8-2 loss ends Griffins' season
April 23, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Grand Rapids Griffins News Release
Rosemont, Ill. - Touché, with a vengeance. One year after sweeping the Chicago Wolves in the playoffs and less than two months since they stood atop the American Hockey League standings, the Grand Rapids Griffins watched their season come to an ignominious end on Friday with an 8-2 loss at Allstate Arena.
Chicago avenged last year's disappointment by taking all four games of the West Division semifinals by a cumulative 17-6 margin, advancing to face either the Milwaukee Admirals or Cincinnati Mighty Ducks in the division finals.
What once had the potential to be a dream season for the Griffins ended with a nightmare in the Chicago suburbs, as the Wolves' eight goals marked the most surrendered by Grand Rapids in its 59-game postseason history and tied for the most allowed in the 709 total games played by the franchise. In addition, the six-goal margin of defeat was the Griffins' largest ever in a playoff game.
Chicago jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the game was 11 minutes old. The Wolves got it started just 1:46 into the contest, as Eric Healey got a step on a Griffins defenseman charging down the slot, collected Brian Swanson's pass from the right side and went to his backhand to slip the puck past Joey MacDonald and inside the right post.
The Wolves continued to dominate play in the Griffins' end, and it paid off in the form of their second goal exactly five minutes later. Less than a minute after MacDonald had made a tremendous glove save on Steve Maltais, Derek MacKenzie connected during a goal-mouth scramble. Then, Greg Hawgood took advantage of yet another breakdown to fire an unchallenged shot past MacDonald from between the circles at the 10:43 mark, chasing him in favor of Marc Lamothe, the starter in the series' first three games.
An uncovered MacKenzie redirected a pass from point-blank range to welcome Lamothe with just 3.9 seconds left in the frame, making it a 4-0 game at intermission.
At 6:37 of the second period, immediately after the Griffins had squandered 1:24 of a 5-on-3 advantage, Mike Weaver scored on a breakaway. Stephen Baby beat a sprawling Lamothe at 10:27, then Brian Maloney's sharp-angle tally from along the left goal line at10:57 ushered MacDonald back to the Griffins' crease with the score 7-0.
MacKenzie completed a hat trick and rounded out Chicago's scoring during a two-man Wolves advantage at 7:04 of the third period.
The Griffins finally broke through Kari Lehtonen on their 26th shot of the night with 4:59 remaining, as Jiri Hudler's tap-in of an Eric Himelfarb pass from the doorstep barely trickled over the line. That power play tally was followed up with one by Travis Richards at the 19:42 mark, with Derek King earning an assist for his final point as a professional.
Lehtonen, rated the NHL's No. 1 prospect by The Hockey News each of the last two years, stopped 30 shots on the night and 117 of the 123 he faced during the series. MacDonald and Lamothe each allowed four goals and finished the game with 19 and 10 saves, respectively.
The defeat gave a sour ending to King's spectacular 17-year career. A veteran of 830 NHL games during which he amassed 612 points, King retires as Grand Rapids' all-time leader in playoff points (41), goals (16) and assists (25), while ranking among its top regular season performers in games played (264-4th), goals (73-2nd), assists (130-3rd), points (203-3rd) and plus-minus (+71-2nd).
The Wolves will continue their chase for the Calder Cup with two omens in their favor. They've won a league championship in each even-numbered year since 1998, and each of the last four teams to eliminate the Griffins from the playoffs went on to claim the cup.
Through 60 games of the regular season, the Griffins' 37-15-8-0 mark gave them the best winning percentage (0.683) in the league. Beginning with a 5-3 home loss to Philadelphia on Feb. 29, Grand Rapids went 7-13 over its final 20 regular season games and 7-17 through tonight's season-ending contest.
View this game's official box score on-line at griffinshockey.com.
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