage as well,” Sautner said of trying to crash the Grand Rapids party.

Here’s some other information to get you set.

—Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe

FROM THE PRESS BOX

MIKE SAYS: What a pro debut for Garrett Brown. The 22-year-old defenceman has been thrown into the deep end, jumping into a playoff series against arguably the top team in the American Hockey League following the unfortunate, season-ending injury to Elias Salomonsson.

So far, so (very, very) good through two games.

Brown, fresh off winning a college championship with the University of Denver, has been excellent. There have been plenty of smooth exits and plays out of his own end, and I love that he hasn’t been afraid to occasionally jump up in the play to try to create some offence.

His calm, cool style reminds me a lot of Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg. Between Salomonsson and Brown, and the Swedish duo of Alfons Freij and Sascha Boumedienne, there’s a lot to like about the future of Winnipeg’s blue-line. They might just add another top prospect at the NHL draft next month when they select eighth-overall.

The last thing the Moose want to do is try and run-and-gun with the Griffins but finding a way to generate a bit more offence is likely going to be required if they want to advance. Manitoba has only beaten Postava once through 120 minutes. The good news is they’ve put 53 shots on net. The bad news is they aren’t making a lot of those all that difficult.

“Very tight checking. There’s not a lot of opportunities out there. Both goalies have been really good. I think both teams are trying to adapt to that and keep the defensive play up but also try to create a little more. I think we need to get to the net a little bit more and throw some more pucks to the net,” said veteran forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan, who has yet to record a point through five playoff games.

KEN SAYS: It’s never just about one player heating up, but the Moose could really use a boost from forward Brad Lambert as this series resumes.

It hasn’t been from a lack of effort from Lambert, but he just hasn’t found his offensive groove since returning from a steady finish to the season with the Jets. By suiting up in the final 21 games of the regular season, Lambert gave a glimpse of what could be on the horizon as he continues to earn full-time NHL duty.

After scoring his highlight-reel goal against the Seattle Kraken, Lambert went without a point in the final five regular season games and he’s followed that up by being held off the board in each of the five playoff games with the Moose thus far.

Brad Lambert hasn’t found his offensive groove since returning from a steady finish to the season with the Jets. (Mike Deal / Free Press files)

Lambert had an outstanding chance on a two-on-one rush in the opening game of the Calder Cup playoffs that rattled off the crossbar, but he just hasn’t been as dangerous as he needs to be (with just six shots on goal in five games) — especially for a team that has been having trouble scoring goals.

With just six goals scored in five playoff games, the Moose need a bit more finish from a bunch of players, but Lambert has the game-breaking ability to have a bigger impact given his speed.

Moose captain Mason Shaw has the lone goal for his team in the series (the power-play marker that was the game-winner in Game 1) and he’s generated plenty of offensive chances and leads the team with 10 shots on goal in the two games. Shaw, who led the Moose in scoring during the regular season with 15 goals and 44 points in 71 games, has also been very noticeable at even strength on the top line.

Another player whose stock is on the rise in these playoffs is defenceman Isaak Phillips, who has been involved physically and has shown more offensive flair than what he showed during his time with the Jets earlier this season. Phillips is logging big minutes and is showing that he’s serious about competing for an NHL job in the fall on the left side for the Jets.

One crazy stat about Postava: the Griffins netminder has yet to allow more than three goals in a game during the 27 games he’s played during his rookie AHL season, including the playoffs. Drilling down a bit further, he’s allowed three goals six times and two or fewer in the other 21, including five shutouts.

So, that means the Moose are going to need to establish a bit more traffic around the blue paint in an effort to find the back of the net more frequently, while not sacrificing anything defensively.

PROJECTED LINES

MANITOBA MOOSE

FORWARDS:

Mason Shaw–David Gustafsson–Walker Duehr
Jaret Anderson-Dolan–Danny Zhilkin–Sam Fagemo
Brad Lambert–Brayden Yager–Lucas Wahlin
Colby Barlow–Parker Ford–Phi Di Giuseppe

DEFENCE:

Isaak Phillips–Kale Clague
Ashton Sautner–Tyrel Bauer
Dylan Anhorn– Garrett Brown

GOAL:

Dom DiVincentiis
Thomas Milic

INJURED: D Elias Salomonsson (shoulder surgery), D Ethan Frisch (lower body), F Davis Burnside (lower body)

HEALTHY SCRATCHES: F Tyson Empey, F Kevin He, F Jacob Julien, F Fabian Wagner, F Jayden Dureau, F Chase Yoder, D Dawson Barteaux, D Lukas Gustafsson, D Alfons Freij, D Ben Zloty, G Isaac Poulter, G Alex Worthington

GRAND RAPIDS GRIFFINS

FORWARDS:

John Leonard-Sheldon Dries-Dominik Shine
Carter Mazur-Amadeus Lombardi-Michael Brandsegg-Nygard
Eduards Tralmaks-Wojciech Stachowiak-Jakub Rychlovsky
Tyler Angle-Gabriel Seger-Alex Doucet

DEFENCE:

Erik Gustafsson-Antti Tuomisto
William Lagesson-Axel Sandin-Pellikka
William Wallinder-Anton Johansson

GOAL:

Michal Postava
Sebastian Cossa

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

Veteran Moose forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan on the play of goaltender Domenic DiVincentiis in these playoffs:

“It gives you a lot of confidence. We’ve been good defensively, but there’s going to be breakdowns. It’s just the game. It feels good to have Dom back there right now. He’s obviously brought his game to another level for the last few games. It’s good to see him get rewarded, and no doubt he’ll keep doing it for us.”