Griffins take early series lead in AHL Finals with Syracuse

Mitch Callahan scored the Griffins' first goal Saturday evening. (Jennifer Leigh/MiHockey)


By Alyssa Girardi –

The Grand Rapids Griffins carried the emotions of a Game 7 win on Wednesday to Syracuse on Saturday night, where they defeated the Crunch 3-1 in Game 1 of the Calder Cup Finals.

The Griffins handed Syracuse its only second loss of this season’s playoffs, in which Petr Mrazek dominated in net, stopping 29 of 30 shots.

Mitch Callahan, Riley Sheahan and Gustav Nyquist scored for the Griffins, who took the early series lead in the club’s first AHL Finals game appearance.

Grand Rapids got off to a fast start, tallying seven shots in the first six and a half minutes of the game. Callahan finally poked one through following a flurry around Syracuse netminder Cedrick Desjardins.

The goal marked Callahan’s sixth of the playoffs.

The game remained scoreless through the rest of the first and second periods, despite the Crunch controlling the middle frame. In the second period, the Crunch had 11 shots next to the Griffins five, and put Mrazek to the test as they attacked him from every angle.

Griffins forward Riley Sheahan changed the tone when he lengthened the Griffins lead with a rocket past Desjardins with 8 minutes to play, but the Crunch were quick to respond. Only 1:19 later, Syracuse defenseman J.P. Cote netted a wrister after a patient play at the Griffins blue line.

Syracuse received a slashing penalty with 2:01 to play, but with the gap still at one, pulled Desjardins to make the play 5-on-5.

Gustav Nyquist eventually broke free and buried an empty-netter to seal the Griffins fate and put Grand Rapids one step closer to its first Calder Cup.

The Crunch finished the game with 30 shots, the Griffins with 22.

The two teams will face off for game two at 6 p.m. Sunday, June 9. Fans can catch an AHL-provided live stream of the game at ahl.neulion.com.

Game notes:

Griffins defenseman Brett Skinner was taken out of the lineup to make room for Danny DeKeyser (Clay Township), who played in his first game since breaking his thumb in game two of the NHL Western Conference quarterfinals. The former Western Michigan Bronco was a steady force on the penalty kill in his AHL debut.

Along with DeKeyser, four other Michigan natives were rostered for the night’s game: Griffins Chad Billins (Marysville) and Luke Glendening (Grand Rapids) and Crunch’s Pat Nagle (Bloomfield) and Matt Taormina (Washington Township). Billins had an assist, and Taormina racked up three shots on net.

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