Griffins Game #9 * Road Game #6 * AHL Game #126

Season Series: 0-1-0-0 Home Series: 0-0-0-0 Road Series: 0-1-0-0
All-Time Series: 40-19-4-2 All-Time Home Series: 20-7-3-2 All-Time Road Series: 20-12-1-0

Griffins at Wild
Second of 10 meetings overall, second of five at Wells Fargo Arena…The Griffins are 16-15-4-0 overall since the 2017-18 seasons against the Wild but have been outscored by Iowa 115-102...Grand Rapids is 8-9-1-0 on the road against Iowa since the 2017-18 season with a minus-11 scoring margin (66-55)...The Griffins have points in seven of the last 11 overall meetings (6-4-1-0) against the Wild...The Wild are 1-2-0-2 at home this season while Grand Rapids is 2-3-0-0 on the road...The Griffins’ season road series against Iowa has been a tight affair over the last handful of seasons, as just two goals or less have separated the two teams in three of the last five campaigns...The last time the Griffins had a losing record in Iowa was in 2019-20 (0-2-1-0) and Grand Rapids went 2-2-0-0 at the Wild last campaign...2017 Calder Cup champion with the Griffins, Joe Hicketts (2016-21) is in his final year of a two-year contract with the Minnesota Wild...Former Griffin Patrick Curry (2020-22) signed with the Iowa Wild this past offseason...Wild forward Mitchell Chaffee grew up 20 minutes north of Grand Rapids in Rockford, Mich., and played a season of youth hockey with the Michigan Nationals 18U AAA team located in Bryon Center, Mich., which is 10 miles south of Grand Rapids.

Last Time Out
In an early-morning matchup, Ty Ronning’s hat trick lifted the Iowa Wild to a 6-3 win over the Griffins at Wells Fargo Arena on Thursday. In his third game since returning from injury that kept him sidelined for four outings, Jonatan Berggren lit the lamp twice on the power play for Grand Rapids on the behalf of two helpers from Joel L’Esperance. The first tally for the Griffins established two of their skaters as one of the top point leaders among rookies when Cross Hanas notched his fourth goal of the year off a Simon Edvinsson assist in the second period. Hanas is now tied for third in tallies scored by rookies in the AHL while Edvinsson is also knotted at third for assists by a first-year player with six. Taro Hirose and Austin Czarnik each extended their point streaks to four with an assist in the contest. Givani Smith made his return to the lineup after a short stint with the Detroit Red Wings, while Matt Luff remained on recall.

Roster Shake Up
- Oct. 29—F Givani Smith recalled by Detroit
- Oct. 31—G Victor Brattstrom reassigned to Toledo (ECHL) by Detroit
- Nov. 1—F Matt Luff and F Givani Smith reassigned by Detroit
- Nov. 2—F Matt Luff recalled by Detroit; G Victor Brattstrom reassigned from Toledo by Detroit; G Sebastian Cossa reassigned to Toledo by Detroit
- Nov. 3—F Trenton Bliss recalled by Grand Rapids

This Date in Griffins History
2021: Former Griffins captain Matthew Ford announces his retirement after a 12-year pro career spent almost entirely in the American Hockey League. Ford amassed 124 points (57-67—124) in 236 games as a Griffin.

Bobbing for Apples
Taro Hirose has been known for his passing abilities throughout four seasons with the Griffins. In fact, the former Michigan State Spartan has had at least 22 assists in each AHL campaign in his career. This season has been no different, as Hirose has totaled a team-leading eight helpers, which is tied for sixth in the league. Hirose is currently on a four-game assist streak and has points in six of the eight games thus far.

Road Trip!
So far, Grand Rapids is 2-3-0-0 in its eight-game road trip with stops in Rockford and Cleveland yet to come. The eight-game journey is the longest in franchise history during the first two months of a season, beating out a five-game trip in November of 2017. In that five-game road stand in 2017, the Griffins finished with a 2-2-0-1 mark.

Shine Bright
Sixth-year pro Dominik Shine had just one point (0-1—1) through the first four games of the season but has flipped the switch as of late. The Detroit native has recorded a goal in three of the last four games. During the 2021-22 campaign, Shine posted career-high numbers in goals (17), assists (15), points (32) and penalty minutes (141).

Getting Revved Up
After suffering an injury in the season opener on Oct. 14 that kept him sidelined for the next four games, Jonatan Berggren returned to action this past weekend with points in both contests against the Texas Stars. The former second-round selection is on a three-game point streak (3-1—4) and bagged two goals in his last outing on Thursday at Iowa. Berggren has four points (3-1—4) and two penalty minutes in four games this season. A year ago, the Enkoping, Sweden, native broke the Griffins’ single-season rookie scoring record with 64 points (21-43—64) in 70 outings.

