Coreau’s road win has Calder Cup in sights of Griffins

A solid 31-save effort from Jared Coreau, including stops on 20 of the first 21 shots he faced, allowed the visiting Grand Rapids Griffins a chance to build a 3-0 lead the host Syracuse Crunch could not overcome at the Onondaga County War Memorial Arena on Friday (June 9, 2017).

The Crunch did manage to pull two back, but fell 3-2 as the Griffs pulled off the first road win in the series so far and grabbed a commanding 3-1 lead in the Best of Seven American Hockey League Calder Cup Championship series.

While Coreau was unbeaten in goal through the first 20 minutes, the Griffins grabbed control with a pair of goals. Ben Street notched the first, his seventh of the post season exactly 10 minutes into the contest and the other came from Dan Renouf with 2:12 to play in the frame, his first.

Renouf added a second 10:33 into the middle frame, but the home team finally found its way past Coreau a little over a minute later, Yanni Gourde notching his seventh of the playoffs.

The Griffins carried the 3-1 lead into the final period but Michael Bournival made things interesting with his eigth goal at the 7:29 mark to get the host Crunch to within a shot of tying the contest.

The Crunch outshot the Griffins 12-7 down the stretch, but managed just the one goal, allowing the Griffins to get within a win of hoisting the Calder Cup championship trophy.

Mike McKenna turned in 32 saves for the Crunch who will host the Griffins one more time on Saturday (June 10) before the series shifts back to Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids.

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