SPREADING HOLIDAY CHEER

This Week’s Games
Milwaukee Admirals at GRIFFINS // Wed., Dec. 21 // 7 p.m. // Van Andel Arena
Listen: WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM at 6:35 p.m.
Watch: AHLLive.com
Season Series: 1-0-0-0 Home, 2-1-0-0 Overall. Fourth of 12 meetings overall, second of six at Van Andel Arena
All-Time Series: 46-24-2-1-2 Home, 80-55-7-6-7 Overall
NHL Affiliation: Nashville Predators
Noteworthy: Milwaukee’s last win at Van Andel Arena came Jan. 31, 2015, as Grand Rapids has won the last eight meetings on home ice.

Last Week’s Results
Thurs., Dec. 15 GRIFFINS 7 at Chicago Wolves 1 15-7-1-2 (33 points, 2nd Central Division)
Sat., Dec. 17 GRIFFINS 6 at Charlotte Checkers 1 16-7-1-2 (35 points, 2nd)
Sun., Dec. 18 GRIFFINS 3 at Charlotte Checkers 1 17-7-1-2 (37 points, 2nd)

Opening Faceoff: The Grand Rapids Griffins have points in 11 of the last 12 games (8-1-1-2), including wins in three straight. The Griffins, who have suffered just one regulation loss since Nov. 23, are positioned second in the Central Division, third in the Western Conference and sixth in the AHL with a 17-7-1-2 record (0.685). After finishing 3-1 on their most recent four-game road trip, the Griffins return home on Wednesday to face the Western Conference-leading Milwaukee Admirals. Grand Rapids will then enjoy a week off for the holidays, resuming play Dec. 28 at Cleveland.

Last Week’s Recap: The Griffins finished 3-0 in a trio of road games last week. In Thursday’s 7-1 win over Chicago, Grand Rapids received tallies from seven different players to mark the most goal scorers in a game since seven Griffins scored on April 4, 2015 versus Toronto (7-2 W). The Griffins followed up with a weekend sweep of the Checkers, outscoring Charlotte 6-1 on Saturday and 3-1 on Sunday. Grand Rapids has allowed one goal or less in three consecutive road games for the first time since giving up just two tallies over four games on foreign ice from March 4-16, 2016.

This Week’s Promotions: Wednesday is a Winning Wednesday presented by Farm Bureau Insurance. Every time the Griffins win at home on Wednesday, each fan in attendance will receive a free ticket to the next Wednesday game. All fans who were in attendance for the Griffins’ win against the Chicago Wolves on Dec. 7 can redeem their ticket stub for a free ticket to this game.

Follow the Leader(s): Matt Lorito (10-20—30), Mitch Callahan (8-12—20), Kyle Criscuolo (9-10—19) and Ben Street (5-14—19) lead the team in points...Lorito’s 30 points tie for the league lead, 10 goals tie for 12th and 20 assists tie for fourth…Kyle Criscuolo’s 19 points (9-10—19) tie for eighth among rookies in point production…Robbie Russo’s 14 points (3-11—14) are tied for 20th among league defensemen…Evgeny Svechnikov paces the club with 30 penalty minutes and Nick Jensen has a team-best +8 rating...Jared Coreau shows a 2.18 GAA to tie for 10th and his 0.924 save percentage ties for ninth.

Jensen Recalled: The Detroit Red Wings have recalled defenseman Nick Jensen from the Griffins. Should he debut with the Wings, Jensen will become the 159th Griffins alumnus to play in the NHL. In his fourth professional season, Jensen has recorded six points (1-5—6), six penalty minutes and a team-best plus-eight rating in 27 games with the Griffins. The 6-foot, 200-pound blueliner has contributed three points (1-2—3) during Grand Rapids’ current three-game winning streak. Detroit’s fifth choice (150th overall) in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, Jensen has played in 222 games as a Griffin and totaled 61 points (10-51—61) and 46 PIM. His career plus-51 rating places eighth on the Griffins’ all-time list. Jensen has appeared in 35 Calder Cup Playoff games and chipped in six points (0-6—6).

On the Power Play: The Griffins lead the league with a power play percentage of 27.5% (33/120), which is up nearly 10 points in the last six weeks (Nov. 8: 17.9%). Grand Rapids has relied on the power play for 35.5% of its goals (33-of-93), the fourth-highest percentage in the AHL behind only Tucson’s 39.3% (24-of-61), Toronto’s 38.0% (30-of-79) and Utica’s 36.4% (24-of-66). The power play has been keyed by first-year Griffin Matt Lorito, who ties for third in power play points (4-12—16) and ties for fourth in power play assists (12), and Martin Frk, who ties for fourth in power play goals as six of his 10 markers on the year have come on the man advantage.

Spreading the Wealth: The Griffins are outscoring their opponents 16-3 in the last three games and have tallied at least one marker in each of the last nine periods. Grand Rapids’ 16 goals have come from 11 different scorers.

Penalty Killing: After allowing seven opponent power play goals in 13 opportunities (53.85%) from Dec. 2-7, Grand Rapids has been successful in 18 consecutive penalty kills spanning the last five games.

Limiting Chances: The Griffins have allowed just a single goal in four of the last five games, including the last three in a row. After allowing 20 shots in the third period at Cleveland on Dec. 6 and 21 in the first period versus Chicago on Dec. 7, the Griffins have averaged 22 shots against in the last five games.

