Griffins Fall to Cleveland in First Regulation Loss Since January

March 5, 2024 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Grand Rapids Griffins News Release

Grand Rapids Griffins right wing Dominik Shine (right) vs. the Cleveland Monsters
(Grand Rapids Griffins, Credit: Cleveland Monsters)

The Griffins were one point shy of tying the team's franchise record point streak of 19 consecutive contests, which last occurred from Feb. 4-March 20, 2015. Grand Rapid's nine-game road point streak, the AHL's second-longest stretch of road points this season, also came to an end. Jonatan Berggren's run of points lived on to six games (3-5--8) after he registered a goal, which put him at 28 points (12-16--27) in his last 24 outings.

Berggren broke the deadlock with a power-play tally, as he wristed the puck past Pavel Cajan's glove from the left point at 3:53 in the first frame. To keep the one-tally advantage, Michael Hutchinson robbed Cleveland of a tally with a sprawling paddle save on Owen Sillinger with 10:35 remaining in the period.

Following an expired Monsters power play, Cleveland remained set up in the Griffins' zone, which led to Mikael Pyyhtia firing a shot behind Hutchinson from the top of the left circle at 8:39 in the middle frame. The Monsters scored their second unanswered goal after Brendan Gaunce collected his own rebound off a block from a Griffin's stick and then rifled it into the net from the low slot with 5:19 remaining in the second period. Roman Ahcan snapped the disc from the left circle and into the top-left corner of the net to make it 3-1 in favor of the Monsters at 17:58.

Matt Luff halted Cleveland's uncontested scoring when he beat Cajan on his glove side with a long-range shot from the right point with 1:32 remaining in the frame.

Grand Rapids found its equalizer at 3:03 in the third period, as Dominik Shine received a feed while in the low slot and found twine for a 3-3 game. The Monsters followed up the Griffins' tally with a goal of their own with a left-circle bullet by Trey Fix-Wolansky with 11:26 remaining. With Hutchinson pulled at 2:10, Grand Rapids' hopes of a tie game faded with an empty-net tally for Gaunce from Cleveland's zone for his second tally of the contest with 55 seconds remaining to seal a 5-3 loss for the Griffins.

Notes

- Zach Aston-Reese extended his point streak (3-2--5) to five games with an assist.

- Carter Mazur's (3-3--6) and Antti Tuomisto's (0-4--4) point streaks were halted at three games, while Hutchinson's was stopped at seven games (5-0-2).

- Grand Rapids' 43 shots were the second-most shots that the team has put up this season, as 44 chances happened twice during the campaign (Nov. 15 vs. Chicago, Dec. 9 at Belleville).

Grand Rapids 1 1 1 - 3

Cleveland 0 3 2 - 5

1st Period-1, Grand Rapids, Berggren 19 (Edvinsson, Hirose), 3:53 (PP). Penalties-Bjork Cle (hooking), 2:57; Bjork Cle (hooking), 17:56.

2nd Period-2, Cleveland, Pyyhtia 7 (Sillinger), 8:39. 3, Cleveland, Gaunce 17 (Meyer), 14:41. 4, Cleveland, Ahcan 7 (Butler, Svozil), 17:58. 5, Grand Rapids, Luff 2 (Wallinder, Czarnik), 18:28. Penalties-Edvinsson Gr (tripping), 6:36.

3rd Period-6, Grand Rapids, Shine 8 (Aston-Reese, Soderblom), 3:03. 7, Cleveland, Fix-Wolansky 23 (Sillinger, Bjork), 8:34. 8, Cleveland, Gaunce 18 19:05. Penalties-Ahcan Cle (tripping), 0:47; Johansson Gr (high-sticking), 10:51; Angle Cle (holding), 10:51.

Shots on Goal-Grand Rapids 17-9-17-43. Cleveland 8-15-6-29.

Power Play Opportunities-Grand Rapids 1 / 3; Cleveland 0 / 1.

Goalies-Grand Rapids, Hutchinson 13-9-3 (29 shots-24 saves). Cleveland, Cajan 6-6-3 (43 shots-40 saves).

A-6,521

Three Stars

1. CLE Fix-Wolansky (game-winner); 2. CLE Sillinger (two assists); 3. CLE Gaunce (two goals)

Record / Next Game

Grand Rapids: 27-16-6-3 (63 pts.) / Fri., March 8 vs. Chicago 7 p.m.

Cleveland: 33-16-3-3 (72 pts.) / Sat., March 9 at Laval 7 p.m.

Grand Rapids Griffins right wing Dominik Shine (right) vs. the Cleveland Monsters (Cleveland Monsters)

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