Trip to Hawkeye State

This Week’s Games

GRIFFINS at Iowa Wild // Thurs., Feb. 10 // 8 p.m. EST // Wells Fargo Arena
GRIFFINS at Iowa Wild // Fri., Feb. 11 // 8 p.m. EST // Wells Fargo Arena

Listen: 96.1 TheGame at 7:35 p.m. EST on Thursday, WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM at 7:35 p.m. EST on Friday

Watch: MC22 (Iowa) and AHLTV on Thursday, AHLTV on Friday

Season Series: 2-0-0-0 Overall, 1-0-0-0 Road. Third and fourth of eight meetings overall, second and third of four at Wells Fargo Arena.

All-Time Series: 37-15-4-2 Overall, 19-9-1-0 Road

NHL Affiliation: Minnesota Wild

Noteworthy: Grand Rapids has points in five of the last six meetings overall (4-1-1-0) against Iowa. The Griffins have lost at least one game against every opponent on their schedule except the Wild.

Last Week’s Results
Wed., Feb. 2 // GRIFFINS 3 vs. Toronto 4 // 15-16-5-2 (37 pts., 0.486, 6th Central Division)
Fri., Feb. 4 // GRIFFINS 2 vs. Ontario 5 // 15-17-5-2 (37 pts., 0.474, 6th Central Division)
Sat., Feb. 5 // GRIFFINS 5 vs. Ontario 3 // 16-17-5-2 (39 pts., 0.488, 6th Central Division)

Last Week’s Notes
Wednesday vs. Toronto (3-4 L) - A two-goal third period lifted the Toronto Marlies past the Griffins at Van Andel Arena. Calvin Pickard recorded 28 saves against the Marlies in his first game back since Jan. 24 due to recall. The Griffins’ three tallies were the most in the last three games combined, as they were outscored 10-1 from Jan. 26-29. Both Jon Martin and Brett McKenzie notched their second goals of the season while Ryan Murphy joined them with his seventh tally of the year. The Griffins suffered just their third loss in regulation when leading after the second period (12-3-2-0). Recap | Highlights

Friday vs. Ontario (2-5 L) - The AHL’s top power play was on full display at Van Andel Arena, as Ontario recorded three goals on the man-advantage to defeat the Griffins. Joe Veleno lit the lamp in his first Griffins game since Nov. 13 due to being recalled to the Detroit Red Wings. This was the first meeting between the two clubs since April 3, 2019, and the first match up in West Michigan since Nov. 16, 2018. Dan Renouf scored his first goal of the season in the second period. Former Griffin Martin Frk notched the game-winner in his initial return to Van Andel Arena as a visitor. Frk joined Tomas Jurco and Andrej Nestrasil as the only Griffins Calder Cup alumni to beat Grand Rapids in their first game back in West Michigan. Despite the score line, the Griffins outshot the Reign 37-28. Recap | Highlights

Saturday vs. Ontario (5-3 W) - Five different Griffins scored to help power Grand Rapids past the Ontario Reign at Van Andel Arena. The Griffins snapped a season-high seven-game winless streak (0-6-1-0) with the franchise’s first-ever victory over the Reign (1-3-0-0). Joe Veleno continued his dominance, notching goals in back-to-back games and setting a new AHL career-high with three points (1-2—3). Luke Witkowski recorded his first goal as a Griffin while Patrick Curry got his first point of the campaign. Former Griffin Martin Frk also notched a tally for the second straight night. In the opening frame, Grand Rapids’ 23 shots were their most this season and just one shy of the franchise record for shots in a period. The Griffins, who scored two shorthanded goals in the second period, had totaled two shorthanded goals in their previous 74 games entering the night. Coming into the contest, Ontario had given up just one shorthanded tally in 36 outings. Ontario trailed by three goals or more in only two of its first 36 games of the season. Grand Rapids killed off all seven penalties against the AHL’s best power play. Tyler Spezia registered his fourth multi-point outing (1-1—2) of the campaign. Recap | Highlights

