Showdown in Lone Star State

This Week’s Games

GRIFFINS at Texas Stars // Sat., Oct. 29 // 8 p.m. EDT // H-E-B Center at Cedar Park
GRIFFINS at Texas Stars // Sun., Oct. 30 // 6 p.m. EDT // H-E-B Center at Cedar Park
Listen: 96.1 The Game at 7:45 p.m. on Saturday, WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM at 5:45 p.m. on Sunday
Watch: AHLTV
Season Series: First and second of eight meetings overall, first and second of four at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park
All-Time Series: 35-22-4-4 Overall, 16-13-3-1 Away
NHL Affiliation: Dallas Stars
Noteworthy: Former Stars forward Joel L’Esperance will make his first trip back to Texas in a Griffins uniform. L’Esperance notched 136 points (80-56—136) in 183 games with Texas from 2017-22. Former Griffin Riley Barber joined the Stars this past offseason after competing with Grand Rapids from 2020-22, compiling 87 points (48-39—87) in 81 contests.

Last Week’s Results
Wed., Oct. 19 // GRIFFINS 3 vs. Milwaukee 2 // 2-1-0-0 (4 pts., 0.667, 1st Central)
Sat., Oct. 22 // GRIFFINS 1 at Toronto 4 // 2-2-0-0 (4 pts., 0.500, 3rd Central)
Sun., Oct. 23 // GRIFFINS 5 at Toronto 2 // 3-2-0-0 (6 pts., 0.600, T2nd Central)

Last Week’s Notes
Wednesday vs. Milwaukee (3-2 W) - In his professional debut, netminder Sebastian Cossa collected 21 saves while the Griffins anchored the Milwaukee Admirals to secure a 3-2 win at Van Andel Arena. The former first-round selection became the seventh rookie goaltender in Griffins history to win his debut. Austin Czarnik continued his hot streak with another goal, which put him at four tallies in three contests. Taro Hirose (1-1–2) and Matt Luff (0-2–2) each contributed with two-point outings, while Kirill Tyutyayev notched the game-winner. Ben Simon appeared in his 250th game as the Griffins' head coach and improved to 118-102-19-11 (0.532) all time with Grand Rapids. Recap | Highlights

Saturday at Toronto (1-4 L) - The Griffins dropped the opener of an eight-game road trip to the Toronto Marlies 4-1 at the Coca-Cola Coliseum. Toronto’s two quick goals in the opening 11:22 of play ultimately made the difference between. Cross Hanas notched the lone goal for Grand Rapids, the second of his rookie season and his third point in four games. The Griffins dropped to 15-12-2-0 all time in road openers. Recap | Highlights

Sunday at Toronto (5-2 W) - Three Griffins amassed multi-point outings, as Grand Rapids bounced back in game two against the Toronto Marlies with a 5-2 win at the Coca-Cola Coliseum. Despite missing all but nine games a year ago, Kirill Tyutyayev has gotten off to a blazing start this season. Tyutyayev’s hustle plays created two scores for the Griffins on Sunday, upping himself to four points (2-2—4) in as many games. Regardless of a mid-frame goalie change in the first, Grand Rapids held the Marlies to just two goals on 36 shots in the Griffins’ second contest of an eight-game road trip. Matt Luff (1-1—2), Taro Hirose (0-2—2) and Tyutyayev (0-2—2) all paced Grand Rapids in the contest. Donovan Sebrango and Dominik Shine each tallied their first goals of the season. Albert Johansson skated in his 150th game as a pro. Recap | Highlights

Rookie Sensations: Rookies Simon Edvinsson, Cross Hanas and Kirill Tyutyayev have gotten off to a fast start to begin the campaign. All three are tied for sixth in the AHL among rookies with four points. Hanas is also tied for fourth among rookies with three goals in five games. After totaling three assists in nine games a year ago, Tyutyayev now has two goals and two helpers in his first four games of the campaign. The Yekaterinburg, Russia, native scored a goal in consecutive games from Oct. 15-19, then tacked on two helpers on Oct. 23 at Toronto. Edvinsson is tied for fourth among rookies with three assists. The defenseman recorded an assist in his AHL debut and followed that performance with three points (1-2—3) on Oct. 15, which included his first goal in North America.

A Welcome Sight: The Griffins struggled out of the gate in 2020-21, as the team stood at 1-3-0-1 after five games, having been held to two shutouts and just 11 goals scored. In 2022-23, Grand Rapids has looked much improved with a 3-2-0-0 record and 19 total goals, which includes three 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 was tied for the fifth-highest scoring home game in franchise history.

