GRAND RAPIDS - The Grand Rapids Griffins didn't have enough firepower left to finish off the Central Division Semifinals on Monday.

The Manitoba Moose scored four unanswered goals beginning late in the second period and eliminated the defending Calder Cup champion Griffins, 5-1, in the deciding Game 5 before 7,015 at Van Andel Arena.

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The Griffins, who had won their past three winner-take-all games, all at home, couldn't get anything past goalie Eric Comrie after Matt Puempel's goal seven minutes in. He stopped 32 shots, 13 in the third.

The Moose, the No. 3 seed, will meet Rockford in the divisional finals. The IceHogs, the No. 4 seed in the Central Division, swept No. 1 Chicago in a series that ended Thursday.

The Griffins were without Eric Tangradi, a 31-goal scorer who was suspended for a non-called cross-check on Patrick Cormier in Game 4. That added to the challenge as Matt Lorito, Dominic Turgeon and Axel Holmstrom were also out.

In fact, the Griffins' front line included three skaters (Mike Borkowski, Zach Nastasiak and Dylan Sadowy) who played nearly three times as many games in the ECHL with Toledo (112) than Grand Rapids (72) this season.

That presented added pressure.

"Yeah, we missed (Tangradi) him a lot tonight and I feel bad for him because that's a tough way to have to season end," said forward Ben Streeet. "We had faith in all the guys who came in and we were short-handed from the start of the series. But to (not have) someone who plays so many minutes and is a vocal guy, we definitely felt that tonight.

"There was extra pressure and we needed to get the job done as a leadership group, but you really can't make up what Tango does."

Coach Todd Nelson added: "To lose a guy like Lorito, Turgeon, Holmstrom and those injuries or suspensions sting a bit. Our guys worked hard. We lost a lot of creativity and offense."

The Moose scored early in the first as Cormier took a feed from Buddy Robinson in front of the net and lofted it over Jared Coreau's shoulder at the 1:49 mark.

The Griffins evened it seven minutes in as Matt Puempel scored on the power play. He blasted a shot from the top of the left circle past Eric Comrie. It was set up by Filip Hronek's work to untangle the puck and send the past to Puempel.

But the Moose went into the locker room with a 2-1 lead with a late goal as Brendan Lemieux slid am in-tight cross-ice pass in front to Cameron Shilling, who had an open right side with 13 seconds remaining.

The Moose then scored twice in the first 12 minutes of the third period to put it out of reach, thanks to an unassisted goal by Mike Sgarbossa after a Robbie Russo turnover at 6:39 and followed by Lemieux's goal at 11:17.

The fourth straight Moose came on an empty net by Chase De Leo with 3:29 remaining.

Lemieux finished with a goal and two assists.

NOTES

Ben Street led the Griffins in scoring with eight points (4-4-8) ... Since the 2013 postseason no team has played as many games (83) or series (15) or won as many games (51) or series (12) as the Griffins ... This was the last divisional semifinal series to be completed.