Aussie_Wing 354 Report post Posted February 6, 2009 (edited) Chicago Wolves (25-22-2-1) @ Grand Rapids Griffins (30-9-6-4) @ The Chicago Wolves are in town to take on the Grand Rapids Griffins. Chicago carry a two game winning streak to the Van Andel Arena while the Griffins have gained 14 of a possible 16 points from their past 8 games. They are just 1 point shy of Manitoba who occupy first place in the Division but the Griffins have two games in hand. The Griffins have been hit by injuries and call-ups to the Wings in recent times and they were forced to sign Mike Walsh to a PTO. Ritola and Tardif were both absent from the previous clash with Quad City however both are rated a strong chance to return tonight. Assuming they continue with the goalie rotation Daniel Larsson should get the start tonight and he will be hoping to rebound from a weak showing by his standards in his last start. Possible line-up: Oulahen - Abdelkader - Haydar Lemieux - Pare - McGrath Ritola - Tardif - Mursak Emmerton - Gagnon - Downey Kindl - Galvin Kolosov - Stafford Jozsa - Pyett Larsson HowardTeam Leaders: Goals: Haydar (17) Ritola, Pare (15)Assists: Leino (26), Haydar, Kindl (23)Points: Haydar (40) Leino (37)Penalty Minutes: Downey (75), Abdelkader (59)Plus/Minus: Pare (17), McGrath, Oulahen (12)Notes: • Despite the Griffins potent offence not one player is rated inside the leagues top 20 scorers. • From the past 2 games Evan McGrath has 5 points while linemate Francis Lemieux has 4 goals. TV/Radio: Internet stream: Pay-per-view AHL Live Radio: Grand Rapids Broadcast: Radio feedBox Score Edited February 6, 2009 by Aussie_Wing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Coyote0106 2 Report post Posted February 6, 2009 (edited) • Despite the Griffins potent offence not one player is rated inside the leagues top 20 scorers. I love that stat right there. It really shows how deep our team is, that we aren't relying on 1 or 2 guys to get goals. Everyone can pitch in and help out in the scoring department. It's just another reason for the big turnaround from last season to this one. Edit: I almost forgot, Go Griffs! Chi-town sucks. Edited February 6, 2009 by Coyote0106 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aussie_Wing 354 Report post Posted February 7, 2009 (edited) Jan Mursak!! Yes, way to go Jan! He gets his first pro goal! Ritola is still out unfortunately. Edited February 7, 2009 by Aussie_Wing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aussie_Wing 354 Report post Posted February 7, 2009 I love that stat right there. It really shows how deep our team is, that we aren't relying on 1 or 2 guys to get goals. Everyone can pitch in and help out in the scoring department. It's just another reason for the big turnaround from last season to this one. No better example than tonight. Griffins have exploded with 3 2nd period goals to lead 4-2. Mursak with his 1st and Mike Walsh his 1st. We have so much depth. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Coyote0106 2 Report post Posted February 7, 2009 No better example than tonight. Griffins have exploded with 3 2nd period goals to lead 4-2. Mursak with his 1st and Mike Walsh his 1st. We have so much depth. Jan freakin' Mursak. That was great. EVERYONE was happy to see him get it. He has been working hard lately, and you could tell he wanted that first. Hopefully it doesn't drive up the price of his jersey on the 20th. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
titanium2 867 Report post Posted February 7, 2009 Jan freakin' Mursak. That was great. EVERYONE was happy to see him get it. He has been working hard lately, and you could tell he wanted that first. Hopefully it doesn't drive up the price of his jersey on the 20th. Any chance someone will put it up on YouTube? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Coyote0106 2 Report post Posted February 8, 2009 Thank God there wasn't a GDT for this game. I'm still waiting for the "game" to happen. One team showed up, and one didn't. It was probably the worst game all year. And I don't know if Mursak's goal will make youtube... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aussie_Wing 354 Report post Posted February 8, 2009 Yeah what the heck happened? Very depleted team once again and given they had gone 7-1-1 in the past 9 games a loss was bound to come but what is it with Lake Erie? 22 shots against in the 2nd period? That's pretty poor. We need Ritola back. And playing without Helm and Leino doesn't help. I saw a post elsewhere that said Stafford and Galvin were really poor tonight? I hope Kindl wasn't as bad... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Coyote0106 2 Report post Posted February 8, 2009 Yeah what the heck happened? Very depleted team once again and given they had gone 7-1-1 in the past 9 games a loss was bound to come but what is it with Lake Erie? 22 shots against in the 2nd period? That's pretty poor. We need Ritola back. And playing without Helm and Leino doesn't help. I saw a post elsewhere that said Stafford and Galvin were really poor tonight? I hope Kindl wasn't as bad... This game was just one of those where no one was in to it, and were hoping they could just breeze through it. Lake Erie came to play, and the Griffins were thinking about last night still. Our defense got burned on the one-on-one battles, our offense wasn't skating to loose pucks in the offensive zone. If it wasn't stick to stick, no one cared. Downey got frustrated, and took 2 BAD penalties. The last one was the worst, he just went up to the goalie and gave him a nice shove. Tardiff came out after the goal they scored to make it 2 to 1, and tried sparking things, and ended up with a boarding call from the biased ref. All I can really choke it up to is a bad outing. We still have a game in hand on Manitoba so hopefully we make that actually useful 'cause they blew it last night. When the opportunity is there for the taking, this teams seems to fall apart (see Manitoba game on home ice). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nightfall 871 Report post Posted February 8, 2009 This game was just one of those where no one was in to it, and were hoping they could just breeze through it. Lake Erie came to play, and the Griffins were thinking about last night still. Our defense got burned on the one-on-one battles, our offense wasn't skating to loose pucks in the offensive zone. If it wasn't stick to stick, no one cared. Downey got frustrated, and took 2 BAD penalties. The last one was the worst, he just went up to the goalie and gave him a nice shove. Tardiff came out after the goal they scored to make it 2 to 1, and tried sparking things, and ended up with a boarding call from the biased ref. All I can really choke it up to is a bad outing. We still have a game in hand on Manitoba so hopefully we make that actually useful 'cause they blew it last night. When the opportunity is there for the taking, this teams seems to fall apart (see Manitoba game on home ice). It was a bad outing. The Griffins had 3 5-on-3 power play opportunities of over 1 minute. One of them for a full two minutes and couldn't score on any of them. The boarding call was pretty bad, but the Griffins were their own worst enemies here. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
