Grand Rapids celebrates during their 9-2 rout of Iowa. Photo/Grand Rapids Griffins
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Griffins returned home Saturday night to a sellout crowd at Van Andel Arena. The team didn’t disappoint by scoring 9 goals in a victory against the Iowa Wild.
With the win, The Griffins are tied with the Milwaukee Admirals for third place in the Midwest Division with 33 points.
The Grand Rapids Griffins (15-11-3-0) last two home games saw the offense outscore their opponents 16-3 and this is the first time in team history that in back to back home games they would tally two seven goal games. Since November 12, Grand Rapids is 12-5-2.
Grand Rapids saw the return of goalie Tom McCollum to the lineup after being reassigned from Detroit Saturday morning. He had a good game back with the Griffins rejecting 32 of 34 saves to earn his sixth win with Grand Rapids this season.
Grand Rapids opened the scoring early, just 14 seconds into the first saw center Andy Miele the beneficiary of a turnover in the Wild defensive zone and some nice passing from his line mates Pulkkinen and Callahan. Wild forward Tyler Graovac fired a one timer past McCollum for his twelfth goal of the season and tie the game back at one.
Momentum came back to the Griffins at the 6:20 mark of the first as Anthony Mantha set up his teammate Landon Ferraro who tipped his pass passed Wild goalie Johan Gustafsson for his tenth goal of the season. Before the end of the first period Griffins leading scorer Teemu Pulkkinen lit the lamp with just 32 seconds remaining to give his team a 2 goal lead heading into the second.
All cylinders were clicking for Grand Rapids as the second period got underway. At 2:35 Mitch Callahan added the Griffins fourth goal of the evening on the power play as he deflected Pulkkinen’s shot home past Gustafsson. Just two minutes and seven seconds later a flying Thomas Nosek took the puck into the Wild defensive zone and around a Wild defensemen to put a beautiful one handed goal past Gustafsson. The onslaught continued at the 6:04 mark as Marek Tvrdon knotted his first AHL goal.
The Griffins offense didn’t slow down at the midpoint of the game and at the 11:59 minute Nathan Paetsch added his name to score sheet and give the Griffin’s their seventh goal of the night. With just three minutes left in the second Thomas Nosek scored his second goal of the night taking a beautiful snapshot from the right faceoff circle.
The Griffins put on a clinic in the second tallying 5 goals on 13 shots, which caused Iowa Wild coach John Torchetti to finally pull his goalie Johan Gustafsson and put in David DeSander who just tried out for the Iowa Wild just that day. This was due to the Minnesota Wild calling up goalie John Curry for Nikklas Backstrom who has missed the last two games due to illness.
The Griffins ninth and final goal of the game came at the 5:53 mark and was scored by Colin Campbell who deflected a pass from Jeff Hoggan passed DeSander. Wild center Jordan Schroeder added a goal with just forty seconds remaining to make it 9-2.
At the end of the game the Griffins had 16 of 20 players register at least one point in tonight’s matchup against the Iowa Wild. Teemu Pulkkinen was the first star of the night registering a goal and three assists.
The Griffins head to Rosemont, Ill to take on Midwest Division rival Chicago Wolves. The Wolves beat the Griffins on Dec. 21 by the score of 5-3. The puck drops at the Allstate Arena at 8PM EST.
