On the Road Again

This Week’s Games

GRIFFINS at Iowa Wild // Thu., Nov. 3 // 11:30 a.m. EDT // Wells Fargo Arena
GRIFFINS at Iowa Wild // Fri., Nov. 4 // 8 p.m. EDT // Wells Fargo Arena

Listen: 96.1 The Game at 11:15 a.m. on Thursday, WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM at 7:45 p.m. on Friday

Watch: AHLTV and MC22 (Des Moines) on Thursday, AHLTV on Friday

Season Series: First and second of 10 meetings overall, first and second of five at Wells Fargo Arena

All-Time Series: 40-18-4-2 Overall, 20-11-1-0 Away

NHL Affiliation: Minnesota Wild

Noteworthy: Patrick Curry (2020-22) joined the Wild during the offseason when he signed a one-year AHL contract on July 19. In addition, former Griffin and 2017 Calder Cup champion Joe Hicketts (2016-21) remains in the green and gold uniform for the final season of his two-year contract with the Minnesota Wild.

GRIFFINS at Rockford IceHogs // Sat., Nov. 5 // 8 p.m. EDT // BMO Center

Listen: 96.1 The Game at 7:45 p.m.

Watch: AHLTV

Season Series: First of eight meetings overall, first of four at the BMO Center

All-Time Series: 58-38-9-11 Overall, 22-26-4-6 Away

NHL Affiliation: Chicago Blackhawks

Noteworthy: The Rockford bench looks a little different this year, as Anders Sorensen was named head coach of the IceHogs this offseason after spending much of last season as the interim head coach. Former Rockford forward Rob Klinkhammer (2008-12) rejoins the team as an assistant coach alongside former Griffin Jared Nightingale (2014-15).

Last Week’s Results
Sat., Oct. 29 // GRIFFINS 2 at Texas 5 // 3-3-0-0 (6 pts., 0.500, 4th Central)
Sun., Oct. 30 // GRIFFINS 4 at Texas 3 // 4-3-0-0 (8 pts., 0.571, T3rd Central)

Last Week’s Notes
Saturday at Texas (2-5 L) - The Texas Stars used three goals in the opening 5:20 of play to overcome the Griffins, taking a 5-2 victory at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park. Joel L’Esperance, in his return to Texas after skating with the club from 2017-22, recorded his third tally of the season via a Jonatan Berggren assist. Dominik Shine notched a goal for his second straight contest while Sebastian Cossa (19 saves) saw his three-game overall win streak between Grand Rapids and Toledo (ECHL) come to an end in net. The Griffins were without forwards Matt Luff and Givani Smith, who were both recalled to the Red Wings prior to the weekend series. Recap | Highlights

Sunday at Texas (4-3 W) - After trailing 2-1 midway through the initial period, the Griffins rallied to take down the Texas Stars 4-3 at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park. Grand Rapids had 11 players record a point in the contest, with Simon Edvinsson (0-2–2) leading the way. Jussi Olkinuora was stout between the pipes, saving 27 of 30 shots on goal and securing his second consecutive win of the season. Dominik Shine lit the lamp for the third straight contest and Austin Czarnik upped his team-leading point total to nine (5-4—9) in seven games with a goal. Rookie Eemil Viro recorded his first goal in North America and Donovan Sebrango appeared in his 100th game as a Griffin and in the AHL. Recap | Highlights

Shine Bright: Sixth-year pro Dominik Shine had just one point (0-1—1) through the first four games of the season but has flipped the switch as of late. The Detroit native has recorded a goal in each of the last three games, which is one contest short of tying his career-high goal-scoring streak of four from March 22-27, 2022. During the 2021-22 campaign, Shine posted career-high numbers in goals (17), assists (15), points (32) and penalty minutes (141).

Bobbing for Apples: Taro Hirose has been known for his passing abilities throughout four seasons with the Griffins. In fact, the former Michigan State Spartan has had at least 22 assists in each AHL campaign in his career. This season has been no different, as Hirose has totaled a team-leading seven helpers, which is tied for seventh in the league. Hirose is currently on a three-game assist streak and has points in five of the seven games thus far.

Getting Revved Up: After suffering an injury in the season opener on Oct. 14 that kept him sidelined for the next four games, Jonatan Berggren returned to action this past weekend with points in both contests against the Texas Stars. The former second-round selection recorded his first assist of the year last Friday and followed that performance with his first goal of the campaign on Saturday. Berggren has two points (1-1—2) and two penalty minutes in three games this season. A year ago, the Enkoping, Sweden, native broke the Griffins’ single-season rookie scoring record with 64 points (21-43—64) in 70 outings.

The Last Czar: Austin Czarnik has made his presence known to begin his Grand Rapids career, as the Washington Township, Mich., native, has bagged a team-leading nine points (5-4—9) in the first seven games of the season, with his five goals tied for fourth in the AHL. Czarnik has totaled a least one point in six of the seven games and started the campaign with five points (3-2—5) in the first two contests. Czarnik notched his fourth AHL hat trick on Saturday, Oct. 15, which marked the earliest recorded by a Griffin to start a season, and it tied for the fastest hat trick to start a Griffin’s career (see chart below). The 29-year-old was named the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Player of the Week on Oct. 17 for his efforts and became the first Griffins forward to win the award since Matt Lorito on Nov. 20, 2016.

