Belleville Bound

This Week’s Games
GRIFFINS at Belleville Senators // Fri., Oct. 26 // 7 p.m. // CAA Arena
GRIFFINS at Belleville Senators // Sat., Oct. 27 // 7 p.m. // CAA Arena
Listen: WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM at 6:35 p.m. both nights
Watch: AHLTV
Season Series: First and second of four meetings overall, first and second of two at CAA Arena
All-Time Series: First meeting
NHL Affiliation: Ottawa Senators
Noteworthy: Grand Rapids spent three seasons (1999-02) as Ottawa’s affiliate.

Last Week’s Results
Wed., Oct. 17 Texas Stars 6 at GRIFFINS 3 1-4-0-0 (2 points, T6th Central Division)
Sat., Oct. 20 Chicago Wolves 3 at GRIFFINS 5 2-4-0-0 (4 points, T6th Central)

Status Update: The Grand Rapids Griffins are 2-4-0-0 after splitting last week’s divisional games against the Texas Stars and Chicago Wolves. Grand Rapids concludes its eight-game October schedule this weekend when the Griffins travel to Belleville for the inaugural matchups against the Senators.

Follow the Leader(s):
Points: Carter Camper and Matt Puempel (5)
Goals: Puempel (3)
Assists: Camper (4)
Plus-Minus: Dylan McIlrath, Puempel (+2)
PIM: Turner Elson (18)
Wins: Harri Sateri (2)
GAA: Sateri (3.43)
Save %: Sateri (0.869)

Last Week’s Notes:
Wednesday vs. Texas – Wednesday was the first time in six career games against Grand Rapids that Texas goaltender Landon Bow allowed more than two goals...Matt Finn and Chris Terry scored their first goals as Griffins...Wade Megan’s penalty shot attempt at 6:08 of the first period (no goal) was the first since Matt Lorito’s unsuccessful attempt on Feb. 10, 2018 vs. Stockton...Texas scored four unanswered goals in the third period and finished 3-for-7 on the power play.
Saturday vs. Chicago – Grand Rapids snapped a six-game losing streak to the Wolves and handed Chicago its first loss of the season…Defensemen Brian Lashoff and Libor Sulak made their season debuts with the team…Defenseman Chris Carlisle, signed to a professional tryout on Oct. 18, made his Griffins debut…Defenseman Vili Saarijarvi scored his first AHL goal at 19:52 of the first period…Harri Sateri picked up the secondary assist on Saarijarvi’s goal, the first assist by a Griffins goaltender since Matej Machovsky on March 25, 2018 at Chicago…Grand Rapids’ penalty kill finished 6-for-6 after allowing three power play goals on Wednesday.

Finn Released: The Griffins today released defenseman Matt Finn from his professional tryout and he will return to the ECHL’s Florida Everblades. Signed to a PTO on Oct. 3, Finn skated in four of six games with the Griffins. He tallied a goal last Wednesday, his first in the AHL since April 15, 2016 when he was with Bridgeport.

Hronek Assigned: The Red Wings yesterday assigned defenseman Filip Hronek to the Griffins. Hronek became the 171st Griffins alumnus to play in the NHL when he made his debut with the Red Wings on Oct. 4 vs. Columbus. He picked up his first NHL point on an assist against Toronto on Oct. 11 and scored his first NHL goal two days later at Boston. In total, the 6-foot, 178-pound blueliner has tallied three points (1-2—3), 18 PIM and 13 shots while averaging 19:11 of ice time in six appearances with Detroit. In 2017-18, Hronek tied the Griffins’ single-season scoring record for rookie defensemen with 39 points (11-28—39) in 67 games and was named to the AHL All-Rookie Team.

Saari, Not Saari: Second-year defenseman Vili Saarijarvi notched his first AHL tally at 19:52 of the first period during last Saturday’s 5-3 win against Chicago. A third-round selection by Detroit in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, Saarijarvi is on a three-game point streak and ties with Jake Chelios for most points by a team blueliner (1-2—3).

Veteran Presence: The Griffins have four players with four or more points through six games. Three of the four are veterans – Matt Puempel, Carter Camper and Chris Terry – with the lone exception being rookie Filip Zadina.

Z-Score: The sixth overall selection in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft by Detroit, Filip Zadina ties for second on the team in goals (2) and third in points (4). The 18-year-old is the highest Red Wings draft pick ever to suit up for the Griffins. Only three players in Griffins history were drafted higher than No. 6: Jason Spezza (No. 2 by Ottawa in 2001), Darrin Shannon (No. 4 by Pittsburgh in 1988) and Stephen Weiss (No. 4 by Florida in 2001). Dylan Larkin (selected 15th overall in the 2014 Draft) was the previous highest Red Wings draft selection to play for Grand Rapids.

