The Toledo Police Department Hockey team is scheduled to take on the Detroit Red Wings alumni team — for the first time — at 7 p.m. Saturday at Sylvania Tam-O-Shanter, 7060 W. Sylvania Ave. Notable names like Darren McCarthy, Joey Kocur, Mickey Redmond, and Toledo native Bryan Smolinski, are set to attend.
Funds raised from Saturday’s game will be donated to the Family and Child Abuse Prevention Center, an agency which assists thousands of families each year in education and intervention to reduce family violence.
The agency works closely with Toledo police at the Children’s Advocacy Center and through the Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Program, said the agency’s Chief Executive Officer Christie Jenkins.
“This money will help to ensure that we do not turn anyone away for services and that we are able to see all victims and their families at no cost to them,” Ms. Jenkins said.
Continued, and also of community note from the Red Wings and Griffins:
Red Wings prospects Givani Smith and Jordan Sambrook are having good playoff runs with the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, respectively.
Shawn Horcoff, Red Wings director of player development, has watched both players during the first two rounds. He said Smith is coming off a “fantastic series” against Sarnia. He scored twice in the deciding game and has seven goals and 12 points in 12 playoff games.
“He’s a big, physical guy who’s skating very well right now and producing offense,” Horcoff said. “He’s playing definitely some of his best hockey, really starting to come into his own. For Givani, a lot of it comes from skating, and right now he’s skating fantastic and he’s physical, very heavy body every shift, getting under opponents’ skin. He’s doing a heck of a job.”
…
Sambrook has no goals and three assists in 11 playoff games. He was traded from Erie to Sault Ste. Marie midway through the season and finished with 10 goals and 29 assists in 67 games.
This is the third year in a row he’s gone past the first round of the playoffs.
“He’s solid defensively, plays all situations, has real good hockey sense,” Horcoff said. “He’s one of those guys that seems to play on winners. He knows how to win. At the junior level at least, he plays both sides of the puck. He’s gotten better as his junior career has gone on.”
Dennis Cholowski practiced with the Grand Rapids Griffins this morning, and after he skated with the team, Cholowski and Griffins coach Todd Nelson spoke with the Grand Rapids Press’s Peter J. Wallner regarding the possibility that he might join the Griffins’ lineup:
Cholowski, whose junior team was eliminated last week from the WHL playoffs, has to vault over several blueliners to make the top six or seven. That includes prime Red Wings prospects in Joe Hicketts and Filip Hronek, along with veteran anchors such as Brian Lashoff and third-year pro Robbie Russo. Coach Todd Nelson said as much after Wednesday’s practice, though he didn’t rule out the possibility of ice time.
“We have a pretty deep defensive corps but … if we feel he’s good enough to knock someone out of the box then he’s going to play,” he said.
The Griffins open the best-of-five Central Division Semifinals at Manitoba on Saturday.
“The positive thing,” Nelson added, “is we have good depth on the bench so if some guys get banged up over the course of a series, we can go to guys like Dennis …”
Cholowski is familiar with the situation. He signed out of St. Cloud State last season in time to play in the Griffins’ regular-season finale. Then he practiced, along with a group of other prospects, but didn’t play again as the Griffins won the Calder Cup Trophy.
“Last year was great being on the team and it will definitely help in the years to come,” Cholowski said. Asked if not playing was frustrating, he added: “Yeah, obviously; everyone wants to play and last year I wanted to play and this year, obviously, I want to play. I’ll do what they tell me and keep working hard.”
Wallner continues, and he posted a video of Cholowski speaking with the media:
Cholowski was able to get into one regular season game with the Griffins last season after he left college (St. Cloud State) but didn’t dress for any playoff games.
It could be a struggle this spring, as well, with the Griffins deep on defense, and prospects such as Cholowski, Libor Sulak and to a lesser extent Vili Saarijarvi, who split the season between Grand Rapids and Toledo (ECHL), all battling to enter the lineup.
As much as it would help a young player like Cholowski to get some playoff games, the Griffins are going after a second consecutive Calder Cup and have a lineup that has jelled and played extremely well the last two months.
The Griffins are there to win, and Nelson will put together lineups that will do so.
“I don’t know yet,” said Nelson, as to when, or if, Cholowski will play. “We have a pretty deep defensive corps. But if he’s good enough to knock someone out of the box, he’ll play.
“The positive thing is we have good depth on defense right now. So if some guys get banged up over the course of a series, we can go to and use Dennis, or Sulak, Saarijarvi. But as of right now, our defensive corps is pretty solid and it’s been good for the last couple months.
