Home Ice Highlights: Griffins Earn a Point But Fall to Admirals in a Shootout

The only home game this weekend saw the Grand Rapids Griffins playing host to the Milwaukee Admirals. Opening the annual Teddy Bear Toss was Matt Puempel, who has been an incredible force for Grand Rapids over the last two seasons. Milwaukee shut down the Griffins in a shootout thanks to the phenomenal goaltending of Troy Grosenick. Grosenick stood on his head for the Admirals, which is largely the reason for their current number one placement in the Central Division.

Grand Rapids did earn a point in Friday’s contest and played well all things considered. With Wade Megan and Colin Campbell back in the lineup, the penalty kill looked stronger than ever. Grosenick and the Admirals, however, applied the pressure where it was needed and left Griffins fans with the bitter taste of defeat yet again.

Matt Puempel was the sole scorer for Grand Rapids Friday night at 9:19 in the first period and earned a second goal to briefly break the tie late in the third period. Puempel is third among the Griffins, only behind Chris Terry and Carter Camper, for point totals. As a veteran to the league himself, Puempel plays with purpose and intention.

He consistently has an offensive edge throughout every game and seemingly never tires. Especially in Friday night’s contest, Matt had the most energy out of the entire team. He’s always initiating rushes and creating offensive opportunities. Puempel took home a much-deserved star of the game at Friday’s home-ice stand.

The Griffins allowed a late game-tying goal in the third period from Milwaukee, thereby forcing overtime. Whether it was a careless penalty or a bad call is debatable, but regardless of the surrounding circumstances, Grand Rapids did an amazing job killing it off. Assessed three seconds into overtime, the Griffins had no time to establish any sort of offensive edge in overtime.

Joe Hicketts and Matt Ford killed the vast majority of it. Milwaukee had several shots on goal. Despite Hicketts breaking his stick and borrowing Ford’s, Grand Rapids fended of the Admirals. Patrik Rybar made some enormous saves which kept the Griffins in the game. The penalty, though ill-timed and of course, less than ideal, found the Grand Rapids overtime starting line performing at their best.

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The Grand Rapids power play continues to struggle. Speaking to head coach, Ben Simon, it’s not for a lack of trying. The Griffins powerplay unit didn’t add to their resume by allowing a short-handed goal – the third of the season (later extended to four after Saturday’s matchup against Chicago).

The frustrations on the powerplay are evident but allowing short-handed opportunities is a sure sign of struggle. Grand Rapids played tired on Friday but allowing those opportunities was a definite indicator that they were not on their “A-Game.” The team knows they need to change this – but on the bright side, they’re pretty good at 5-on-5.

“I learned a lot up there. Being around skilled players and the coaching staff – I think I brought a lot back to Grand Rapids with me… that’s helped my game.” Wade Megan on his first game back in the AHL

“I think five on five, we played pretty well. The power play, we had some good looks finally. They’re a good team and their goalie played well, so did ours, it was a hard fought game for sure (but) I thought we controlled more of the play.” – Matt Puempel

“I thought we came out great…our power play has to be better. It seems like a common theme. The fact that we got a point is huge. They’re number one in the division and I thought it was a good measuring stick for us.” – Ben Simon

Aside from the power play issues that everyone is well aware of by now, Grand Rapids needs to find a way to be consistent. They have bursts of offensive power and entire games where they are the dominating force, but stringing together a winning streak has been tough. The ups and downs of the team’s cumulative performance are something that is being worked on but hasn’t come to fruition yet.

They know that now their defensive core is pretty well set and their forwards are healthy, there should be stability and consistent drive each night. Each skater is individually doing very well, but the lines themselves are not finding the balance between individual performance and team effort. Grand Rapids is a contending team this season and will be in a playoff spot in my opinion. The chemistry of the team undeniable, at this point, its a matter of that chemistry playing out as a unit instead of just the individuals.