A WORD TO THE WEISS

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – First-period goals by Stephen Weiss and Anthony Mantha propelled the Grand Rapids Griffins to their fourth straight home win on Saturday, a 5-2 triumph over the Lake Erie Monsters at Van Andel Arena.

The Griffins also benefitted from Louis-Marc Aubry’s and Mark Zengerle’s first goals of the season to even their record at 7-7-1-0, while also improving to 0.500 in the season series (3-3-0-0) against Lake Erie.

Grand Rapids will commence an eight-day, four-game road trip with a pair of clashes against the Rochester Americans that will bookend Thanksgiving Day. Game time on Wednesday is set for 7:05 p.m. at the Blue Cross Arena.

Four penalties in the opening six minutes of the game culminated in a Griffins power play during which both teams lit the lamp. Lake Erie struck first at the 6:19 mark when Paul Carey redirected Stefan Elliott’s centering feed past Tom McCollum from the doorstep. Grand Rapids answered just 13 seconds later, with Weiss taking a pass from Mitch Callahan in the slot and snapping a shot behind Sami Aittokallio for his second goal in as many nights against the Monsters.

Mantha put the Griffins on top at 2-1 midway through the frame, receiving Andy Miele’s pass at the top of the crease with his back to the net, spinning to his right and stuffing the puck inside the left post at 10:18 for his second goal of the season. Aubry then pushed Grand Rapids’ lead to two 3:46 before intermission, as he drove the net to deflect Nick Jensen’s pass into the top right corner of Aittokallio’s cage.

Grand Rapids briefly took a 4-1 lead on a power play marker by Zengerle, who set up shop in front of Aittokallio to tip home Mattias Backman’s point blast for his first pro goal at 11:37 of the second period. But Lake Erie (5-8-1-2) cut its deficit back to two 17 seconds later, when Maxim Noreau ripped a shot into the top of McCollum’s net from above the left circle just two seconds into a Monsters power play.

After squandering identical 3-1 and 4-2 leads in Friday’s 5-4 road loss to the Monsters, Grand Rapids clamped down defensively on the visitors over the final 20 minutes, preserving breathing room before Callahan scored into an empty net at 17:00 for the final margin.

McCollum authored a strong performance in his third consecutive start, stopping 30 of 32 shots, while Aittokallio turned aside 25 of 29 in the loss.

Notes: The Griffins’ four-game winning streak on home ice has come on the heels of their season-opening five-game skid (0-4-1-0) at Van Andel Arena. Conversely, Grand Rapids started the campaign with three consecutive road wins but has since lost three straight in hostile territory.

Three Stars: 1. GR Mantha (goal); 2. GR Aubry (goal); 3. GR Pulkkinen (assist)