New Leader: Shawn Horcoff was named Red Wings assistant general manager and the fifth general manager of the Grand Rapids Griffins on Feb. 4, 2022, after the departure of former GM Pat Verbeek, now the GM of the Anaheim Ducks. Horcoff will work alongside Steve Yzerman on all hockey operations matters for the Red Wings, in addition to being responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Griffins, including personnel decisions, contract negotiations and player movement. Horcoff, 43, spent six seasons as the Red Wings' director of player development - in addition to the last three seasons as assistant director of player personnel - after joining the Red Wings prior to the 2016-17 season following a 1,008-game NHL career.

Road Trip: The Griffins’ 13-game schedule for January featured eight home contests. In fact, the Griffins have played eight of their past 11 contests at Van Andel Arena. However, that will change in the coming weeks, as the team heads out on a four-game road trip and will be on foreign ice in six of its next seven games. Grand Rapids is 7-8-1-1 away from West Michigan and 9-9-4-1 at home this season. The Griffins’ next home contest will be on Feb. 19 against Rockford.

No Champion Here: Martin Frk was the 14th Griffins Calder Cup champion to return to Van Andel Arena as a visitor. Grand Rapids has taken care of business against former champions, as it holds an 11-3-0-0 record and a plus-12 scoring margin (38-26) against Griffins Calder Cup alumni in their first games back in West Michigan. With a win on Feb. 4, Frk joined Tomas Jurco (4-1 W vs. RFD, 12/8/17) and Andrej Nestrasil (2-1 W vs. CHA, 1/9/15) as the only three former players who have defeated the Griffins in their first appearance at Van Andel Arena since winning the Cup.

Busy Bodies: The Griffins competed in 32 games over the first 99 days of the season between Oct. 15-Jan. 21. The calendar for Grand Rapids intensifies in the second half of the campaign, as the club is scheduled to play 43 contests over 96 days from Jan. 22-April 28. The Griffins are no stranger to a busy workload, as Grand Rapids played in 16 games in 30 days to conclude the 2020-21 season.

Going with the Flow: It has been a busy season thus far for head coach Ben Simon and Griffins general managers, as players on professional tryouts have been plentiful for the team this year. Ten PTO skaters have seen action so far this season and have totaled 99 games played; both numbers surpass any full season since Simon joined the team as an assistant coach in 2015-16. On average, 12.4% of Grand Rapids’ lineup has been tryout players.

Huffin’ and Puffin’: So far this season, the Griffins are 2-10-1-2 (0.233) against the Central Division-leading Chicago Wolves and the second-place Manitoba Moose. The Griffins picked up their second win against either club on Jan. 14 against Manitoba, marking their first victory against Chicago or the Moose since Nov. 12. However, Grand Rapids is 14-7-4-0 (0.640) against the rest of the AHL.

AHL Leaderboard Tracker:
Jonatan Berggren—29 points (9-20—29) are tied for sixth among first-year players, 20 assists place eighth among rookies
Taro Hirose—23 assists are tied for 13th, 11 power play assists are tied for 10th
Ryan Murphy—Seven goals are tied for second among blueliners
Wyatt Newpower—39 penalty minutes are tied for ninth among rookies
Calvin Pickard—2.55 goals against average is tied for 14th, 0.922 save percentage is tied for fifth, 13 wins are tied for sixth
Dominik Shine—100 penalty minutes rank second

Milestones:
Turner Elson skated in his 450th game as a pro on Jan. 28 at Chicago while Taro Hirose notched his 100th game as a Griffin on Jan. 29. Other upcoming milestones include:
Ben Simon—One win from 100 as Griffins head coach
Kyle Criscuolo—Four assists from 100 as a pro and 50 as a Griffin, five assists from 100 in the AHL
Jon Martin—Three points from 100 as a pro
Brett McKenzie—Two goals from 50 as a pro
Ryan Murphy—Three goals from 50 as a pro
Tyler Spezia—Three points from 100 as a pro

Photo by Nicolas Carrillo/Griffins