GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Tomas Jurco had fans tipping their caps at the Van on Tuesday night.
Jurco scored three times and Teemu Pulkkinen added a goal and two assists to lead the Grand Rapids Griffins to a 5-2 win over the Texas Stars in Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinal series. The Stars still lead the best-of-seven series 2-1.
Jurco scored the only two goals of the first period. His last goal came in the second period and capped off the scoring for the Griffins, giving the home team a 5-0 lead.
Andrej Nestrasil started the scoring in the second period. Just 25 seconds in, Pulkkinen made a pretty behind-the-back pass to Nestrasil who buried his third of the postseason.
Pulkkinen made it 4-0 Grand Rapids with his third of the postseason 8:23 into the second period. Texas pulled starting goaltender Jack Campbell after the Pulkkinen goal, but Campbell would return to the Stars net to start the third period.
Texas scored twice in the third period to cap the game’s scoring. Griffins starting goaltender Petr Mrazek made 35 saves.
Game 4 of the series is Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. in Grand Rapids.
