Milwaukee, WI—Juuso Parssinen scored a pair of goals for the Admirals but it wasn’t enough as they dropped a back-and-forth affair against the Manitoba Moose on Wednesday night at Panther Arena.

Jasper Weatherby and Reid Schaefer also lit the lamp for Milwaukee, while Egor Afanasyev and Zach L’Heureux each chipped in a pair of assists to pace the Ads offense.

Jeff Malott scored a hat-trick to lead the Moose, the second hatty put up by an Ads opponent this season. However it was Jeff Viel who played the part of hero, breaking a 4-4 tie scoring with a rebound goal off the boards just as a Milwaukee penalty expired with 2:52 to go on the game.

Milwaukee pushed and had a number of close calls with Yaroslav Askarov pulled in favor of an extra attacker, but couldn’t find the equalizer as they lost their fourth straight contest.

Manitoba jumped out to a 2-0 lead on the Admirals as Malott and Brad Lambert scored 32 seconds apart at 7:52 and 8:24, respectively, of the first period.

Weatherby cut the lead in half with his career-best 10th goal of the season when his wrister from the top of the left circle beat Thomas Milic to the stick side with 1:13 remaining in the opening stanza.

Shaefer level the score at two with an unassisted goal at 11:15 of the second. Shaefer was sprung on a breakaway and Milic made the initial stop, but Schaefer got the rebound and wrapped around the goal to stuff it in the other side and collect his fifth of the year.

After Malott scored his second of the night to give the Moose the lead back, Parssinen scored consecutive goals at the end of the second and the beginning of the third to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 advantage.

However, Malott completed the hat trick at 7:34 of the third to tie the game and set the stage for Viel’s goal.

The Admirals wrap up a four-game homestand by hosting the Grand Rapids Griffins in a battle of the top two teams in the Central Division on Saturday night at 6 pm at Panther Arena.