Chicago Showdown

Upcoming Games
GRIFFINS at Chicago Wolves (12-2-0-1) // Thurs., April 1 // 3 p.m. // Triphahn Center Ice Arena
Watch: AHLTV
Listen: ESPN 96.1 FM
Season Series: 1-3-0-0 Overall, 1-0-0-0 Home, 0-3-0-0 Road. Fifth of 10 meetings overall, fourth of five in Hoffman Estates
All-Time Series: 88-67-2-6-3 Overall, 43-29-2-4-2 Home, 45-38-0-2-1 Road
NHL Affiliations: Carolina Hurricanes (primary), Nashville Predators (2020-21)
Noteworthy: The Griffins are 7-1-2-0 against all opponents besides Chicago.

GRIFFINS at Cleveland Monsters (6-5-1-0) // Sat., April 3 // 7 p.m. // Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
GRIFFINS at Cleveland Monsters // Fri., April 9 // 7 p.m. // Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
Watch: AHLTV
Listen: WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM (Saturday) and ESPN 96.1 FM (Friday)
Season Series: 3-0-0-0 Overall, 1-0-0-0 Home, 2-0-0-0 Road. Fourth of eight meetings overall, third of four in Cleveland
All-Time Series: 57-31-5-10 Overall, 32-16-1-2 Home, 25-15-4-8 Road
NHL Affiliation: Columbus Blue Jackets
Noteworthy: Excluding games against the Griffins, the Monsters have a 6-3 record.

Rockford IceHogs (6-11-1-0) at GRIFFINS // Sat., April 10 // 7 p.m. // Van Andel Arena
Watch: WXSP-TV and AHLTV
Listen: ESPN 96.1 FM
Season Series: 3-0-2-0 Overall, 0-0-2-0 Home, 3-0-0-0 Road. Sixth of eight meetings overall, third of four in Grand Rapids
All-Time Series: 50-35-9-10 Overall, 32-11-5-4 Home, 18-24-4-6 Road
NHL Affiliation: Chicago Blackhawks
Noteworthy: The IceHogs earned nearly identical 2-1 overtime wins at Van Andel Arena on March 13 and 16. In each game, Rockford rallied from a 1-0 deficit, Matt Tomkins made more than 40 saves to help his team survive a massive shot deficit, and Dylan McLaughlin secured the second point for the visitors by scoring in the extra session.

Last Week's Results
Fri., March 26 // GRIFFINS 5 at Iowa Wild 2 // 8-3-2-0 (18 pts., 2nd Central Division) Recap | Highlights
Sat., March 27 // GRIFFINS 4 at Iowa Wild 5 // 8-4-2-0 (18 pts., 2nd) Recap

Chicago Showdown

The Griffins will return to action on Thursday with a 3 p.m. EDT tilt at Chicago, where they are 0-3 this season against the Central Division leaders. However, the second-place Griffins handed the Wolves one of their two regulation losses of the campaign, taking a 4-1 win at home on Feb. 26. Grand Rapids will then play two straight in Cleveland – this Saturday, April 3 and next Friday, April 9 – and try to improve upon its 3-0 mark against the Monsters, before returning to Van Andel Arena to host Rockford on Saturday, April 10, the team’s first home game since March 16. The Griffins are 3-0-2-0 versus the IceHogs this season.

Keep It Rollin’

While last Saturday’s 5-4 loss at Iowa broke the Griffins’ four-game road winning streak, they’ve still earned points in six of their last seven games (4-1-2-0) and 10 of their last 12 contests (8-2-2-0). They’ve also grabbed points in all four home games (2-0-2-0) this season.

Another Rung Up The Ladder

Brian Lashoff’s 513 games played for the Griffins rank first among active AHL players who have spent their entire AHL career with the same club and tie for eighth in league history among one-team players. Of the players ahead of him on that list, the most recent – and, coincidentally, the record-holder – last played during the 1970-71 season (Bill Needham of the Cleveland Barons, 981 games played). Lashoff, who was unfit to play on Saturday, tied No. 8-ranked Stan Smrke (Rochester 1957-67) last Friday and is now four games behind No. 7 Pete Kapusta (Providence Reds 1946-55).

Last Time Out

Despite outshooting the Wild 40-21 on Saturday, the Griffins dropped a 5-4 decision at Iowa that marked their only regulation loss during the month of March. Connor Dewar started and finished the scoring for Iowa, as his second goal with 3:35 remaining broke a 4-4 tie. Tyler Spezia notched his second two-goal game of the season while Patrick Curry recorded his first two-point game (1-1—2) as a pro.

Life of Riley

Riley Barber, who registered a season-high three points (1-2—3) in Friday’s 5-2 win at Iowa, has goals in two of the last three games and points in 11 of 14 games this season. He posted a nine-game point streak from Feb. 5-March 11 that was the longest ever to start a player's Griffins career as well as the longest from the start of a Griffins season. Barber is tied for second in the AHL with 10 goals while his 17 points are tied for ninth. He also is tied for first with eight power play points.

High Flyers

While his three-game goal and point streaks (four goals) were snapped last Saturday in Iowa, Chase Pearson has recorded points in six of the last eight games (4-4—8)…Taro Hirose notched his second three-point game of the season in Friday’s win over the Wild (Feb. 28 at CHI)...Joe Hicketts’ three assists against Iowa on Friday were the most by a Griffin since Hirose tallied three on Jan. 24, 2020 versus San Diego. He added two more in Saturday’s loss. His nine assists on the season match Hirose for the team lead and tie for fourth among AHL defensemen…Tyler Spezia’s second two-goal game of the season on Saturday matched Riley Barber for the most by a Griffin this season …Givani Smith (3-1—4), who was recalled to Detroit on Monday, and Dominic Turgeon (1-3—4) each have points in three consecutive games...Kevin Boyle has not lost in regulation since his Griffins debut on Feb. 11, going 4-0-1 in his five most recent decisions.

