Grand Rapids beat Oklahoma City in two straight games over the weekend. Photo/Grand Rapids Griffins
[dropcap]G[/dropcap]rand Rapids earned their second straight victory Saturday night over the Oklahoma City Barons in a 4-3 performance. Andrej Nestrasil scored twice on two different power plays with assists from Mitch Callahan on both.
With a record of 39-18-2-4, Grand Rapids sits atop the Western Conference with 84 points, two points above second place Texas.
The first tally of Saturday night’s game happened at 7:54 of the first when Callahan chased the puck around Richard Bachman’s net and gave it to Nestrasil, who tapped the puck past Bachman. Alden Hirschfeld netted his first goal of the season at the 12:56 mark when he took a shot and got his own rebound, putting the puck in for a 2-0 lead.
Roman Horak got the Barons on the board with a minute left in the first frame during a power play. Alone in the high slot, Horak sent a rocket past Griffins’ Tom McCollum.
Brad Hunt evened things up for Oklahoma City just under eight minutes into the second off a one-timer.
With 1:34 left in the second, Jeff Hogan tipped in a shot from David McIntyre to help the Griffins retake the lead at 3-2. Nestrasil and Callahan found more power play success at 8:47 of the third frame to extend the lead further.
A Tyler Pitlick shot from the middle at 12:18 into the third helped the Barons narrow the gap, but ultimately it wasn’t enough for them to extend the game.
McCollum earned his second straight win and stopped 27 of 30 shots. Grand Rapids will continue their road trip this weekend when they travel to Iowa for a two-game set this weekend. The Griffins and Wild will play at 8:05 PM on Friday and 2:05 PM on Saturday.
