The Grand Rapids Griffins followed up Friday night’s big win over the Milwaukee Admirals by hitting the road and hitting the bricks against the Rockford IceHogs, dropping a 4-1 decision on Saturday evening.
Rockford scored the game’s first four goals–one in the 1st period, and then 3 more in the 2nd–but Sebastian Cossa finished the game with a solid-enough 29 stops on 33 shots, and Brogan Rafferty at least spoiled Drew Commesso’s shutout in the 3rd period, but there wasn’t much to write home about for the Griffins.
Per the Griffins website’s recap:
ROCKFORD, Ill. — Grand Rapids dropped its first road game of the campaign, 4-1, as the Rockford IceHogs used a three-goal second period to storm past the Griffins on Saturday at the BMO Center.
Defenseman Brogan Rafferty scored the Griffins’ lone tally to secure his 150th point in the AHL. Veteran Austin Watson bagged his third assist as a Griffin in his first two games with the franchise. The contest marked a rematch of last season’s Central Division Semifinals where the Griffins bested the IceHogs 3-1 in the best-of-five series.
After losing the puck behind his own net, Sebastian Cossa recovered with an acrobatic diving-stick save to keep the game scoreless early in the first period. However, the IceHogs capitalized at 16:57 when Grand Rapids failed to clear the puck, which dropped right to Colton Dach who found the back of the net over the glove of Cossa. The IceHogs’ goal snapped 76:57 of shutout hockey to start the season for Cossa.
Rockford nearly doubled its lead with 1.2 seconds remaining but after further review the goal was called back due to the time expiring in the opening frame.
The second period remained unkind, as Grand Rapids surrendered three goals. Kevin Korchinski made it a 2-0 game at 5:30 when he scored on the power play and 3:58 later Cavan Fitzgerald increased Rockford’s advantage to three. Samuel Savoie capped off the period with his first of the year with 2:58 left during a 2-on-0 breakaway with Gavin Hayes.
Late in the final period, Rafferty put the Griffins on the board for their only goal of the outing.Watson shot the puck from the blueline through traffic before Rafferty tipped it in to prevent the shutout at 13:48. Rockford held the Griffins at bay for the remainder of the period and skated away with a 4-1 victory in its season opener.
The Griffins’ website also posted a photo gallery, and if you’re interested, you can read Detroit Hockey Now’s Max Smith’s critique of Cossa’s ups and downs at your leisure.
Update: There’s a “5” next to Nate Danielson’s penalty-minute mark, which means that the young Wings prospect got into his first fight on Saturday night.
Kasper fought, too.