Road Trip!: So far, Grand Rapids is 1-1-0-0 in its eight-game road trip with stops in Texas, 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.

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 is tied for the team lead in points and tied for sixth in the AHL. The Windsor, Ontario, native has three two-point outings in the first five contests and has been held off the scoresheet just once.

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 five games. Czarnik, Kampfer, L’Esperance and Luff all have at least three points through the first five games of the season, including seven points for Luff and Czarnik. New players on the team, including rookies, have accounted for 30 of the 51 points by Grand Rapids this campaign.

The Last Czar: Austin Czarnik has made his presence known to begin his Grand Rapids career, as the Washington Township, Mich., native, bagged seven points (4-3—7) in the first five games of the season. 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. Czarnik has at least one point in four of the five games to begin his Griffins career.

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 four AHL games, Edvinsson has four points (1-3—4), which is tied for sixth among rookies. 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.

Goalie Giants: Each of the Griffins’ four goalies is listed at 6-3 or taller: Sebastian Cossa (6-6), Victor Brattstrom (6-5), Jussi Olkinuora (6-3), and John Lethemon (6-3). Cossa is tied for the tallest player to ever compete for the Griffins, which includes a list headlined by teammate Simon Edvinsson along with Jared Coreau, Francois Leroux, Brad Norton, Michael Rasmussen and Dan Turple. Cossa made his pro debut on Oct. 19 versus Milwaukee and became just the seventh rookie goaltender in Griffins history to win his debut, making 21 saves in the process. Olkinuora is the fifth player to win an Olympic gold medal (2022/Beijing) before joining the Griffins, joining Slava Butsayev (1992/Unified Team/Albertville), Curtis Joseph (2002/Canada/Salt Lake City), Stefan Liv (2006/Sweden/Turin), and Mikael Samuelsson (2006/Sweden/Turin).

O Captain! My Captain!: Captain Brian Lashoff’s 584 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 24 games behind No. 3 Howie Yanosik (Hershey Bears, 1957-67). Lashoff is still 71 games away from breaking the Griffins’ all-time regular-season games played record, held by Travis Richards with 655 games (1995-2006).

Joined Forces: Joel L’Esperance signed a two-year deal with the Griffins this past offseason after being a menace to Grand Rapids for the past four seasons with the Texas Stars. In the past four campaigns against the Griffins, L’Esperance amassed 18 points (11-7—18) and an even plus-minus rating in 21 games. His stat line against Grand Rapids becomes even more impressive if you take out L’Esperance’s 2017-18 rookie season when he played just two games against the Griffins and totaled zero points. Throughout the last three years against the Griffins from 2018-22, the Brighton, Mich., native accumulated 18 points (11-7—18) in just 19 appearances to go along with 10 penalty minutes and a plus-one rating. L’Esperance has three points (2-1—3) in his first five games to start his Griffins career.

How Swede It Is: The Detroit Red Wings have a rich tradition of possessing some of the top talent to come out of Sweden, such as Niklas Kronwall and Nicklas Lidstrom, and more recently Lucas Raymond. This year is no different, as the NHL franchise has sent down a handful of Swedes to the Griffins. In fact, five players hail from Sweden, including Pontus Andreasson, Jonatan Berggren, Victor Brattstrom, Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson. Grand Rapids also features one Russian, Kirill Tyutyayev, and two Finnish players in Jussi Olkinuora and Eemil Viro.

AHL Leaderboard Tracker
Austin Czarnik—Seven points (4-3—7) are tied for sixth, four goals are tied for third
Sebastian Cossa—2.00 goals against average ranks fourth among qualified rookie goaltenders
Simon Edvinsson—Four points (1-3—4) are tied for sixth among rookies, three assists are tied for fourth among rookies
Cross Hanas—Three goals are tied for fourth among rookies, four points (3-1—4) are tied for sixth among rookies
Taro Hirose—Five assists are tied for fourth
Matt Luff—Seven points are tied for sixth
Kirill Tyutyayev—Two goals are tied for seventh among rookies, four points (2-2—4) are tied for sixth among rookies

Milestones
Matt Luff collected his 149th and 150th point as a pro during a two-point outing on Oct. 23 at Toronto. Albert Johansson also skated in his 150th game as a pro at Toronto on Oct. 23.
Austin Czarnik—Three assists from 150 in the AHL
Joel L’Esperance—Six points from 150 as a pro
Donovan Sebrango—Two games from 100 as a Griffin and in the AHL
Givani Smith—Two points from 50 in the AHL and as a Griffin
Tyler Spezia—Four goals from 50 as a pro

Photo by Mark Newman/Griffins