Jonatan Berggren comes up big again as Griffins oust IceHogs in first-round playoff series

Jonatan Berggren scored his third game-winning goal of the series as the Grand Rapids Griffins clinched a first-round series win Sunday in Rockford, defeating the IceHogs 4-2 in the Calder Cup playoffs.

The Griffins won the best-of-five series in four games, 3-1.

Berggren, who scored two game-winning overtime goals earlier in the series, scored at 5 minutes of the third period, giving the Griffins a 3-1 lead.

After Rockford cut the lead to 3-2, Griffins forward Marco Kasper added an empty-net goal at 18 minutes 55 seconds — Kasper's second goal of the series — sending Grand Rapids into the second round.

Carter Mazur and Austin Czarnik scored first-period goals for Grand Rapids, after Rockford had taken a 1-0 lead. It was Czarnik's third goal of the series, and Mazur's first.

Goaltender Sebastian Cossa stopped 21 of 23 shots to earn the victory.

Grand Rapids will face the winner of the Texas Stars/Milwaukee Admirals series, which Texas leads 2-0 (best-of -five).

tkulfan@detroitnews.com

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