Griffs take 6-2 win to close in on Calder Cup berth

Six different players contributed goals as the Grand Rapids Griffins collected a 6-2 win against the San Jose Barracudas at the Van Andel Arena on Friday (May 26, 2017) to help the Griffins grab a commanding 3-1 lead in its Best of Seven American Hockey League Western Conference Championship series.

It was the visiting Cudas on the board first as Colin Blackwell sank the only goal of the first period with 6:03 to go.

The Griffins struck back hard with four unanswered second period goals started by Tyler Bertuzzi who tied it up with his sixth of the post season 4:07 into the session.

Eric Tangradi notched his second of the playoffs to put the Griffins in front to stay just before the halfway mark of the period and Tomas Nosek’s seventh of the post season, scored about three minutes later ultimately stood up as the game winner.

Martin Frk rounded out the middle period barrage with his goal 2:39 from the buzzer.

Adam Helweka pulled one back for the Barracudas 2:58 into the final period but Ben Street restored the Griffs’ three goal cushion 50 seconds later and Evegeny Svechnikov finished it off with his powerplay goal with 2:43 to play.

Jared Coreau turned aside 26 of 28 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Griffins and Troy Grosenick was kept busy at the opposite end, stopping 30 shots.

The Griffins are now one win away from the Western Conference title and a berth in the Calder Cup Championship series and the team is hoping to clinch the win in Game Five also to be played at the Van Andel Arena on Saturday (May 27). If the Barracudas can grab a win in that one the series will shift back to the SAP Center at San Jose for Games Six and Seven, if necessary.