Wolves tipped by Griffins in overtime to start key road trip
The Wolves opened an important four-game road trip by falling to the Grand Rapids Griffins 5-4 in overtime Wednesday night at Van Andel Arena.
The Wolves got a goal and an assist each from Chris Terry and Cavan Fitzgerald and scores from Josh Melnick and Cory Conacher but couldn’t hold off a Griffins rally. Brogan Rafferty scored the winner in overtime and Jonatan Berggren had three goals and an assist to help Grand Rapids extend its home points streak to 18 games.
Rocco Grimaldi chipped in three assists for the Wolves, who picked up an important point in the Central Division postseason race with eight regular-season games remaining.
After a scoreless opening period, the Wolves struck first midway through the second on Fitzgerald’s goal. The defenseman redirected a terrific pass from Grimaldi past Griffins goaltender Sebastian Cossa from in close for Fitzgerald’s 11th goal of the season. Grimaldi and Matt Donovan earned assists on the play.
It didn’t take long for the Griffins to even the score at 1-1 as Berggren found the back of the net 1 minute, 33 seconds later.
Later in the second, the Wolves regained the lead when Melnick went hard to the net and was credited with a goal after Grimaldi’s long shot deflected off the center and bounced into the net. Grimaldi and Terry recorded assists on Melnick’s seventh goal of the season.
Conacher extended the lead to 3-1 while the Wolves were killing a penalty late in the second. Fitzgerald skated the puck into the Griffins zone before dropping a pass to Conacher and the veteran forward wired a wrist shot from the top of the left circle that beat Cossa to the blocker side. Fitzgerald had the lone assist on Conacher’s seventh tally of the season.
The Griffins came out flying in the third and pulled even at 3-3 on goals by Berggren and Matt Luff.
Terry gave the Wolves the lead midway through the third with the Wolves on the power play. The captain took a pass from Domenick Fensore and rifled a one-timer from the top of the right circle that sailed by Cossa to the stick side. The goal, Terry’s 18th of the season, was assisted by Fensore and Grimaldi.
With 13 seconds remaining in regulation, Berggren knotted it at 4-4 with his third goal of the game. Rafferty then ended it in overtime with 30 seconds on the clock.
Antti Raanta (32 saves) suffered the loss for the Wolves while Cossa (19 saves) earned the win for the Griffins.
Chicago dropped to 22-32-5-5 on the season while Grand Rapids moved to 33-19-8-4.