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Grand Rapids Griffins

Griffins Take Midwest Division Lead with Sixth Straight Win

February 25, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Grand Rapids Griffins News Release


Des Moines, Iowa - The Grand Rapids Griffins scored twice in the first 4:37 and didn't look back as it claimed the Midwest Division lead defeating the Iowa Wild 6-2 Tuesday at Wells Fargo Arena.

Grand Rapids (31-17-5-1) broke a three-way tie with Milwaukee and Rockford for the division lead with its fifth straight road victory and sixth consecutive win overall. The Griffins are 8-0-2-0 over their last 10 games and will look to extend their division lead Friday in Milwaukee at 8 pm EST.

Kevin Porter scored his eighth goal of the season when he took a pass from Brian Lashoff and fired a high wrister over the glove of Johan Gustafsson at 3:03.

Gustafsson remained in the game for only 1:34 later as he was pulled in favor of John Curry following Chris Bruton's second goal of the season. Bruton stood in front of Gustafsson and tipped a shot from captain Jeff Hoggan at 4:37. Gustafsson finished the game with two saves on four shots.

The second period began with Anthony Mantha reaching the 10-goal mark at 4:34 when he found an open net with the rebound from a Tomas Nosek wrist shot.

Marek Tvrdon scored the next two goals, the first coming at 6:58. His fifth goal was assisted by Mark Zengerle, who tied Teemu Pulkkinen's season-high point streak to eight games (3-6 - 9).

Tvrdon's second tally of the night came following a pass from Hoggan and Tvrdon faked a shot attempt and waited until he had the lower right corner open, firing a wrister past Curry at 10:06.

Iowa (18-37-1-1) scored its first goal less than a minute later when a shot hit Petr Mrazek and he couldn't cover the puck before it squirted to his right when Olivier Archambault poked the puck into the net for his second goal of the season at 11:03.

Landon Ferraro helped the Griffins retake a five-goal with his 21st goal of the campaign when his shot following a rebound from Curry went underneath the crossbar from eight feet. Ryan Sproul assisted on the goal at 12:08.

Iowa's Marc Hagel finished the scoring at 15:32 when he took a cross-ice pass from Jonathan Blum and beat a sprawling Mrazek for his ninth goal of the season.

Mrazek made 31 saves on 33 shots in his first road win since returning from Detroit Feb. 16. His last road win with Grand Rapids came Oct. 17 at Charlotte. Curry took the loss, making 23 saves on 27 shots.

The Griffins went two-for-three on the power play and the Wild failed to score on two power play opportunities.

Three Stars: 1. GR Tvrdon (two goals); 2. GR Lashoff (two assists); 3. IA Archambault (goal)

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