Alex Doucet walked in and snapped the puck in from the left hashmarks to open the scoring for the Griffins at 4:37 in the first period. Charlotte evened it with 12:41 to go when William Skoog knocked one across the slot to Robert Mastrosimone on a 2-on-1 and he potted the one-timer. With 40 seconds left, Grand Rapids reclaimed a one-goal lead. Buium carried the disc into the left circle, centered it to Ondrej Becher across the slot and he ripped it past Kirill Gerasimyuk.
The Griffins grabbed a 3-1 advantage while on the power play in the second frame when Buium passed one to Tuomisto at the blue line, and he sniped it in with 4:31 to go. Riese Gaber forced a turnover and pushed himself out front to sweep the puck past Cossa, putting the Checkers back within one at 17:57.
Cossa made a tremendous save 2:40 into the final slate when Jake Livingstone cracked one at him from the left circle, it trickled behind the netminder, and he reached back to pull it off the goal line with his stick. The Checkers yanked Gerasimyuk with 2:02 to play, and Nate Danielson popped in the first of two empty-netters with 1:45 on the clock, followed by Sheldon Dries 63 seconds later, who flipped the puck in from the neutral zone to claim the 5-2 win.
Notes
Ian Mitchell skated in his 300th game as a pro.The Griffins improved to 26-0 when notching the game’s first goal.Grand Rapids went 3-for-3 on its league-leading penalty kill.
Box Score
Grand Rapids 2 1 2 – 5
Charlotte 1 1 0 – 2
1st Period-1, Grand Rapids, Doucet 5 (Brandsegg-Nygård, Lombardi), 4:37. 2, Charlotte, Mastrosimone 9 (Skoog, Carrick), 7:19. 3, Grand Rapids, Becher 6 (Buium, Watson), 19:20. Penalties-Watson Gr (roughing), 5:21; Foote Clt (roughing), 5:21; Seger Gr (holding), 9:49; Mitchell Gr (delay of game), 13:01; Carrick Clt (roughing), 17:05.
2nd Period-4, Grand Rapids, Tuomisto 7 (Buium, Watson), 15:29 (PP). 5, Charlotte, Gaber 8 17:57. Penalties-Skoog Clt (closing hand on puck), 13:44; Tuomisto Gr (cross-checking), 19:40.
3rd Period-6, Grand Rapids, Danielson 3 (Rychlovský), 18:15 (EN). 7, Grand Rapids, Dries 17 19:18 (EN). Penalties-Watson Gr (misconduct), 18:15.
Shots on Goal-Grand Rapids 8-6-7-21. Charlotte 8-15-17-40.
Power Play Opportunities-Grand Rapids 1 / 2; Charlotte 0 / 3.
Goalies-Grand Rapids, Cossa 20-4-2 (40 shots-38 saves). Charlotte, Gerasimyuk 4-5-1 (19 shots-16 saves).
A-8,142
Three Stars
1. GR Tuomisto (game-winner) 2. GR Cossa (W, 38 saves) 3. CLT Gaber (goal)
Record/Next Game
Grand Rapids: 35-7-2-1 (73 pts.) / Fri., Feb. 13 vs. Texas 7 p.m.
Charlotte: 26-15-3-0 (55 pts.) / Sat., Feb. 14 vs. Hartford 4 p.m.
Photo by Charlotte Checkers