Standing Still: Following a 4-3 overtime win at Milwaukee on Nov. 12, the Griffins jumped to second in the Central Division. Since then, Grand Rapids hasn’t budged in the standings, holding steady in second while Milwaukee has continued to hold the top spot.

Current Streaks: Captain Nathan Paetsch has points in three straight (1-2—3)…Ben Street has 10 points (2-8—10) in his last 10 games…Tomas Nosek has four goals and five points in his first six games back in Grand Rapids since being assigned by Detroit on Dec. 7…Rookie Dominic Turgeon has five points (1-4—5) in the last five games…Backed by a season-high three assists last Saturday, Matt Lorito has four helpers in the last two games…First-year pro Dylan Sadowy has two multi-point efforts and four points (2-2—4) in the last three games…Rookie Kyle Criscuolo has 13 points (7-6—13) in the last 12 contests, including five multi-point games in that span…In the last seven games, rookie Evgeny Svechnikov has six points (3-3—6).

Milwaukee/Wisconsin Connections: First-year Griffins Ben Street and Matthew Ford were teammates at the University of Wisconsin from 2005-08 and helped the Badgers win the 2006 NCAA Championship…Defenseman Conor Allen skated in 31 games with Milwaukee last season and recorded six points (1-5—6) and 52 PIM.

Milestones: With 86 career goals, Mitch Callahan needs just one more to tie Tomas Tatar for third in franchise history…Callahan’s 163 points (86-77—163) place eighth…Captain Nathan Paetsch’s 114 career assists are tied with Jiri Hudler for sixth all-time and he needs 16 more to tie Derek King for fifth…Second-year pro Robbie Russo needs two games played to reach 100 in the AHL…Matt Lorito needs four points to reach 100 as a pro.

Cool Ranch Lorito: Tied atop the AHL’s leaderboard with 30 points (10-20—30), the longest that first-year Griffin and second-year pro Matt Lorito has gone without a point is three games and that came back Oct. 22-29. On the contrary, Lorito has nine multi-point games, including five three-point efforts, the most on the team. Lorito is on pace for 84 points, which would tie for fifth most in a single season in team history, and 56 assists, which would be the second-highest season total.

Goal Scoring: The Griffins rank fifth in goals for (3.44) and tie for third in goals against (2.52), as they are one of only two teams, along with Pacific Division-leading Stockton, to place in the top five in both categories.

Showing Discipline: The Griffins are the least penalized team in the league, averaging just 9.22 penalty minutes per contest. In fact, Grand Rapids is on pace to log 701 PIM, which would break the franchise record for fewest PIM in a season set by the 2014-15 team with 869. Evgeny Svechnikov has 30 PIM and is on track for 84 this season, which would make him the first team PIM leader to not break the century mark (previous low: Brennan Evans, 111 PIM in 2013-14).

Holiday Tradition: The Griffins are continuing a December tradition of winning, as they are 6-1-1-1 this month and are a combined 38-15-2-3 (0.698) in the month since the 2012-13 season. All time, Grand Rapids shows a 146-96-10-15-8 (0.591) mark in December.

Four in Detroit: Tyler Bertuzzi, Brian Lashoff and Anthony Mantha remain with the Detroit Red Wings along with recently recalled Nick Jensen. Bertuzzi became the 157th Griffins alumnus to play in the NHL when he debuted with the Red Wings during Detroit’s 3-2 shootout win at Philadelphia on Nov. 8. He has appeared in seven games and recorded a minus-one rating but is currently on injured reserve. Lashoff has skated in five games and is averaging 12:30 of ice time. Mantha has nine points (4-5—9), a plus-four rating and seven PIM in 17 games.

Magic Numbers: The Griffins are 14-2-1-1 when scoring the game’s first goal, 12-1 when leading after one period and 14-1-1-0 when leading after two periods…Grand Rapids is 17-1-0-1 when scoring three goals or more and 0-6-1-1 when scoring two or less.

Walleye Report: Under first-year head coach Dan Watson, the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye have won nine of their last 10, including four straight, and post the best record in the ECHL at 21-4-0-0 (0.840). Rookie Tylor Spink (10-19—29) and former Griffins A.J. Jenks (12-15—27) lead the team in scoring while second-year pro Jake Paterson, Detroit’s second pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, is 11-3 while tying for 11th with a 2.55 goals against average and ranking 16th with a 0.909 save percentage. Griffins-contracted Cal Heeter is 10-1 between the pipes and shows a 3.03 GAA and a 0.898 save percentage.

Pasquale’s Point Streak: Goaltender Eddie Pasquale has not lost in regulation since his first start of the year on Oct. 29, as he has earned points in his last seven starts (4-0-3). The first-year Griffin and sixth-year pro ranks 16th with a 2.32 goals against average.

Coreau Climbs Charts: Fourth-year pro Jared Coreau continues to move up the franchise’s ladder in a number of all-time goaltending categories. Compare where his numbers currently stack up and how close he is to the next benchmark:

Back-to-Backs: The Griffins will play back-to-back games a total of 27 times this season. Compare the statistics for when the Griffins have played on consecutive nights:

Win Some, Lose Some: Compare the statistics for the Griffins during their 17 wins and 10 (including overtime and shootout) losses: