Nosek notches overtime winner for Griffins

The Chicago Wolves fought back to even its American Hockey League Best of Five Central Division Semi-Final with the host Charlotte Checkers on Friday (April 21) while the Grand Rapids Griffins the other division semi with a win against the visiting Milwaukee Admirals.

After being shutout the previous night the Wolves struck back with a goal in each period and a 3-2 win, evening its series at Bojangles Coliseum while Tomas Nosek scored 9:32 into overtime to lift the host Griffins to a 4-3 overtime win against the Ads at Van Andel Arena.

Wolves 3 Checkers 2

The Checkers sent Scott McCollum to the crease again after his shutout win in the opening game, but this time the Wolves needed just 4:15 to find a way past him, Alex Friesen scoring the lone goal of the opening period with help from Samuel Blais and James Wisniewski.

Andrew Miller scored his second goal of the series to pull the Checkers even 3:53 into the second but less than two minutes later Blais put the Wolves in front again, from Adam Musil and Wisniewski.

Dennis Robertson’s late goal for the Checkers had teams even heading to the final 20 minutes.

Musil fired the game winner from Blais and Morgan Ellis and Ville Husso was unbeatable the rest of the way, turning aside 37 of 39 shots to pick up the win in goal.

McCollum finished the game with a 32-save effort.

Game three of the series will be played at the Allstate Arena in Chicago on Sunday afternoon and the fourth game will be on Tuesday night. If needed, a fifth and deciding game will be also be played in Chicago on Wednesday night.

Griffins 4 Admirals 3 (ot)

The Griffins and Admirals have played some great games against each other this season and the post season started out with some excitement as well as the host Griffins battled back from a 3-2 deficit after 40 minutes to force overtime and ultimately open the series with a victory.

Both teams scored twice in the first period, Milwaukee opening the scoring with a goal from Frederick Gaudreau, from Alexandre Carrier and Trevor Smith at the 12:08 mark.

The Griffins struck back with two goals in 13 seconds, the first off the stick of Matthew Ford, from Nosek and Robbie Russo with 3:37 to go in the period and the other from Evgeny Svechnikov off a feed from Kyle Criscuolo.

The lead lasted just 68 seconds before Petter Granberg pulled the Admirals even from Gaudreau and Mike Ribiero.

Gaudreau picked up his third point of the contest with the lone goal of the middle period, an unassisted shorthanded marker and the Admirals carried a 3-2 cushion into the third.

Matt Lorito pulled the home team even just past the halfway mark of the period from Tyler Bertuzzi and Nathan Paetsch, setting the stage for Nosek with help from Lorito and Russo in the extra period.

Jared Coreau picked up the win in goal, stopping 32 of 35 through 69:32 for the Griffins while Marek Mazanec handled 38 of 42 in goal for the Admirals.

Game two will be played in Grand Rapids on Sunday with the series shifting to Milwaukee for Game 3 on Wednesday night. If need, Game 4 will also be played at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena on April 28 and a fifth game would be played back at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids on May 1.