Chicago Wolves 6 at GRAND RAPIDS GRIFFINS 3

Dec. 15, 2017

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Tomas Hyka scored twice and added a pair of assists to lead a parade of four Chicago players with multiple points, as the Wolves scored three times in the final period to pull away for a 6-3 victory over the Grand Rapids Griffins on Friday at Van Andel Arena.

Matthew Ford countered with two goals and an assist for Grand Rapids, including a power play tally in the final moments of the second period that tied the game at 3-3, but a run of third-period penalties hamstrung the Griffins and led to Brett Sterling’s second goal of the night midway through the frame that put Chicago ahead for good.

The Griffins (10-14-0-3) will conclude this week’s three-game homestand by hosting the Milwaukee Admirals on Saturday at 7 p.m.

The Wolves (9-12-4-1) scored the lone goal of the opening period, marking the fourth straight game in which the Griffins fell behind 1-0. After Jason Garrison threw the puck off the boards at the Chicago blue line, Hyka chased it down in the right circle, made a beeline toward the Griffins’ net and slipped a wrister under Jared Coreau at 15:37.

Ford evened the score 1:30 into the second, finishing off a give-and-go with Colin Campbell by whipping a shot into a yawning net from the bottom of the left circle. Campbell’s initial pass from the right side caromed back to him off a defender’s skate, but he threaded a quick follow-up through traffic to Ford, who caught netminder Max Lagace out of position.

Campbell then staked the Griffins to a 2-1 lead with 2:13 remaining in the frame, bowling over Petteri Lindbohm on the doorstep to bang a rebound past Lagace, but it lasted all of 39 seconds. In fact, Chicago scored twice in a span of 1:02 to reclaim the advantage at 3-2, with Garrison sending a slap shot from the right point past a screened Coreau before Sterling pounded home Beau Bennett’s centering pass from the slot during a power play with just 32 ticks left before intermission.

The Griffins were not finished, though, as they received their own power play with nine seconds remaining and quickly converted off a faceoff in the left circle. Ford threw the puck on goal from the half-wall and found the back of the net for his second of the night at 19:55, making it a 3-3 contest on the fourth combined goal in a span of 2:08.

Penalties plagued Grand Rapids in the third, as three consecutive whistles gave Chicago 4:08 of uninterrupted power play time, including separate 5-on-3s that added up to 1:53. While the Griffins managed to kill off all three penalties – the last being a hotly disputed elbowing call on Joe Hicketts – the Wolves scored just three seconds after Grand Rapids finally returned to full strength, with Sterling deflecting a shot in the slot at 9:30 to once again put the visitors ahead at 4-3.

Tobias Lindberg at 13:05 and Hyka during a power play at 17:03 provided the nightcaps for Chicago, as each scored from close range to put the game out of reach for the Griffins.

Coreau finished with 19 saves against 29 for Lagace.

Notes: The Griffins played their third straight game without injured forwards Matt Puempel and Matt Lorito, while Turner Elson missed his fifth consecutive game due to illness. They ranked first, third and fourth, respectively, in team scoring entering the night. Meanwhile, No. 2 scorer Eric Tangradi departed early in the third period with an injury and did not return.

Three Stars: 1. CHI Hyka (two goals, two assists); 2. GR Ford (two goals, assist); 3. CHI Garrison (goal, two assists)