In the AHL, the Grand Rapids Griffins had a rough Saturday night, with Joe Hicketts scoring the game’s only goal as the Griffins lost 4-1 to the Milwaukee Admirals. The Griffins’ website posted a recap:
Milwaukee Admirals 4 at GRAND RAPIDS GRIFFINS 1
March 3, 2018
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Troy Grosenick’s 36 saves steered the Milwaukee Admirals to a 4-1 win over the Grand Rapids Griffins on Saturday at Van Andel Arena.
As the AHL’s 2016-17 goaltender of the year took care of matters on his end of the ice, his teammates built a 3-0 lead before Joe Hicketts finally broke the shutout bid with 12:58 remaining in the third period.
The Griffins, who completed a run of six home games in just 11 nights, have lost consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 13-17, when Milwaukee also dealt them defeat on the back end.
Grand Rapids (31-21-1-6) will enjoy a rare late-season week without a game before resuming action next Saturday with the team’s first visit to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in nine years. Game time versus the Penguins is 7:05 p.m.
Former Griffin Mark Zengerle opened the scoring for Milwaukee with 2:04 remaining in the opening period. Matej Machovsky went down in the butterfly to stop a shot by Brandon Bollig and momentarily had the puck beneath him, but Zengerle jammed his stick between Machovsky’s pads to knock it across the line, a deed that resulted in a grab and shove from Dominic Turgeon and a short-lived scrum behind the net involving several players from each team.
Meanwhile, the newly acquired Grosenick stopped all 14 shots he saw during the frame, breaking the Griffins’ streak of scoring at least one goal in each of their previous eight periods against the former San Jose Barracuda goalie that dated back to the 2017 Western Conference Finals.
The Admirals (28-24-4-1) padded their cushion with 32 seconds remaining in the middle period when Alexandre Carrier snapped a shot through traffic from the top of the left circle during a power play. The ill will between the two teams sparked a skirmish at the red line immediately following that goal along with another at the buzzer before the teams were dispatched to their locker rooms.
Matt Lorito received the only penalty from the latter altercation, and Milwaukee’s power play capitalized on its fresh ice to go ahead by three just 33 seconds into the third period. Frederic Allard’s blast from the point sailed wide left of the net and caromed hard off the end boards to Harry Zolnierczyk, who was waiting on the doorstep to sweep the puck inside the post.
Grand Rapids finally broke through Grosenick during a power play at the 7:02 mark. Grosenick initially made an incredible save on Evgeny Svechnikov by diving toward the right post, but Hicketts was waiting to slide the rebound beneath the netminder.
Trevor Smith extinguished any hope of a late Griffins comeback when he broke in alone on Machovsky and slammed his own rebound home with 2:59 remaining.
Machovsky sustained his first AHL loss, finishing with 26 saves.
Note: The throng of 10,834 marked the Griffins’ fourth sellout of the season and their seventh crowd of 10,000-plus in their last eight weekend home games.
Three Stars: 1. MIL Grosenick (W, 36 saves); 2. MIL Carrier (game-winning goal); 3. GR Hicketts (goal)
The Griffins also posted a photo gallery, a highlight clip and an interview clip:
In the ECHL, Shane Berschbach scored a goal and Pat Nagle stopped 19 of 21 shots as the Toledo Walleye dropped a 2-1 OT decision to the South Carolina Stingrays. The Walleye’s website posted a recap:
Walleye pick up point, but fall in overtime to Stingrays
(Toledo, OH) – The Walleye fell to the Stingrays 2-1 in overtime on Saturday night. Pat Nagle stopped 19 of 21 shots and is now 28-4-3-1 on the season. The Walleye are 39-14-3-2 on the season and 24-4-1-0 at home.
Tonight’s crowd of 8,200 continued to help our record grow with our 22nd sellout this season.
Shane Berschbach stayed on the puck and snuck it behind Stingrays goaltender, Parker Milner, at 6:58 of the first period on the power play to give the Walleye a 1-0 lead. South Carolina would tie the game 1-1 with a power play goal at 14:37 with a shot that beat Nagle.
Nagle would come up with a big save on a South Carolina short-handed rush to keep the game tied midway through the third period.
South Carolina would score at 4:32 in overtime to seal a 2-1 win.
Fish Tales:
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The Walleye are in Brampton tomorrow for a 2:00 p.m. puck drop against the Beast. The team returns home on Friday, March 9th for a 7:15 p.m. puck drop against Quad City.
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Nagle stopped 19 of 21 shots and is now 28-4-3-1 on the season. His streak stops at ten straight wins, a new Walleye record.
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Simon Denis has eight points in his past five games.
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The sellout crowd of 8,200 continues the record of sellouts in a season with 22.
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Toledo is unbeaten in regulation over 14 games (13-0-1-0), which is a new Toledo Walleye record.
The Walleye also posted a highlight clip:
In the KHL, in playoff action, Alexander Kadeikin didn’t play in Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s playoff-opening 2-1 win over Torpedo Nizhny Novogorod.
In the Finnish Liiga, Libor Sulak finished at -2 with 2 shots, playing 22:40 in the Lahti Pelicans’ 6-5 OT loss to TPS Turku;
Julius Vahatalo finished at +1 with a 41% faceoff record in 14:25 played during Jukurit’s 5-2 win over Ilves;
In the SHL, Christoffer Ehn finished at -2 with 3 shots and a 25% faceoff record in 11:08 played during the Frolunda Indians’ 5-4 OT loss to HV71 Jonkoping;
In the Swedish J20 league, Malte Setkov played on the first defensive pairing in the Malmo Redhawks’ 5-2 loss to Rogle BK;
Alfons Malmstrom played on the 3rd defensive pairing in HV71 Jonkoping’s 3-1 loss to the Vaxjo Lakers;
In the Swiss NLA, Joren van Pottelberghe served as the back-up in HC Davos’ 4-3 OT win over HC Lugano;
In the OHL, Cole Fraser scored a goal but finished at -2 with 3 shots and Zach Gallant didn’t play during the Peterborough Petes’ 9-3 loss to Erie;
Kaden Fulcher stopped 18 of 19 shots in the Hamilton Bulldogs’ 4-1 win over Oshawa;
Reilly Webb finished even and Brady Gilmour did not play during the Saginaw Spirit’s 4-0 loss to Windsor;
In the WHL, Lane Zablocki finished at -1 with 1 shot and a 1-for-11 faceoff record in the Victoria Royals’ 7-3 win over Prince George;
Dennis Cholowski had 2 assists, finishing at +3 on 2 shots as his Portland Winterhawks won 5-0 over the Tri-City Americans. Michael Rasmussen finished at -1 with 4 shots and a 4-for-14 faceoff record;
In the USHL, Filip Larsson didn’t dress in the Tri-City Storm’s 5-2 win over Des Moines;
In NCAA hockey, in playoff action, Chase Perry served as the back-up in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers’ series-tying 1-0 win over Colgate. The teams will wrap up their first-round series on Sunday;
Patrick Holway finished even with 3 shots and Chase Pearson finished even with 4 shots and a 13-for-23 faceoff record as the University of Maine Black Bears won 3-2 over New Hampshire, advancing to the Hockey East quarterfinal;
Keith Petruzzelli stopped 20 of 21 shots as the Quinnipiac Bobcats won 4-1 over Yale, advancing to the ECAC Hockey quarterfinal;
And in regular season NCAA play, Davd Pope finished at -2 with 1 shot in the University of Nebraska-Omaha’s 5-1 loss to Minnesota Duluth. Nebraska-Omaha will host Western Michigan in the WCHA playoffs