Happy Camper: First-year Griffin Carter Camper shows three points in the last two games and paces the team in assists (4) while tying for the team lead in points (5). The eighth-year pro is coming off a 2017-18 campaign in which he totaled a career-high 61 points (16-45—61) in 68 games between Cleveland and Tucson.

Puemped Up: Fresh off his two-goal output last Saturday, Matt Puempel leads the team in goals (3) and ties for the team lead in points (5). The sixth-year pro has two multi-point outings through six games.

Old Affiliates: The Belleville Senators are in their second season as the primary affiliate to the Ottawa Senators. The Griffins spent three seasons (1999-2002) as Ottawa’s affiliate, including their last two as members of the International Hockey League (1999-2001) and their first in the American Hockey League (2001-02). From 1999-2002, the Griffins won three straight division titles while compiling a 146-71-11-4-12 regular season record (0.653) to go along with an 18-14 playoff mark (0.563). The Senators showed similar success during the affiliation, advancing to the Stanley Cup Playoffs all three seasons and showing a 128-76-29-13 regular season record. Of the Griffins’ 171 alumni to play in the NHL, 38 came from 1999-02.

This Week in Griffins History: On Oct. 24, 2000, the Senators exercised the option for a third year of their affiliation with the Griffins.

New Place to Play: Belleville, Ontario, will mark the 52nd different road city and CAA Arena will be the 63rd different road venue the Griffins have competed in since the franchise’s inception in 1996.

Blueliner Movement: The Griffins’ defenseman roster looks quite a bit different than it did a week ago. Last Wednesday, the Red Wings assigned Libor Sulak to the Griffins while the Griffins released Mackenze Stewart from his professional tryout, returning him to the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye. Last Thursday, the Griffins signed Chris Carlisle to a professional tryout and assigned Marcus Crawford to Toledo. Last Friday, the Red Wings activated Brian Lashoff off injured reserve and assigned him to Grand Rapids. Yesterday, the Red Wings assigned Filip Hronek to the Griffins and today, the Griffins released Matt Finn from his professional tryout.

Defensive Experience: Last Tuesday, the Griffins’ roster of seven defensemen combined for 721 career AHL/NHL games played. Fast forward to today, and Grand Rapids’ eight defensemen combine for 1,400 career AHL/NHL GP.

Sulak Skates: Libor Sulak made his Griffins season debut last Saturday, finishing with a plus-one rating and two shots. The 170th Griffins alumnus to play in the NHL, Sulak has skated in six games with the Red Wings this season, totaling six PIM and seven shots while averaging 19:22 of ice time.

Lash is Back: Brian Lashoff made his season debut last Saturday after missing the first five games due to injury. The 28-year-old, who played his first Griffins game during the latter stages of the 2008-09 season, has appeared in 401 regular season contests. He ranks second on the club’s all-time games played list, trailing only all-time great Travis Richards (655 GP from 1996-06).

CC in GR: Signed to a PTO last Thursday, blueliner Chris Carlisle made his Griffins debut last Saturday and logged seven PIM. The 23-year-old has also appeared in two games with the ECHL’s Manchester Monarchs this season, his first back in North America after helping HC Bolzano win the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (Austria) championship in 2017-18. Prior to this season, Carlisle played in 139 career AHL games with Binghamton from 2015-17.

No Shots For You: Grand Rapids has given up more than 30 shots just once (32 last Wednesday vs. Texas) and ties for third in the AHL in shots against (26.0). The Griffins have outshot four of six opponents so far.

Friendly Confines: The Griffins have won two of their first three home games and are averaging 4.67 goals at Van Andel Arena.

Only the Beginning: Grand Rapids has started a season with two victories or less in its first six games for the fifth time since 2012-13. Each of the previous four times, in 2017-18 (started 2-3-0-1 after winning 2017 Calder Cup), 2015-16 (started 1-5-0-0), 2013-14 (started 2-2-1-1 after winning 2013 Calder Cup) and 2012-13 (started 1-3-1-1), the team went on to qualify for the Calder Cup Playoffs. Of course, the 2012-13 campaign ended with the club capturing its first Calder Cup.

Belleville Notes: Belleville is in its second AHL season…The Senators make the return trip to West Michigan on Jan. 11-12…Belleville had 17 players play in at least one NHL game during their inaugural 2017-18 season…Goaltender Mike McKenna is in his first season with Belleville and has been on the losing end in the last two Calder Cup Finals (2017 Syracuse, 2018 Texas)…McKenna was the goalie of record in all six games against Grand Rapids during the Griffins’ 2017 title run…Belleville is the first of two North Division teams the Griffins will face this season, as Grand Rapids and Cleveland will also meet up four times…Grand Rapids is 137-89-1-10-17 all time (0.594) against current North Division members, with 92 of those games coming against Cleveland, 72 against Rochester and 66 against Toronto.


Photo at top by Sam Iannamico/Griffins