GOOD NIGHTS

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – For the fourth straight game, the Van Andel Arena scoreboard displayed a zero after 60 minutes on Friday night. Unfortunately for the Griffins, it was the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights who pitched the shutout this time, breaking Grand Rapids’ season-high six-game winning streak with a 4-0 triumph.

The Griffins, who had set a franchise record with three straight shutouts on home ice from Dec. 30 through Jan. 10, suffered their first regulation loss since Dec. 26. They’ll try to rebound on Saturday when they host the AHL’s top team in terms of winning percentage, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, at 7 p.m.

The Griffins’ record home shutout streak reached 204:39 before the Knights scored two goals just 22 seconds apart early in the second period. After an initial save by Joey MacDonald, who was assigned by the Detroit Red Wings earlier today for conditioning, Brandon Prust popped a backhander into the net during a goal-mouth scramble at the 1:10 mark. Warren Peters followed up by scoring on a sharp-angle shot from the right of the net at 1:32.

Minutes later, three Grand Rapids penalties within a 1:42 span afforded Omaha extended 5-on-3 power play time, and although the Griffins staved off the two-man advantages, the Knights (23-13-3-0) scored before the final penalty expired for a 3-0 lead. From the left side, Andrei Taratukhin redirected a Tim Hambly slap shot behind MacDonald at 6:49, snapping the Griffins’ run of consecutive penalty kills at 26.

Grand Rapids (19-16-4-2) applied tremendous pressure over the final 30 minutes, led by the play of captain Matt Ellis, but they could not solve Omaha’s Curtis McElhinney, who earned his fourth shutout of the campaign on 39 saves.

MacDonald, who finished with 26 saves in his return to the team he played for the previous four seasons, was pulled for an extra attacker in the final minutes, allowing Prust to score the game’s final goal into an empty net with 1:17 remaining.