Road Trip!: So far, Grand Rapids is 2-2-0-0 in its eight-game road trip with stops in Iowa, Rockford and Cleveland yet to come. The eight-game journey is the longest in franchise history during the first two months of a season, beating out a five-game trip in November of 2017. In that five-game road stand in 2017, the Griffins finished with a 2-2-0-1 mark.

Getting Busy: The Griffins will embark on their first three-in-three of the season this week, with games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Since the 2017-18 season, Grand Rapids is 12-16-2-3 (0.439) when playing three games in three nights and been outscored 108-90. The Griffins will have one more three-in-three this campaign from March 10-12.

Pour Me a Draft: Simon Edvinsson on Friday, Oct. 14 made his North American debut against the San Diego Gulls, collecting an assist in the process. He returned on Saturday, Oct. 15 with a three-point outing (1-2—3), which included his first AHL goal. Edvinsson tied Moritz Seider as the highest-drafted defenseman (6th overall) to ever play for the Griffins, and tied Seider and Filip Zadina as the fourth-highest drafted player to suit up for Grand Rapids (Jason Spezza No. 2, Darrin Shannon and Stephen Weiss No. 4). Through his first six AHL games, Edvinsson has six points (1-5—6), which is tied for eighth among rookies while his five assists are tied for fourth among first-year players. On Oct. 19, Sebastian Cossa tied Mathieu Chouinard (15th by Ottawa in 1998) as the highest-drafted goalie to play for Grand Rapids. The Griffins have had only one other first-round netminder in Tom McCollum (30th by Detroit in 2008), although Tyler Moss was taken 29th overall in the second round by Tampa Bay in 1993. Cossa made 21 saves during his debut against Milwaukee en route to recording his first professional victory in a 3-2 game.

Preseason Acquisitions: The Detroit Red Wings and Grand Rapids Griffins had a fruitful offseason that brought in free-agent forwards Pontus Andreasson, Austin Czarnik, Cedric Lacroix, Joel L’Esperance and Matt Luff, and defenseman Steven Kampfer. Every offseason signing has at least one point for the Griffins through seven games. Czarnik, L’Esperance and Luff all have at least five points through the first seven games of the season, including seven or more points for Luff and Czarnik. New players on the team, including rookies, have accounted for 39 of the 69 points by Grand Rapids this campaign.

A Welcome Sight: The Griffins struggled out of the gate in 2020-21, as the team stood at 2-4-0-1 after seven games, having been held to two shutouts and just 18 goals scored. In 2022-23, Grand Rapids has looked much improved with a 4-3-0-0 record and 25 total goals, which includes four games with three or more tallies. The Griffins struggled to score a campaign ago, but this season has already seen an eight-goal performance on Oct. 15 (8-5 W vs. San Diego), which tied for the fifth-highest scoring home game in franchise history. The power play for Grand Rapids stands at 26.7% (7th in the AHL), which is leaps and bounds better than a season ago when the power play finished 28th on the circuit at 16.7%.

Matty Ice: The Detroit Red Wings this past offseason signed sixth-year pro Matt Luff to a one-year contract. After totaling 31 points in 30 games with Milwaukee a season ago, Luff picked up right where he left off, as he has seven points (3-4—7) in five games to begin his career in Grand Rapids. Luff ranks third on the team in points. The Windsor, Ontario, native has three two-point outings in the first five contests and has been held off the scoresheet just once. Luff was recalled by the Red Wings on Thursday, Oct. 27 and made his season debut that same night at the Boston Bruins, becoming the 194th Griffin to compete in the NHL.

O Captain! My Captain!: Captain Brian Lashoff’s 585 games played for the Griffins rank first among active AHL players who have spent their entire AHL career with the same club and fourth in league history among one-team players. Of the players ahead of him on that list, the most recent – and, coincidentally, the record-holder – last played during the 1970-71 season (Bill Needham of the Cleveland Barons, 981 games played). Lashoff overtook Paul Larivee (Providence Reds, 1952-62) for the No. 4 spot on April 6, 2022 against Cleveland and is now 23 games behind No. 3 Howie Yanosik (Hershey Bears, 1957-67). Lashoff is still 70 games away from breaking the Griffins’ all-time regular-season games played record, held by Travis Richards with 655 games (1995-2006).

AHL Leaderboard Tracker:
Austin Czarnik—Five goals are tied for fourth, three power-play goals are tied for third
Simon Edvinsson—Six points are tied for eighth among rookies, five assists are tied for fourth among rookies
Cross Hanas—Five points are tied for 12th among rookies, three goals are tied for seventh among rookies
Taro Hirose—Seven assists are tied for seventh, five power-play assists are tied for first

Milestones:
Donovan Sebrango competed in his 100th game as a Griffin and in the AHL at the age of 20, recording an assist in the process.
Austin Czarnik—Two assists from 150 in the AHL
Joel L’Esperance—Four points from 150 as a pro
Givani Smith—Two points from 50 in the AHL and as a Griffin
Tyler Spezia—Four goals from 50 as a pro
Eemil Viro—One game from 150 as a pro

Photo by Nicolas Carrillo/Griffins