“I haven’t seen Dennis since training camp, essentially. I’ll see where he’s at. We’ve had one practice out there today. As we go along, if I like what I see and he can help our team and he can knock someone out of the box, he’ll play.”
General manager Ken Holland was rewarded with a two-year contract extension. Coach Jeff Blashill will stay in place to finish out the final year of his contract. But you knew someone was going to have to pay the price for the Detroit Red Wings’ second straight absence from the Stanley Cup playoffs.
John Torchetti turned out to be the fall guy.
The Wings decided not to offer assistant coach Torchetti a new contract. The two-year deal he signed with the team in 2016 is about to expire, and the Wings took the step of informing other NHL teams early that Torchetti would not be retained in order to give him a better chance to land work elsewhere.
Torchetti didn’t seem the least bit surprised by this development.
“No, not at all,” Torchetti told Mlive.com. “The only disappointing thing was that I wish I could have did more. I thought that overall, everyone was saying the players were developing, which is a good thing. You just always wish you could do more.
“I signed a two-year deal and one of the good things is, talking it over, I have time to look for another job. I had a good opportunity to work with some young kids, build some good things for the future and wish them the best.”
One of Torchetti’s main duties with the Wings was to oversee the club’s power play, an Achilles heel in their fall from grace the past two seasons.
Duff continues, and I had assumed that Blashill would have to let one or two of his assistant coaches go as part of the we’ll-keep-you bargain.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Detroit Red Wings have reassigned defenseman Dennis Cholowski from the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks to the Grand Rapids Griffins.
Detroit’s first-round selection, 20th overall, in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, Cholowski combined for 66 points (14-52—66), a plus-29 rating and 32 penalty minutes while splitting his first major junior campaign between Prince George (13-26—39 in 37 GP) and Portland (1-26—27 in 32 GP) of the Western Hockey League. He ranked among the WHL’s top defensemen in points (8th), goals (T6th), assists (8th), plus-minus rating (T12th), shots (180, 12th) and power play points (32, T3rd). The 20-year-old also led Portland with five playoff goals in 12 games while his seven points finished sixth.
A 6-foot-1, 200-pound blueliner, Cholowski notched 12 points (1-11—12) and 14 PIM in 36 games during his lone collegiate campaign at St. Cloud State University (NCHC) in 2016-17. He made his professional debut with the Griffins later that year, skating in the team’s season finale at Milwaukee.
Prior to college, Cholowski appeared in 106 games with the Chilliwack Chiefs of the British Columbia Hockey League from 2013-16 and totaled 67 points (16-51—67). He was named to the league’s second all-star team in 2015-16 after pacing all team defensemen in scoring and tying for fifth among league blueliners with 40 points (12-28—40) in 50 games.
A native of Langley, British Columbia, Cholowski won a gold medal with Canada West at the World Junior A Challenge in 2015-16.
Second-seeded Grand Rapids will face third-seeded Manitoba in the best-of-five Central Division Semifinals. Game 1 is set for this Saturday at Manitoba.
Tickets for Games 3 and 4 (if necessary) of the division semifinals at Van Andel Arena are currently on sale and can be purchased at all Star Tickets locations, including The Zone, online through griffinshockey.com/tickets, by phone through Star Tickets at (800) 585-3737, or via the Griffins app for iPhone or Android.
FYI from DetroitHockey.net’s Clark Rasmussen:
Looks like Dennis Cholowski has been assigned No 44 in Grand Rapids.
The Toledo Walleye have made the journey to Indianapolis to play the Indy Fuel this evening (7:05 PM EDT start). Before the Walleye’s team bus left the Huntington Center, the Walleye’s players and coach spoke with the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe regarding the state of their first-round series:
Toledo and Indy have played 11 times this season and seven of the games have been decided by just one goal. The Walleye edged the Fuel 4-3 once again on Sunday to go up by two games in the best-of-7 series. Faceoff for Game 3 is set for 7:05 p.m. on Wednesday in Indianapolis.
Walleye coach Dan Watson said he expects the Fuel to double down on their effort, while his team looks to drive a nail in the coffin.
“It’s going to ramp up because now you have a team that is down 0-2 and they will be desperate and be hungry to win on their home ice. And we’re up 2-0 and we want to make sure we go in there and put pressure on them and take that 3-0 series lead,” Watson said shortly before the team boarded the bus bound for Indianapolis on Tuesday afternoon.
Toledo improved to 10-1-0 this season against the Fuel, and the Walleye went 6-0-0 this season at Indiana Farmers Coliseum.
