WINDY CITY WOES

ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Grand Rapids Griffins dropped their eighth consecutive road contest Saturday night, falling to Chicago Wolves 5 to 3 at Allstate Arena.

The Wolves jumped out to a quick lead as Guillaume Desbiens ended a 29 game goal scoring drought with a score off early Chicago pressure just 3:20 into the contest.

Ryan Oulahen drew the Griffins even with a short handed goal at the 9:50 mark, depositing a deflected pass into an empty net for Grand Rapids’ twenty third shorthanded goal of the season.

Following a late first period Chicago goal, Grand Rapids answered as Jeff Campbell took a rebound off a Jonathan Ericsson shot and fired it past Chicago goalie Michael Garnett to tie the score up at two at the 9:47 mark of the second.

However, Chicago reestablished their lead later in the period with an even strength goal from Cory Larose and a power play score off the crossbar from Mark Popovic, pushing their lead over Grand Rapids to 4 to 2.

But the Griffins cut the lead back down to one early in the third period when Tony Voce rocketed home a power play goal just 3:48 into the period on a pass from Eric Himelfarb, who finally scored a point after dominating the Wolves’ defense all game long.

The rest of the third period was a hard fought battle as the Griffins launched several attempts to tie the score, but were turned away time and time again by the Wolves, who added a final minute tally to seal a 5 to 3 victory.

The Griffins, who have not won on the road since March 9, will look to end their road woes in Hamilton on Wednesday, April 11 before they conclude the home portion of their regular season schedule by hosting those same Hamilton Bulldogs next Saturday, April 14.