Griffins Fall to Monsters, 5-3
February 27, 2010 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Grand Rapids Griffins News Release
CLEVELAND - Jeremy Williams became the 40th Griffin in franchise history to join the 20-goal club on Saturday, but Grand Rapids fell 5-3 to the Lake Erie Monsters at the Quicken Loans Arena.
The regular season series between the two teams is now even at three games a piece and Grand Rapids will look to notch the tiebreaker during tomorrow's 3:00 p.m. rematch in Cleveland.
Two first period goals in a span of 58 seconds made for a positive start for Grand Rapids (25-33-2-1), however Lake Erie (28-27-0-5) replied with two of their own before the first intermission.
Mattias Ritola weaved through the Monsters' defense, took a shot from the hash mark and the rebound kicked right out to Justin Abdelkader for an easy tap in at 7:37. Williams' bullet from the top of the left circle gave Grand Rapids some breathing room, but T.J. Hensick tipped in Travis Gawryletz's slap shot from the right point at 12:25 and Darren Haydar's went five-hole with a wrist shot at the 18:38 mark.
Deadlocked at 2-2 to start the middle frame, Ray Macias gave Lake Erie their first lead of the game when his fluttering wrist shot from 55 feet ended up in the top right corner of the Griffins' cage at 4:52.
The Griffins' perfectly-executed power play tied the game at three goals a piece. After a series of passes around the perimeter of the offensive zone, Jakub Kindl attempted a wraparound that was stuffed home by Francis Pare 9:54 into the period.
Just 53 seconds into the third period, Tom Preissing set up Brian Willsie for a one-timer that put Lake Erie on top 4-3.
Grand Rapids pulled Daniel Larsson for an extra attacker but Haydar slid his second goal of the night into the empty net with two seconds remaining.
Larsson turned aside 30 shots in the loss and Billy Sauer made 26 saves for Lake Erie.
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