The Wolves are headed back to the playoffs!
On Wednesday night, the Wolves clinched a berth in the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs when they defeated the Griffins 4-3 in Grand Rapids, Mich.
The victory dropped the Wolves’ Magic Number in the American Hockey League’s Central Division to zero and secured the five-time league champions’ spot in the playoffs after a two-season absence.
Josiah Slavin, Justin Robidas, Juha Jaaska and Bradly Nadeau scored goals and Ryan Suzuki chipped in with three assists to also help the Wolves pull into a tie with the Griffins for third place in the Central Division with seven regular-season games remaining.
The Griffins seized an early lead on a goal Tim Gettinger but the Wolves answered on Slavin’s score.
The Wolves captain took a terrific feed from Charles Alexis-Legault and knocked in his 10th goal of the season from the slot past Griffins netminder Sebastian Cossa to make it 1-1. Legault and Nick Swaney recorded assists on Slavin’s goal that evened things headed into the first intermission.
The Griffins notched the only goal of the second as Amadeus Lombardi found the back of the net.
In the third, the Wolves knotted the score on Robidas’ power-play goal. The rookie forward one-timed a pass from Suzuki from the slot and beat Cossa to the stick side. Suzuki and Ty Smith had assists on Robidas’ 17th marker of the season.
The Wolves kept coming and took the lead 1 minute, 23 seconds later on Jaaska’s score. Smith found his teammate camped near the left post and slipped the puck to Jaaska, who fired it by Cossa to the glove side. Smith and Suzuki earned assists on the goal that gave the Wolves a 3-2 advantage.
Grand Rapids answered right back when Lombardi notched his second tally of the game :23 later.
The offensive fireworks continued when the Wolves went ahead 4-3 on Nadeau’s team-leading 28th goal of the season with 5:16 remaining. The 19-year-old rookie spun while in the slot and redirected a shot from Nikita Pavlychev that trickled into the goal. Assists on the game-winner went to Pavlychev and Suzuki.
Spencer Martin (31 saves) earned the win in goal for the Wolves while Cossa (34 saves) took the loss for the Griffins.
Chicago improved to 33-28-4-0 on the season while Grand Rapids fell to 32-26-4-2.
Matchups and dates for the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs will be announced as the regular season moves along.
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