Justin Wright opened the scoring just 53 seconds into the first as his wrist shot beat Espen Reager to his blocker side. Less than a minute later, newcomer Layten Liffrig, who joined the team from the Minnesota Magicians of the NAHL, scored his first goal in his first game with the Grizzlies. That goal would be the eventual game-winner for Rochester despite coming at 1:39 of the first. Matthew Shaw, Kyle Bauer, Connor Mahony, Noah Roitman, and Mason Thingvold would tack on five additional goals for the Grizzlies, with Thingvold’s being his first of the season.
Wright would get his second of the game at 10:57 of the second, marking his first multi-goal game since Feb. 20 of last season. Gus Immken would break the shutout for Kaleb Bents, finishing off a nice passing play with Jack Dapron to make it 8-1. Austin Meers added a late goal in the third period for Rochester to round out the scoring for the home team. Bents stopped 29 of 30 shots to improve to 5-0 on the year and will improve upon his already minuscule goals-against average of 1.50.
The Grizzlies improve to 15-1-0-0 on the season, good for 30 points and first place in the Central Division. Rochester and St. Louis will play Saturday night from the Rochester Recreation Center with puck drop set for 7:05 PM. It will be the second evening where the Grizzlies will be wearing military-themed sweaters in honor of Veteran’s Day. For information on how to bid on the sweaters, check out the Grizzlies’ social media pages.