Landon Ferraro scored twice in Saturday’s contest. The fourth-year forward has scored five times in the last four games. Photo/Grand Rapids Griffins
[dropcap]A[/dropcap] pair of goals from Landon Ferraro coupled with an assist helped the Griffins to a decisive win over the Chicago Wolves Saturday, 5-1.
Ferraro — who is in his fourth year as a Griffins forward — has scored five times in the last four games. His first Saturday against Chicago came just 3:49 into the game and set the course for Grand Rapids. The Griffins would jump out to a 4-0 lead.
The first goal for Ferraro came courtesy of Marek Tvrdon when he found Ferraro at the bottom of the right circle. Ferraro put the puck between Joey Binnington and the near post.
The game was made 2-0 about halfway through the opening frame when the Griffins fell short of a scramble around the Wolves’ net. The puck came out to Nathan Paetsch who lasered a feed from above the left circle to the opposite circle to find Andy Miele.
Miele whipped the puck into the top of the net before Binnington could slide across.
A pair of goals just 22 seconds apart blew the game open for the Griffins in the second period. Mitch Callahan slapped a loose puck home at the 14:16 mark. Brennan Evans then snapped the puck home from a drop pass from Tomas Nosek for the 4-0 advantage.
Chicago pulled Binnington at this point in favor of veteran Matt Climie. By the time of Climie’s arrival, the Wolves had been outshot by a 24-12 margin.
The Wolves got on the board 67 seconds into the final frame. Magnus Oaajarvi threw a pass out front to Ty Rattie, who then beat Nick Jensen to stuff the puck past Tom McCollum.
Ferraro would strike again 6:33 into the final period to restore the Griffins four-goal cushion. The forward drove to the net to knock home a rebound after Climie stopped Miele at the doorstep.
Anthony Mantha was given Grand Rapids’ first penalty shot of the season with just under four minutes remaining. Climie stuck out his left pad to thwart the attempt and keep the game at 5-1.
McCollum notched his fifth straight win with 19 saves, while Binnington stopped 20 of 24 shots in the loss. Climie registered nine saves in relief duty.
The Griffins are now 9-2-1-1 in their last 13 home games after starting 0-4-1-0 at home. Grand Rapids boasts an overall record of 19-12-3-1. After finishing their longest home stand of the seasn, the Griffins will hit the road for three straight, making their first-ever visit to Utica, New York for a 7 p.m. tilt against the North Division-leading Comets.
