SHUTOUT IN THE SHOOTOUT

GRAND RAPIDS GRIFFINS 3 at Milwaukee Admirals 2 SO

Feb. 1, 2014

MILWAUKEE — In his first game as a Griffin since Dec. 7, Petr Mrazek stopped all five shots in a shootout to backstop Grand Rapids’ 3-2 win over the Milwaukee Admirals on Saturday at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.

Adam Almquist scored the only goal of the shootout, a quick wrister inside the right post in the second round, to earn the win. The Griffins improved to 29-13-2-2 and jumped to the top of the Western Conference with 62 points. The Midwest Division opponent Admirals dropped to 21-13-6-4.

Mrazek turned away 29 of 31 shots in the win, and Marek Mazanec stopped 35 of 37 shots.

Teemu Pulkkinen, the Griffins’ leading scorer, scored his 18th of the season and the first of the game at 9:18 of the first period. His power play goal came off a long shot from the blue line that snuck through traffic into the lower right corner of the net.

The Griffins entered the second period up 1-0, but it took the Admirals only 1:20 to claim the lead. Joe Piskula remained untouched as he skated from the neutral zone to Mrazek before burying the puck 50 seconds into the period.

Just 30 seconds later, Patrick Cehlin stole the puck from a Griffins’ defenseman and snapped a wrister into the net in one quick motion from Mrazek’s right.

At 13:43, Louis-Marc Aubry scored his first goal of the season to tie the game. He broke through on a three-on-two with Andrej Nestrasil and Almquist, and Mazanec made the initial save on Nestrasil’s shot. However, Aubry grabbed the rebound and wrapped it around the back of the net, stuffing it into the lower right corner.

The assist marked Almquist’s tenth point in five games.

Three periods wasn’t enough to break the 2-2 tie, and neither team could find the back of the net in the five-minute overtime period, despite the Admirals outshooting 3-1. The shootout win was the Griffins’ second out of four total shootouts this season.

The Griffins will return to Van Andel Arena for a matchup with the Lake Erie Monsters at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

Three Stars: 1. GR Jarnkrok (one shot); 2. MIL Piskula (goal); 3. GR Pulkkinen (goal)