BARONS' POWER PLAY DOOMS GRIFFINS

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – On a night when they wore red camouflage jerseys as a “Salute to Heroes,” the Grand Rapids Griffins were unable to rescue themselves from their home skid, falling 4-2 to the Oklahoma City Barons on Friday at Van Andel Arena.

A capacity crowd of 10,834 witnessed the first meeting of these teams since Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals last June 5, when the Griffins scratched out a 5-4 home victory en route to their Calder Cup championship. This time, however, the visitors extended the Griffins’ winless streak at Van Andel Arena to six games (0-5-0-1), their longest since a seven-game drought that concluded in December 2010.

Grand Rapids (30-17-2-3) won’t have to wait long for a shot at redemption, as it will host a 7 p.m. rematch with the Barons (23-22-1-6) on Saturday in the middle match of this weekend’s three-in-three at home.

The Griffins scored the lone goal of the opening period courtesy of a wicked wrist shot by Calle Jarnkrok, who took a pass from Andrej Nestrasil in the right circle and ripped the puck over Richard Bachman’s glove for a power play tally at 16:37.

Oklahoma City answered 3:26 into the second, scoring with only two ticks remaining in its own power play. Brad Hunt maneuvered around Nathan Paetsch at the Griffins’ blue line and skated in unchallenged on Tom McCollum, taking advantage of the defensive lapse to beat the goaltender stick side from point-blank range.

The Barons took a 2-1 lead at the 11:02 mark, with Oscar Klefbom notching his first pro goal through a screen from the top of the left circle, but the Griffins responded just 42 seconds later when David McIntyre took a return pass from Martin Frk on the doorstep and redirected the puck behind Bachman.

Hunt scored his second power play goal on a long blast from the point with 2:19 remaining before intermission to again inch the Barons ahead, and Roman Horak made it a 4-2 game 2:17 into the third by potting Steve Pinizzotto’s feed from the end boards.

Bachman closed out matters from there to finish with 23 saves, while McCollum made 24 stops in the loss.

Notes: Triston Grant and Jordin Tootoo returned to action after missing the last six and four games, respectively, due to injuries…Tomas Jurco, fresh off the plane after returning from his Olympic stint with the Slovakian team in Sochi, Russia, was a healthy scratch…The sellout was the Griffins’ fourth of the season and second in the last five home games, as well as their third crowd of 10,000-plus in the last five. With an average attendance of 7,868 for the season, the Griffins have moved past Providence (7,761) into second place in the AHL.

Three Stars: 1. OKC Hunt (two power play goals); 2. OKC Mark Arcobello (two assists); 3. OKC Horak (goal, assist)