Gustav Nyquist did not have a very good 2017-18 season statistically, posting 21 goals, 19 assists and 40 points in 82 games played.There’s no doubt that Nyquist, who’s signed for one more year at $4.75 million, needs to step up production-wise, but the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan duly notes (in a locker room clean-out day article) that Nyquist owned his struggles during his final session with the media:
“I don’t think I’m happy when I’m standing here talking to you guys in April,” Nyquist said during last week’s locker clean out. “I have to find a way to be better.”
What irked Nyquist was the goals he felt were there to be had, only to be squandered away.
“I scored a little more goals this year but I still think I created enough chances to score more,” Nyquist said. “I want to produce more than I did. I’ve got to find a way here during the summer to do some things and to get better for next year and have a big season.”
I don’t know how much credit Nyquist gets for working his butt off on a more consistent basis, but the Red Wings’ coach was impressed by Nyquist’s work ethic, and I’d argue that Nyquist deserves that much:
“He and I talked about it the beginning of last season, about the importance of being totally relentless in his approach, and on a lot of nights he’s done that,” Blashill said. “He’s been one of our hardest workers on a consistent basis and one of our biggest battlers.”
In Blashill’s estimation, Nyquist could easily be closer to 30 goals next season given a bit more good fortune.
“If he gets those chances a year from now, we’re sitting at 25 or 26 goals instead of 20,” Blashill said. “(He had a) ton of good chances. The fact he’s gotten to 20 doesn’t surprise me.”
I hope that Nyquist can return to 25-goal-scoring and 50-to-60-point form. The Wings need to be “proven right” in choosing Nyquist over Tatar for consistency’s sake.
Sault Ste. Marie advances to the OHL’s Western Conference Final, where they will play Givani Smith’s Kitchener Rangers starting on Friday the 20th;
In the OHL’s Eastern Conference, Kaden Fulcher’s Hamilton Bulldogs will battle the Kingston Frontenacs, starting tonight, Wednesday, April 18th.
In the USHL, the Filip Larsson-less Tri-City Storm lost 5-1 to the Fargo Force, losing the first game of a best-of-3 first-round series;
In the AHL, in the multimedia department, the Grand Rapids Griffins are preparing to open a 5-game first-round playoff series against the Manitoba Moose on Saturday and Sunday in Winnipeg.
Pat Nagleof the Toledo Walleye leads the ECHL with 36 wins, ranks second with 2,787 minutes played, third with 1,250 saves, fourth with a 2.15 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage and is tied for fifth with three shutouts. His 36 wins are tied for the third-most in a single-season in ECHL history, and are just two off the all-time mark of 38.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins on Tuesday signed goaltender Joel Martin to a professional tryout.
Martin, 35, tallied a 22-21-5 record, a 3.13 goals against average and a 0.901 save percentage in 49 appearances with the ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings this season. The 6-foot-2, 190-pound netminder paced the league with 2,930 minutes. Martin’s 22 victories marked his fifth career 20-plus win season in the ECHL, which ties for the third-most in league history.
A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Martin has skated in 394 career ECHL games – which ranks third in league charts – since 2003-04, appearing with Columbus (2003-04), Trenton (2006-07), Elmira (2007-08), Augusta (2008-09) and Kalamazoo (2012-18). A nine-time ECHL Goaltender of the Week award winner, Martin’s 199 wins place fourth in ECHL history and his 22,962 minutes are good for second. He also holds the league record for most career 30-or-more win seasons with three, established from 2012-13 to 2014-16.
Martin’s last game action in the AHL came during the 2013-14 campaign when he showed a 0-2 record, a 3.03 GAA and a 0.897 save percentage in a pair of appearances with the Iowa Wild. He skated in a career high 18 games with Bridgeport in 2010-11 and posted a 2-12 mark. Martin has also suited up for Norfolk (2 GP in 2006-07), Syracuse (1 GP in 2006-07) and Cleveland (1 GP in 2005-06) and shows a career AHL record of 4-15-0 to go along with a 3.48 GAA and a 0.880 save percentage.
In his 15th season as a pro, Martin has also appeared in 67 games with Odessa in the CHL from 2003-04 and 2009-11, 114 combined games with Kalamazoo in the UHL from 2004-06 and the IHL in 2008-09, and 40 games with Herlev in Denmark during the 2011-12 season.
Second-seeded Grand Rapids will face third-seeded Manitoba in the best-of-five Central Division Semifinals. Game 1 is set for this Saturday at Manitoba.
Tickets for Games 3 and 4 (if necessary) of the division semifinals at Van Andel Arena are currently on sale and can be purchased at all Star Tickets locations, including The Zone, online through griffinshockey.com/tickets, by phone through Star Tickets at (800) 585-3737, or via the Griffins app for iPhone or Android.
