AHL Grand Rapids Griffins

Griffins Claim West Division Title

Published on April 6, 2002 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Grand Rapids Griffins News Release


Grand Rapids, MI - With a 3-2 road victory on Saturday night over the Chicago Wolves, the Grand Rapids Griffins won the American Hockey League's Bud Poile Trophy as 2001-02 champions of the West Division. Coupled with Norfolk's 4-2 loss at Philadelphia, the Griffins also secured the Western Conference's number-two seed in the 2002 AHL Calder Cup playoffs.

Thanks to their second place finish in the conference, Grand Rapids will face the higher-seeded survivor of next week's best-of-three qualifying round involving the seventh through tenth seeds. The best-of-five Western Conference quarterfinal series will commence at Van Andel Arena no earlier than Friday, April 12.

The Griffins, 41-27-11-0, will conclude their regular season schedule on Sunday with an 8:00 p.m. tilt against the Manitoba Moose at Winnipeg Arena. The outcome of that game, the third in three nights and fourth in five nights for the Griffins, will have no bearing on Grand Rapids' final standing.

The Poile Trophy becomes the third major piece of hardware earned by Grand Rapids in its three seasons of affiliation with the Ottawa Senators. The Griffins won the International Hockey League's Fred A. Huber Trophy last season as regular season champions, after taking the 1999-2000 Frank Gallagher Trophy as IHL Eastern Conference playoff champions.

Tonight, the Griffins took leads of 1-0 and 2-1, only to see the Wolves tie the score each time. Just 2:18 into the contest, Tim Skarperud sent a backhand pass from behind the net into the goal mouth. Chicago goalie Norm Maracle mishandled the puck, letting it bounce off the inside of his right goal pad and into his net for a 1-0 Griffins lead.

Six minutes later, just after Grand Rapids had killed off a four-minute Chicago power play, the Wolves answered with a lucky goal of their own. Zdenek Blatny took a pass in the slot, spun around and fired a shot that deflected off a stick, off Griffins defenseman Julien Vauclair and past Martin Prusek, tying the game at 8:19.

Three minutes of hard work in the Wolves' zone paid off in the form of another Griffins goal late in the period. Maracle denied numerous scoring chances, including a Travis Richards blast from the left circle. However, Joe Murphy pounced on the rebound in the slot, giving Grand Rapids another lead with 1:58 remaining. The Griffins' dominance was exemplified by their 17-4 shot advantage in the opening 20 minutes.

Grand Rapids continued to force the action in the second frame, but a mistake turned into a three-on-two break and a goal for Chicago. Steve Maltais finished the play at the 6:42 mark, tallying his 30th goal of the season to again knot the score.

The Griffins notched the game-winning goal during a power play at 11:13. Defenseman Joel Kwiatkowski took a shot that Maracle stopped, but Chris Szysky jammed the rebound between the goalie's pads for his first goal since New Year's Eve.

Grand Rapids' defense was impregnable the rest of the way, as Prusek finished with 16 saves to improve to 18-8-5 on the season. Maracle turned aside 32 shots while falling to 21-24-4.

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American Hockey League Stories from April 6, 2002


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