TARDIF'S TIMING AND HOWARD'S HALTING

OMAHA, Neb. – Jamie Tardif scored the lone goal with just 2:01 remaining to lift the Grand Rapids Griffins to a 1-0 victory over the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights Friday night at the Omaha Civic Auditorium. With the win, Grand Rapids (32-23-5-2) improves to a season-high, nine games over 0.500, is riding a three-game winning streak and is just four points behind Rochester for third place in the North Division race.

Jeff Campbell fed Tardif a pass during a 2-on-1 break, enabling his line mate to send a shot past Curtis McElhinney, who had previously made 18 saves in the contest and a total of 57 over two games against the Griffins, dating back to the 4-0 loss Grand Rapids suffered at home on January 12th.

Jimmy Howard notched his fifth shutout of the campaign, and fourth in his last eight games, with 26 saves and is now just one away from tying the single season record of six (Joey MacDonald, 2003-04; Marc Lamothe, 2002-03; Mike Fountain, 2000-01; Pokey Reddick, 1996-97). In addition Howard earned his seventh blanking of his career, placing him in sole possession of 4th all-time among Griffins’ netminders, passing Reddick.

The Griffins will conclude their weekend in Omaha tomorrow night in the second of a two-game stint against the Knights at 7 p.m. EST.