PORTLAND – For a few minutes, the Manitoba Moose and their goaltender Tyler Moss looked like a weary boxer just trying to survive the round.

The Moose made it through the second period clinging to a one-goal lead Sunday. Moss and company then regrouped for the final 20 minutes and KO’d the Portland Pirates with a 6-3 victory at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

“They started scrambling a little bit, but they were able to get out of the period,” said Pirates coach Tim Army. “They were able to catch their breath a little bit.”

The winner-take-all finale of the best-of-three qualifier sends the Moose to Providence for the quarterfinals. It is the third straight playoff series the Pirates have lost, dating back to 1998.

Portland fell behind early and chased the Moose for the rest of the night. It allowed Manitoba to dictate the game as opposed to Portland setting the tone themselves.

“We never got a chance at home, coming off the win the other night, to establish our momentum or our impact on the game,” said Army. “It’s tough to keep coming back. Early in the game, we weren’t able to establish the things we wanted to establish coming off the win the other night.”

Two second period goals broke a

2-2 tie and put the Moose in control. Though Portland appeared to be on verge of coming unglued, a Colin Forbes blast from the left circle with 7:30 left in the second change the mood in a hurry. Portland had the Moose reeling and Moss looked shaky in net. The Pirates mounted a thunderous attack in the final minutes, earning a standing ovation from the crowd of 2,549 with 3:48 left. Moss and the Moose, however, survived.

“We tried to go with two lines,” said Army. “That’s what I tried to do. I had done that four or five times this year. That’s what I tried to run for the rest of the period. “

A Todd Rohloff roughing penalty nixed the Pirates momentum, allowing Manitoba to finish the second with the lead. The Moose went 28-1-2 when leading after two periods in the regular season. The lone loss came in overtime. Portland was 1-20-3 when trailing after two.

“Once we went ahead and they came back and scored, they really pressed us,” said Manitoba coach Stan Smyl. “We had an opportunity to refocus in the third. That’s what we wanted to do.”

Portland had its share of chances in the third, despite getting just four shots in the first 10 minutes. A Martin Kariya shot went wide on a three-on-two. Nolan Yonkman had a bid from the slot tipped over the net by Moss, and Andreas Salomonsson hit the cross-bar once and threw another toward the net for a Kariya tip was kicked aside.

“We didn’t panic in the third,” said Army. “We were pushing it. We generated a couple of good chances. We had a couple of scrambles, but unfortunately, we turned the puck over (and it was 5-3).”

The Moose sealed it with 8:16 left when Herbert Vasiljevs buried a pass from Ryan Ready behind the net. Jason King added a breakaway goal with 2:40 left.

“We were really smart with our forecheck,” said Smyl of a strong defensive third for the Moose. “We weren’t giving them any odd-man rushes. That was a real key, not to let them get into a transition game. We were able to get the puck in deep.”

Manitoba broke a 2-2 tie 2:26 into the second with its third power play goal of the game. With Peter Ferraro off for holding the stick, the Moose took the lead when Jaroslav Obsut’s shot came out to Ready, who fired it into the top of the net.

“You can’t take an offensive zone penalty,” said Army. “We don’t need to put ourselves in that position. Positionally, we weren’t very good on the third goal, and we were down 3-2 again.”

With 8:35 left in the second, the Moose made it 4-2 and had the Pirates on the ropes. King’s slapper off a Zenith Komarniski pass from the corner gave the Moose a two-goal cushion.

The Pirates appeared ready to fold and appeared on the brink of losing their compusure. Chris Ferraro exchanged punches with Bryan Helmer and Peter Ferraro was given a 10-minute misconduct when he appeared to kick someone during that skirmish.

Yet, the Pirates turned the momentum in a hurry with Forbes’ goal, Portland’s third shot of the period.

“When they went up 4-2, we started to get a little more aggressive, and Forbes was able to score” said Army.

Manitoba scored twice on its first five shots and outshot Portland 9-2 in the first 10 minutes of play. The Moose made it 1-0 at 4:18 on a power play. Ready set up Pat Kavanagh in front with a pass from behind the net.

Portland got that back just :07 later. Salomonsson stole the puck from Obsut in the Pirates’ offensive zone and popped one upstairs.

Another Manitoba power play led to a 2-1 lead at 8:25. Kavanagh’s centering pass went in off the skate of Rohloff.

“Our penalty kill wasn’t very good,” said Forbes. “Their special teams beat our special teams.”

A two-man advantage helped Portland tie it. Off a faceoff, Salomonsson skated in from the left point and blasted it by Moss with 7:09 left in the period.

After being outshot 11-3 at one point, Portland closed that gap to 13-10 by the end of the period. The Pirates, however, weren’t able to establish the aggressive game it produced in Friday’s win and were never able to get the Moose of its game.

“Their gameplan beat ours,” said Forbes. “We werent’ able to get them off track and they went on to win the series.”

PIRATES NOTES: The testiness showed before warmups were even done Sunday. Pirate Mel Angelstad fired a puck at the Manitoba goal and hit the post as he was skating for the exit. Manitoba backup Mike Minard rifled the puck back at Angelstad and hit the boards.


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