Injuries, suspension too much to overcome as Griffins eliminated from playoffs

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Decimated by injuries, the Grand Rapids Griffins already were facing an uphill battle to begin their first-round series.

Add in Eric Tangradi‘s one-game suspension for Game 5, and it was just too much.

The Griffins were eliminated from the Calder Cup playoffs Monday, after falling to the Manitoba Moose 5-1 at Van Andel Arena.

Grand Rapids sorely missed Matt Lorito’s (23-26—49 in 59 games) offensive production and Dominic Turgeon‘s (14-18—32 in 69 games) penalty killing skills, as injuries kept both players from suiting up for the playoffs.

The game was tied 1-1 for most of the second period, but a goal by Cameron Schilling with 14 seconds remaining in the stanza swung the momentum in Manitoba’s favor.

“We gave ourselves a chance until the third period,” captain Matt Ford told Wings Nation. “This group never quit. They were opportunistic. We didn’t score more goals than them.”

Considering the Griffins were sixth in the Central Division at the end of November, it was quite the accomplishment to even get into the playoffs.

“I’m proud of this group,” Ford said. “We found a way all year. We competed until the very end.”

Ben Street said the recent playoff elimination was a bit too fresh in his mind to be thinking about the turnaround to reach the postseason.

“I think maybe when you look back on the whole year, it is (an accomplishment), but it’s hard to feel that way now,
he said. “We were struggling at the start of the year. There was a lot of urgency in this room to get the job done, to just get to the playoffs. Thinking back on it, yeah, it was a pretty good accomplishment, we went on a pretty good run. The sour taste in our mouth (Monday) because we felt we could win this series. That kind of overshadows everything right now.”

This year’s Griffins weren’t as offensively gifted as last season’s team, scoring just 237 goals in the regular season to last season’s 251. With Tyler Bertuzzi going to the Detroit Red Wings, the offense suffered. Add in the Lorito and Turgeon injuries and Tangradi’s (31-33—64 in 74 games) suspension, and the Griffins struggled to produce offensively.

“We lost a lot of firepower with Tangradi suspension, Lorito, Turgeon, a good penalty killer,” Joe Hicketts said. “It was a tough year. … Some might say we used up all our goals at the end of the regular season to make that push for the playoffs. We kinda flattened out near the end and weren’t able to generate enough scoring opportunities. I think we can be proud of the way we played to get into the playoffs and be proud of the way we played in the first four games of the series. But it’s almost like we ran out of gas there in the third (period).”

Said coach Todd Nelson of Tangradi: “He’s a big part of our team, big body. They get Buddy Robinson back from suspension, we lose Tango, that’s a pretty big swing. But I still thought we had enough to get it done. When we lose a guy like Tango, Lorito, Turgeon, Axel Holmstrom, those injuries and suspensions sting because our guys worked hard (Monday). We lost a lot of creativity and offense.”

Nelson added the run to get into the playoffs was nice, but it doesn’t ease the pain of being eliminated.

“You always want more, right? You get greedy,” he said. “We always want more. I truly think that things would have lined up really well if we could have got through (Monday).”

It also didn’t help Eric Comrie played quite the series for Manitoba in net. The 22-year-old kept his team in every game except for Game 4 in which he allowed five goals on 24 shots. In Game 3, he turned away 45 out of 48 shots to give the Moose a 2-1 series lead. Comrie had a 0.922 save percentage in the first round.

“He doesn’t give up a lot of rebounds, so he played really well,” Matt Puempel said of Comrie. “We had good chances. The power play throughout the series was pretty good. I thought they played well, they are a good team. They were in first place all year, they slipped there at the end with injuries and call-ups and whatnot. Guys were trying here for sure, there was no quit in anyone.”