The Last Czar
Austin Czarnik has made his presence known to begin his Grand Rapids career, as the Washington Township, Mich., native, has bagged a team-leading 10 points (5-5—10) in the first eight games of the season, with his five goals tied for fifth in the AHL. Czarnik has totaled a least one point in seven of the eight games and started the campaign with five points (3-2—5) in the first two contests. Czarnik notched his fourth AHL hat trick on Saturday, Oct. 15, which marked the earliest recorded by a Griffin to start a season, and it tied for the fastest hat trick to start a Griffin’s career (see chart below). The 29-year-old was named the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Player of the Week on Oct. 17 for his efforts and became the first Griffins forward to win the award since Matt Lorito on Nov. 20, 2016.

Getting Busy
The Griffins will embark on their first three-in-three of the season this week, with games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Since the 2017-18 season, Grand Rapids is 12-17-2-3 (0.426) when playing three games in three nights and been outscored 114-93. The Griffins will have one more three-in-three this campaign from March 10-12.

A Welcome Sight
The Griffins struggled out of the gate in 2020-21, as the team stood at 3-4-0-1 after eight games, having been held to two shutouts and just 24 goals scored. In 2022-23, Grand Rapids has looked improved with a 4-4-0-0 record and 28 total goals, which includes five games with three or more tallies. The Griffins struggled to score a campaign ago, but this season has already seen an eight-goal performance on Oct. 15 (8-5 W vs. San Diego), which tied for the fifth-highest scoring home game in franchise history. The power play for Grand Rapids stands at 27.8% (6th in the AHL), which is leaps and bounds better than a season ago when the power play finished 28th on the circuit at 16.7%.

Pour Me a Draft
Simon Edvinsson on Friday, Oct. 14 made his North American debut against the San Diego Gulls, collecting an assist in the process. He returned on Saturday, Oct. 15 with a three-point outing (1-2—3), which included his first AHL goal. Edvinsson tied Moritz Seider as the highest-drafted defenseman (6th overall) to ever play for the Griffins, and tied Seider and Filip Zadina as the fourth-highest drafted player to suit up for Grand Rapids (Jason Spezza No. 2, Darrin Shannon and Stephen Weiss No. 4). Through his first seven AHL games, Edvinsson has seven points (1-6—7), which is tied for eighth among rookies while his six assists are tied for third among first-year players. On Oct. 19, Sebastian Cossa tied Mathieu Chouinard (15th by Ottawa in 1998) as the highest-drafted goalie to play for Grand Rapids. The Griffins have had only one other first-round netminder in Tom McCollum (30th by Detroit in 2008), although Tyler Moss was taken 29th overall in the second round by Tampa Bay in 1993. Cossa made 21 saves during his debut against Milwaukee en route to recording his first professional victory in a 3-2 game.

Matty Ice
The Detroit Red Wings this past offseason signed sixth-year pro Matt Luff to a one-year contract. After totaling 31 points in 30 games with Milwaukee a season ago, Luff picked up right where he left off, as he has seven points (3-4—7) in five games to begin his career in Grand Rapids. Luff ranks third on the team in points. The Windsor, Ontario, native has three two-point outings in the first five contests and has been held off the scoresheet just once. Luff was recalled by the Red Wings on Thursday, Oct. 27 and made his season debut that same night at the Boston Bruins, becoming the 194th Griffin to compete in the NHL.

Preseason Acquisitions
The Detroit Red Wings and Grand Rapids Griffins had a fruitful offseason that brought in free-agent forwards Pontus Andreasson, Austin Czarnik, Cedric Lacroix, Joel L’Esperance and Matt Luff, and defenseman Steven Kampfer. Every offseason signing has at least one point for the Griffins through seven games. Czarnik, L’Esperance and Luff all have at least seven points through the first eight games of the season, including 10 points Czarnik. New players on the team, including rookies, have accounted for 44 of the 77 points by Grand Rapids this campaign.

O Captain! My Captain!
Captain Brian Lashoff’s 586 games played for the Griffins rank first among active AHL players who have spent their entire AHL career with the same club and fourth 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 overtook Paul Larivee (Providence Reds, 1952-62) for the No. 4 spot on April 6, 2022 against Cleveland and is now 22 games behind No. 3 Howie Yanosik (Hershey Bears, 1957-67). Lashoff is still 69 games away from breaking the Griffins’ all-time regular-season games played record, held by Travis Richards with 655 games (1995-2006).

AHL Leaderboard Tracker
Austin Czarnik—Five goals are tied for fifth, three power-play goals are tied for third
Simon Edvinsson—Seven points are tied for eighth among rookies, six assists are tied for third among rookies
Cross Hanas—Six points are tied for 14th among rookies, four goals are tied for third among rookies
Taro Hirose—Eight assists are tied for sixth, six power-play assists are tied for first

Milestones
Donovan Sebrango competed in his 100th game as a Griffin and in the AHL at the age of 20, recording an assist in the process.
Austin Czarnik—One assist from 150 in the AHL
Joel L’Esperance—Two points from 150 as a pro
Givani Smith—Two points from 50 in the AHL and as a Griffin
Tyler Spezia—Four goals from 50 as a pro
Eemil Viro—One game from 150 as a pro

Photo by Tim Garland/Wild