Griffins Game #61 * Road Game #32 * AHL Game #900

Season Series: 4-2-0-2 Home Series: 2-0-0-2 Road Series: 2-2-0-0
All-Time Series: 47-34-7-10 All-Time Home Series: 31-11-3-4 All-Time Road Series: 16-23-4-6

Griffins at IceHogs
Ninth of 10 meetings overall, fifth of five at the BMO Harris Bank Center…In the last clash on Feb. 18 at Rockford, Tyler Spezia scored the game-winner with 11:16 remaining…Grand Rapids has points in four straight meetings (2-0-0-2)…The Griffins have points in eight of their last 14 matchups at the BMO Harris Bank Center (3-6-2-3) and in 12 of the last 13 at Van Andel Arena (8-1-2-2)…Since the 2016-17 season, the home team in the series has posted a 25-9-2-2 record (0.711)…Dominik Shine (2-3—5 in 8 GP) and Chris Terry (2-3—5 in 7 GP) lead the team in the season series…The Griffins have killed off 23 consecutive penalties against the IceHogs and gone 29-for-30 (96.7%) in the series…Rockford’s lone PPG came during a 5-on-3 on Nov. 15…Ben Simon served as an assistant in Rockford for two seasons (2011-13)…Rockford head coach Derek King played in Grand Rapids from 1999-01 and 2002-04 and is the franchise’s all-time leading playoff scorer (16-25—41) and ranks fifth in regular season points (73-130—203).

Griffins’ Most Frequent Regular Season Opponents
Tomorrow’s game at Van Andel Arena will be the 100th all-time regular season meeting between Grand Rapids and Rockford.

Last Time Out (Tuesday): Griffins 4 at Rampage 3 - Recap
Grand Rapids snapped a four-game losing streak to San Antonio...Turner Elson netted his eighth career two-goal game and first since Nov. 28, 2018 vs. CHI...Matt Puempel extended his point streak to four games (1-4—5) after scoring his 15th goal of the season and fifth on the power play...Chris Terry bagged his team-high 20th goal of the year...Pat Nagle stopped 44 of 47 shots, setting career highs for both saves and shots faced…San Antonio’s 47 shots were the most by a Griffins’ opponent this season...Grand Rapids was held to 20 shots, which tied a season low... This was the last regular season game in San Antonio for the Griffins as the Rampage will be moving to Las Vegas starting next year...Grand Rapids finished with an all-time road record of 26-18-0-2-1 in San Antonio.

Status Update
The Griffins ended their four-game losing streak with a 4-3 win at San Antonio on Tuesday and will look to even up their record in their four-game road trip, which concludes tonight at Rockford. Grand Rapids will then turn around to host the IceHogs tomorrow to begin a four-game homestand. With 61 points, the Griffins are alone in third place in the Central Division standings, one point ahead of San Antonio and two in front of Chicago and Rockford.

Isn’t That Special
The Griffins rank third in road penalty killing efficiency at 85.7%. In fact, San Antonio’s 4-on-3 power play goal in the first period on Tuesday snapped Grand Rapids’ streak of 27 consecutive road penalties killed. On the man-advantage, the Griffins have scored in five consecutive games to match a season-high streak (Nov. 2-9) and gone 6-for-22 (27.3%) in their most recent stretch. The power play has accounted for 29.4% of Grand Rapids’ goals and five different players have contributed five or more tallies, led by Chris Terry’s 10.

Back Up, Terr
Chris Terry accumulated his 20th goal and 50th point of the year on Tuesday to mark the seventh time in his nine full AHL seasons that he’s rung up 20-plus goals and the eighth occurrence of 50 or more points. Overall, he places ninth in the AHL in points (50) while pacing the Griffins in goals (20), assists (30), multi-point games (15) and power play goals (10). Terry also led Grand Rapids with 61 points last season and the most recent player to lead GR in scoring in consecutive seasons was Andy Miele in 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Net Nagle
Pat Nagle faced a career-high 47 shots in Tuesday’s win at San Antonio and stopped a career-high 44 of them to improve to 6-2 in his last nine appearances with a 2.13 GAA and a 0.932 save percentage. He has allowed two goals or less in five of his last eight starts. The former Ferris State Bulldog has appeared in 19 games for Grand Rapids this season after totaling only eight games in the AHL – including three with the Griffins – during his first eight pro seasons. If Nagle had enough minutes to qualify (about 60 shy), his 2.23 overall season GAA would be fifth in the AHL.

Lashoff 500
One of only three players in franchise history to be a part of Grand Rapids’ 2017 and 2013 Calder Cup championship teams, defenseman Brian Lashoff needs three more games to become only the second player in franchise history with 500 or more regular season games played (first chart). In fact, Lashoff’s 497 career regular season appearances rank first among active AHL players who have spent their entire AHL career with the same club and rank ninth all time in league history (second chart).

Rotating Roster
The Red Wings have recalled or assigned a player from or to Grand Rapids 85 times this season and the Griffins have used 40 different players, including five goalies and 16 different defensemen. In comparison, here is how the current usage stacks up to the final player counts in recent seasons: 2018-19 – 41 players, 2017-18 – 32, 2016-17 – 39, 2015-16 – 37 and 2014-15 – 39.

Tar-Oh!
Taro Hirose’s 25 points and 21 assists in 32 GP are both team highs since Dec. 3 – the date of his first assignment by Detroit to GR. The former Michigan State Spartan has collected 15 helpers in his last 17 outings.

This Date in Griffins History
2002: The Griffins experience their first-ever scoreless tie at Houston, giving them consecutive shutouts for the first time in their history and setting a franchise mark with nine on the season.
2004: Two goals by Michel Picard propel Grand Rapids to a 2-1 win at San Antonio. With the victory, the Griffins become the first team to secure a spot in the 2004 Calder Cup playoffs and clinch a postseason berth on their earliest date ever.
2015: With the Griffins less than a second from earning a franchise-record eighth straight road win, Milwaukee’s Viktor Stalberg scores with 0.4 seconds remaining in regulation before denting twine 15 seconds into overtime, giving the Admirals a shocking 3-2 victory.
2019: Behind Chris Terry's career-high five-point night, the Griffins claim their AHL-best 22nd home win and move back into a tie for first place in the Central Division with a 5-2 victory over Texas.

Photo by Todd Reicher/Rockford IceHogs