The Grand Rapids Griffins rattled off three consecutive goals and never looked back en route to a 5-2 victory over the Chicago Wolves Saturday night at Allstate Arena.
Beau Bennett and Paul Thompson scored for the Wolves, who outshot the Griffins 37-22.
“I saw them get opportunities and I saw the other team score on their opportunities,” said Wolves head coach Rocky Thompson. “I saw us get opportunities at crucial times during the game and I saw us miss the net.”
The Griffins (9-10-0-3) struck just over a minute into the first frame as Matt Puempel accepted a drop pass from Dominic Turgeon and wristed a shot from near the top of the left circle for the 1-0 lead.
At 3:52 — off the draw — Bennett collected the puck and spun around the outside of the circle down to the goal line and backhanded a shot past Jared Coreau (6-5-1) for the 1-1 equalizer.
Less than two minutes later, Eric Tangradi scored his seventh goal of the season to put Grand Rapids back on top, 2-1, on the Griffins’ second shot of the contest.
That marker also saw Kasimir Kaskisuo (3-7-1) relieve Michael Leighton between the pipes for the Wolves (5-11-4-1).
In the second period, the Griffins took advantage of a 5-on-3 when Matthew Ford cashed in from the left-circle faceoff dot at 7:07. Just 1:27 later, Grand Rapids bumped its lead to 4-1 as Corey Elkins scored.
Chicago pushed the score to 4-2 at 16:31 when captain Thompson floated into the offensive zone and snapped a shot low between Coreau and the near post.
Grand Rapids extended its lead to 5-2 just 3:12 into the third period. Matt Lorito wired a chance from the right faceoff dot for the Griffins’ second power-play goal of the game.
Coreau made 35 saves to earn his sixth win of the season while Kaskisuo stopped 17 of 20 shots in the loss.
The Wolves return to action on Wednesday, Dec. 6, for their first game against the San Diego Gulls at Allstate Arena. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. and the game will stream on AHLLive.com.
