Wolves Finally Solve Griffins In 3-2 Win

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.---In the thick of the playoff hunt, the Chicago Wolves earned a big 3-2 road victory over the Grand Rapids Griffins Wednesday night at Van Andel Arena.

Forwards Jordan Schroeder, Bill Sweatt, and Michael Davies posted tallies for the Wolves, who notched their first win in seven tries against the Griffins. With its victory, Chicago (35-26-5-4) moved into a tie for eighth place in the Western Conference playoff standings with six games remaining in the regular season.

The Wolves opened the game strong, scoring the contest's first goal at 4:01 off a redirect by Schroeder on the doorstep of Griffins netminder Petr Mrazek.

Grand Rapids (40-24-3-4) responded 11 seconds later with a tap-in power-play marker by Tomas Jurco who was left alone in front of Wolves goaltender Matt Climie.

Chicago rattled off two consecutive markers to break the one all tie. First, Schroeder chased down a puck through the neutral zone and backhanded it to Sweatt, standing on Mrazek's crease, and he sent the puck five-hole to put the Wolves on top 2-1 at 12:04.

Center Jon Matsumoto set up the team's next goal, firing a puck into the scrum around Mrazek, where Davis hit it into the mesh at 13:33 and made it 3-1 Chicago.

The period would close with one final tally from the Griffins, this time by defenseman Adam Almquist with a slap shot high over Climie at 17:02.

Climie (22-22-3) stopped 28 of 30 saves, including 21 shots in the second and third periods. Mrazek (22-14-2) posted 25 saves in defeat.

Chicago Wolves