Try This Again

The Griffins recently experienced their first two schedule disruptions of the season, as their home games on Friday, March 19 and Tuesday, March 23 were both postponed due to league COVID-19 protocols affecting Chicago. The contests have been rescheduled for Tuesday, April 13 and Monday, April 20, respectively.

“Let’s Play Two…More”

The AHL last Thursday announced two additions to the Griffins’ schedule, increasing the team’s number of regular season games to 32. In addition to their eight previously scheduled clashes, the Griffins will now face the Cleveland Monsters on Friday, April 9 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, before hosting the Monsters on Tuesday, April 20 at Van Andel Arena. Both games will face off at 7 p.m. With the addition of the April 20 contest, the Griffins will have an eight-game homestand (April 10-28) that will be their longest since an eight-game stretch from Jan. 10-25, 2020 (5-1-0-2 record) and tie for the second-longest in franchise history. Grand Rapids staged nine straight games at Van Andel Arena from Oct. 26-Nov. 18, 2004 (4-4-1-0 record). Prior to this season, the Griffins’ high-water mark for regular season home games during April had been five, established in 2015.

Pack Your Suitcase

Given the recent postponements of those home games against Chicago plus the addition of the April 9 game at Cleveland, Grand Rapids is in the midst of playing six consecutive games on the road. By the time they return to Van Andel Arena on April 10 to host Rockford, the Griffins to that point will have played 13 of their 17 games within unfriendly confines.

Powerful Play

Following a 2019-20 campaign in which they finished sixth in the AHL’s power play rankings at 20.9%, the Griffins are off to an even better start this season, currently sitting second in the league at 28.3% and first on the road at 38.2%. After being held scoreless in 10 opportunities over the previous four games, Grand Rapids converted four of seven opportunities in last weekend’s two-game set in Iowa and has now scored at least one power play goal in nine of its 14 games.

Welcome to the Club

The Red Wings on Monday reassigned left wing Mathias Brome and defenseman Dennis Cholowski to Grand Rapids from their taxi squad and reassigned left wing Givani Smith to their taxi squad from the Griffins. The 26-year-old Brome, who is set to make his AHL debut on Thursday, has registered one goal and eight penalty minutes in 24 appearances with the Red Wings during his first season in North America. He skated in 52 games for Orebro HK in the Swedish Hockey League in 2019-20, where he led the team in assists and points with an SHL career-high 43 points (17-26-43), a plus-10 rating and 22 penalty minutes. The 6-foot, 183-pound winger also finished among SHL league leaders in goals (T7th), assists (7th) and points (6th) in his third season in the league. A native of Orby, Sweden, Brome spent his first two SHL seasons with Mora IK after helping the club earn a promotion in 2016-17 out of the second-tier Allsvenskan, in which he led the team with 49 points (18-31-49) and led the league with a plus-23 rating. In 156 total SHL games between Mora and Orebro, Brome has produced 99 points (41-58-99) and 58 penalty minutes and added six points (5-1-6) and 24 penalty minutes in 10 postseason games.

March Like a Lion

The Griffins posted their 13th straight winning record during the month of March (4-1-2-0), improving to 92-49-9-8 (0.636) in March since 2009. Despite traditionally playing the majority of their games away from Van Andel Arena during March, they’ve managed at least a 0.500 road record for the month during each of those 13 years, going a combined 57-30-5-6 (0.638).

Offense Taken

The Griffins lead the AHL in shots per game (35.07) and are ninth in goals per game (3.36). They’ve racked up at least 40 shots in four of their last seven outings, including a season-high 49 on March 3 in Rockford.

Stingy D

The Griffins, who have allowed just one goal in regulation in seven of their last 12 games and surrendered two on another pair of occasions, rank sixth in the AHL in goals allowed per game (2.64)…The Griffins have been outshot in only three of their first 14 games, and only once have they allowed 30 or more shots, a total that they have reached on 11 occasions — including nine of the last 10 outings. Grand Rapids ranks second in the AHL in shots allowed per game (24.14).

Milestones

Dominic Turgeon’s assist last Saturday in Iowa marked the 100th point of his Griffins/AHL/pro career. Upcoming player milestones include:

Brian Lashoff – Three assists for 100 as a pro
Gustav Lindstrom - One point for 50 as a pro
Dominik Shine – Three points from 50 for his Griffins/AHL/pro career

It’s a Start

The roar of a Griffins crowd was partially restored on March 13 when the team began welcoming 750 fans per home game, pursuant to the most recent order from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Griffins 2021-22 season ticket members are being given the first opportunity to purchase tickets to home games during the remainder of the 2020-21 season. Other fans can sign up for Griffins Nation, the team’s official email newsletter, to receive priority access to 2020-21 tickets whenever limited seats are made available for sale throughout the season.

We Miss You, Bob!

On Feb. 8, the beloved 21-year Voice of the Griffins, Bob Kaser, underwent successful heart surgery at the Meijer Heart Center in Grand Rapids to repair several blocked arteries. Released from the hospital on Feb. 14, his recovery at home is going well but he is expected to miss most of this 32-game shortened season. Everyone in Griffins Nation, the Griffins organization, the AHL, and the Michigan hockey community wishes Bob all the best in his recovery and a quick return to health. We can’t wait until he is back in the booth.

Photo by Chris Dubiel/Wolves