DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins on Saturday knocked off the AHL’s top team for the second time in nine days, outlasting the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 4-3 in a shootout before a sellout crowd of 10,834 at Van Andel Arena.

The Penguins tied the score on a fortunate bounce with 9:34 remaining in regulation but squandered a pair of power plays in overtime, opening the door for the Griffins to take two points with a perfect shootout performance. Joey MacDonald stopped all three Wilkes-Barre shooters, while Ryan Keller, Josh Langfeld and Jonathan Ericsson scored in succession to give the Griffins (20-16-4-2) their seventh win in the last eight games, including a 6-5 win in Wilkes-Barre last Friday.

With 25 of their 40 home games already in the books, the Griffins will embark on a four-game road trip against North Division rivals that begins Friday in Hamilton.

The Penguins (26-7-2-3) struck just 26 seconds into the contest for the fastest opponent goal this season, as an unmarked Tyler Kennedy took a pass across the slot from Kyle Brodziak and shoveled the puck past MacDonald from the left side.

Grand Rapids took a 2-1 lead into intermission, though, thanks to a pair of goals by Eric Himelfarb. He converted during a goal-mouth scramble at 12:21, then split a pair of Penguins and undressed a third before threading a shot inside Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers’ left post at 18:38.

Not to be outdone, Kennedy scored his second of the game to knot the score at the 5:12 mark of the second period. With a step on the defense, he charged across the blue line and fired a shot past MacDonald’s blocker from above the right hashmarks.

The Griffins regained the lead at 3-2 with a shorthanded goal early in the third period, when Ryan Oulahen sped toward a loose puck in the left circle and unleashed a blistering shot that found the back of the net at 4:26. But the Pens answered exactly six minutes later on Matt Carkner’s long shot from the right point that changed direction after hitting a body 20 feet out from the Grand Rapids net.

MacDonald earned his first win of the season behind 27 saves, while Drouin-Deslauriers was the hard-luck loser, finishing with 35 stops.