Nov. 3, 2022

DES MOINES, Iowa - In an early-morning matchup, Ty Ronning’s hat trick lifted the Iowa Wild to a 6-3 win over the Grand Rapids Griffins at Wells Fargo Arena on Thursday.

In his third game since returning from injury that kept him sidelined for four outings, Jonatan Berggren lit the lamp twice on the power play for Grand Rapids on the behalf of two helpers from Joel L’Esperance. The first tally for the Griffins established two of their skaters as one of the top point leaders among rookies when Cross Hanas notched his fourth goal of the year off a Simon Edvinsson assist in the second period. Hanas is now tied for third in tallies scored by rookies in the AHL while Edvinsson is also knotted at third for assists by a first-year player with six. Taro Hirose and Austin Czarnik each extended their point streaks to four with an assist in the contest.

Ronning scored the first three of the day for Iowa, all on special teams with two power-play goals at 4:09 in the first and 1:45 in the second. His third tally came 4:47 into the middle frame with a short-handed goal from the slot to make it a 3-0 game.

With 11:30 remaining in the second, Edvinsson found Hanas for a one-timer from the right circle to cut the lead to 3-1 after a power play expired three seconds prior. Following a Griffins turnover on their side of the ice, Adam Beckman took advantage and made it 4-1 with 8:30 to go in the stanza.

Immediately following Beckman’s goal, the Griffins made a change between the pipes with Victor Brattstrom taking over for Jussi Olkinuora (14 saves).

The Wild made it 5-1 in the final period when Rockford, Mich., native Mitchell Chaffee found the top shelf of the cage at 4:06.

Berggren followed 2:51 later on a 5-on-3 opportunity from the right circle as he snuck the puck just inside the right post off a Hirose feed from behind the net. The youngster from Sweden made things interesting late in the third with another power-play score from the right faceoff circle with 4:45 to go to make it a 5-3 contest.

After pulling Brattstrom with 3:23 remaining in the game, Simon Johansson found the empty net at 17:19 from the opposite end of the ice to cap off the early-afternoon contest.

Notes
- Givani Smith made his return to the lineup after a short stint with the Detroit Red Wings, but Matt Luff remains in the Motor City on recall.
- Cedric Lacroix celebrated his 28th birthday during today’s game. Lacroix has two assists in four contests in the 2022-23 campaign.
- In their past three two-game series this season against San Diego, Toronto and Texas, the Griffins have suffered a loss in the first game. However, Grand Rapids has went on to win the following contest.

Box Score
Grand Rapids 0 1 2 - 3
Iowa 1 3 2 - 6

1st Period-1, Iowa, Ronning 1 (Mermis, Cramarossa), 4:09 (PP). Penalties-Johansson Gr (holding the stick), 0:49; L’Esperance Gr (interference), 3:35; Giroux Ia (slashing), 8:08; Andreasson Gr (high-sticking), 16:14; Hanas Gr (unsportsmanlike conduct), 19:45.

2nd Period-2, Iowa, Ronning 2 (Cramarossa, Mermis), 1:45 (PP). 3, Iowa, Ronning 3 (Beckman), 4:47 (SH). 4, Grand Rapids, Hanas 4 (Edvinsson), 8:30. 5, Iowa, Beckman 3 (Walker), 11:30. Penalties-Cramarossa Ia (diving/embellishment), 3:47; Kaspick Ia (slashing), 6:27; Hanas Gr (high-sticking), 15:11.

3rd Period-6, Iowa, Chaffee 1 (Walker, Sustr), 4:06. 7, Grand Rapids, Berggren 2 (Hirose, L’Esperance), 6:57 (PP). 8, Grand Rapids, Berggren 3 (Czarnik, L’Esperance), 15:15 (PP). 9, Iowa, Johansson 1 17:19 (EN). Penalties-Baddock Ia (tripping), 5:25; Walker Ia (slashing), 5:51; Shine Gr (holding), 10:32; Edvinsson Gr (roughing), 14:14; Hicketts Ia (roughing), 14:14; Johansson Ia (tripping), 15:05; Lashoff Gr (interference), 17:41.

Shots on Goal-Grand Rapids 9-6-11-26. Iowa 10-13-15-38.

Power Play Opportunities-Grand Rapids 2 / 6; Iowa 2 / 7.

Goalies-Grand Rapids, Olkinuora 2-3-0 (18 shots-14 saves); Brattstrom 1-0-0 (19 shots-18 saves). Iowa, McIntyre 2-3-0 (26 shots-23 saves).

A-9,077

Three Stars
1. IA Ronning (hat trick); 2. IA Joseph Cramarossa (two assists); 3. IA Beckman (game-winning goal, assist).

Record / Next Game
Grand Rapids: 4-4-0-0 (8 pts.) / Fri., Nov. 4 at Iowa 8 p.m. EDT
Iowa: 2-3-0-2 (6 pts.) / Fri., Nov. 4 vs. Grand Rapids 7 p.m. CDT

Photo by Tim Garland/Wild