TORONTO, Ont – Philippe Dupuis scored 45 seconds into overtime to give the Toronto Marlies a 3-2 victory over the Grand Rapids Griffins on Saturday afternoon at Ricoh Coliseum. Grand Rapids (32-29-7-4) picked up one point to move within four points of the final playoff spot with four games remaining in the regular season. The team will travel to Rochester to a game against the Americans at 7:05 p.m. on Tuesday before hosting Chicago for its regular season home finale on Friday at 7 p.m. The Marlies (43-23-4-3), who beat Grand Rapids 4-2 at Van Andel last night, picked up where they left off last night and got out to a 1-0 lead 10:33 into the opening frame. With Toronto captain Ryan Hamilton screening Griffins goaltender Tom McCollum , Jerry D’Amigo found himself with time in the slot, and he made no mistake in giving the home team the 1-0 advantage with a quick wrist shot. It didn’t take the Griffins long to rebound from a first period that saw them go down 1-0 while being outshot 15-9. Just 28 seconds into the second frame, Doug Janik took a feed from Tomas Tatar and wired a slap shot from the left point through traffic and past Toronto netminder Jussi Rynnas to knot the game at one. The Griffins took the lead 6:03 into the second period. Louis-Marc Aubry blocked an attempted to clear the zone by Toronto and made a nice play to find Fabian Brunnstrom in front of the Marlies net. Brunnstrom put a fake on Rynnas and placed a backhand shot between the goaltender and the post to give the Griffins a 2-1 advantage heading into the third period. Marcel Mueller tied the game at two when he beat McCollum with a backhand shot from the slot after collecting a pass from Nicolas Deschamps at 14:56 of the third period. The goal gave Mueller and Deschamps four points against the Griffins in the teams’ home-and-home set this weekend. Forty-five seconds into overtime, Dupuis raced down the right wing and ripped a shot past McCollum to give the Marlies their fourth straight win over the Griffins, after Grand Rapids took the first four games of the season series. McCollum earned third-star honors with 32 saves on 35 shots, while Rynnas earned the victory with 33 stops. Notes : Francis Pare matched Gustav Nyquist’s team-best eight-game point streak with the assist he picked up on the Griffins’ first goal. Pare has 11 points (2-9—11) in his past eight contests. Three Stars : 1. TOR Dupuis (game-winning goal); 2. TOR D’Amigo (goal); 3. GR McCollum (32 saves)
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