The Grand Rapids Griffins beat the Chicago Wolves 5-1 on Sunday afternoon at Van Andel Arena behind a hat trick from Red Wings prospect Jesse Kiiskinen, closing a three-games-in-three-days weekend at 3-1-1 on the season. Chicago is 0-4.
Kiiskinen did most of his damage before the game was 22 minutes old. The Finnish forward opened the scoring at 5:45 of the first period from Alex Kannok Leipert and Shai Buium, then made it 2-0 at 11:49 with assists from Kienan Draper and William Lagesson. He finished the hat trick 1:20 into the second period, with Dylan James and goaltender Michal Postava picking up the helpers.
Stiven Sardarian got Chicago on the board at 5:58 of the second, set up by Viktor Neuchev and Ivan Ryabkin. Grand Rapids answered early in the third. James scored his first goal of the season at 2:07, with Kiiskinen and Lagesson assisting, and Dominik Shine added a power-play goal at 5:20 from Carter Bear and Wilmer Skoog.
Kiiskinen finished with three goals, an assist, and a plus-4 rating, and he now has five goals and seven points through five games in what is his first full AHL season. James had a goal and an assist, and Lagesson had two assists.
Postava stopped 22 of 23 shots a day after the Griffins dropped a game in Milwaukee. Zach Sawchenko made 17 saves on 22 shots for Chicago. Shots were nearly even, 23-22 in the Wolves’ favor, but Grand Rapids went 1-for-5 on the power play and killed all three Chicago chances. Attendance was 3,659.
The Griffins are off until next weekend, when they visit the Rockford IceHogs on Saturday, Oct. 17, then host Rockford at Van Andel Arena on Sunday, Oct. 18, at 4 p.m.
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