THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Milwaukee Admirals 2 at GRAND RAPIDS GRIFFINS 6

Feb. 25, 2017

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins cast off the Milwaukee Admirals, avenged Friday’s defeat to their Central Division pursuers and bid farewell to Van Andel Arena for the next few weeks with a 6-2 victory on Saturday before a sellout crowd on Star Wars Night.

Matt Lorito and Martin Frk each enjoyed three-point performances while Jared Coreau turned aside 39 of 41 shots in the second start of his conditioning loan from the Detroit Red Wings.

Having parlayed a league-high 31 home games into a 21-8-0-2 record within friendly confines and a 35-15-1-2 mark overall, the Griffins will now embark on season-high seven-game, 15-day road trip that will span three time zones and five cities. First up is a 7 p.m. matchup on Tuesday against the Cleveland Monsters, before the team heads for Texas for four contests and California for two. Grand Rapids will not play another home game until St. Patrick’s Day.

Frk notched his 20th goal of the season during a power play 14:57 into the opening period –a dozen seconds after making a nice play to keep the puck in Milwaukee’s zone – by ripping a shot past Marek Mazanec from the bottom of the left circle off a backdoor feed from Lorito. Including his 27-goal haul from last season, Frk became the first Griffin to record consecutive 20-goal campaigns since Teemu Pulkkinen in 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Grand Rapids’ special teams paid additional dividends less than three minutes later when Ben Street notched his second shorthanded tally of the season. He stole the puck at the right point, sped up the ice and beat Mazanec from the left faceoff dot 2:26 before intermission.

Dominic Turgeon celebrated his 21st birthday in style by making it a 3-0 game at the 2:01 mark of the second period, putting a nifty backhand top-shelf off a centering pass from Tyler Bertuzzi.

The Admirals (31-18-3-2) took advantage of their fifth power play of the night to get on the board at 9:52, with Justin Kirkland staking out the top of the crease to deflect Trevor Murphy’s point shot behind Coreau. But Milwaukee gave the goal back only 14 seconds later when Lorito came out of the left corner and lifted a far-side backhand past Mazanec’s blocker for a 4-1 Grand Rapids lead.

The Griffins blew the game open with two more goals in the opening six minutes of the third, as Drew Miller scored his second of the season at 2:06 and Lorito his second of the game at 5:30, connecting on a slap shot from the top of the right circle during a 4-on-4. Mazanec, with 20 saves on 26 shots to that point, was replaced by Jonas Gunnarsson, who would stop all 10 shots he faced over the final 14:30.

Milwaukee pared the deficit to 6-2 with 11:29 remaining when Anthony Richard redirected a long-range shot from the doorstep, but the Admirals could not get any closer and fell six points off the pace in the Central Division race.

Notes: The sellout was the Griffins’ fifth this season…Each team went 1-for-6 on the power play.

Three Stars: 1. GR Lorito (two goals, assist); 2. GR Frk (power play goal, two assists); 3. GR Turgeon (goal, assist)