Chicago Wolves/Carolina Hurricanes forward Noah Philp (15) was designated Player of the Game for his two goals. (Source: James Guillory-Imagn Images)The Chicago Wolves beat the Grand Rapids Griffins 3-2 to advance to the Western Conference Finals where they will face the Colorado Eagles.
Grand Rapids outshot Chicago 9-8 in the first period. The Griffins went 0-for-2 in the power play while the Wolves went 0-for-1. No team scored any goals after 20 minutes.
In the second period, Grand Rapids would snatch early momentum, outshooting Chicago 8-1 in the first 13:09 minutes including two shots in their third power play. The Griffins would not score, but then after the 13:16 mark, Grand Rapids would drop all the momentum they had and put Chicago on the man-advantage twice with the Wolves putting up four straight shots to end the frame. The last one ended up behind the back of the net courtesy of forward Noah Philp to give Chicago the 1-0 lead after two periods.
Philp would strike once again with his second goal at the 4:02 mark in the final frame when a puck shot by defenseman Cal Foote deflected off Philp's stick into the net to put Chicago up 2-0. With less than four minutes to go, Wolves forwards Ryan Suzuki and AHL All-Star Justin Robidas would get a 2-on-1 opportunity which would be finished off by Robidas to go up 3-0 and close the lid on the Griffins' season. Grand Rapids managed to keep the ending dramatic after Griffins forward Eduards Tralmaks scored in an empty Chicago net after Wolves forward Domenick Fensore gave the puck away behind the goal, and forward Sheldon Dries scored Grand Rapids' second goal 15 seconds before end of regulation.
Chicago goalie Cayden Primeau made 33 saves off 35 shots for a save percentage of 0.943.
Grand Rapids goalie Michal Postava made 18 saves off 21 shots for a save percentage of 0.857.