Griffins fail to close out series in Game 3 on home ice

 

By Pat Evans –

GRAND RAPIDS – The situation couldn’t have set up more perfect for the Grand Rapids Griffins, coming home from Abbotsford, British Columbia, with a chance to sweep their series on home ice and advance to the next round of the playoffs.

Instead, the Griffins dropped Game 3, 2-1, on Wednesday night.

Grand Rapids gave up two third-period goals, including the game-winner with 1:02 left in the game.

“It’s a tough loss for us, we try to finish it as fast as possible, but we couldn’t get the second one, the most important one,” Grand Rapids goalie Petr Mrazek said. “A 2-0 the game would have been different.”

The game was played in front of 7,193 fans, the largest Griffins’ playoff home opening crowd since 1998 and the 10th largest playoff crowd in the franchise’s history.

The first two periods were set up as a perfect Grand Rapids storyline. Forwards Riley Sheahan and Tomas Jurco were playing their first games back with the Red Wings’ exit from the playoffs and Mitch Callahan in his first game back since taking a puck to the mouth — which was well-documented on Twitter.

The lone Griffins’ goal came on a pass from Sheahan in front of the Heat net to find Jurco to his right. Jurco slipped the puck past Abbotsford goalie Joni Ortio’s left hand.

“Those guys are great guys, they fit right in,” Griffins captain Jeff Hoggan said. “You can see the confidence in their games coming back from Detroit. It’s a big lift for us.”

The Griffins’ first two periods were helped out by another 40 minutes of stellar play by Mrazek, who also won both games in Abbotsford, including Game 1’s double-overtime thriller.

But the one-goal lead wasn’t enough for Grand Rapids, as the Heat found the back of the net 5:52 into the third period. Abbotsford defenseman Chris Breen wound up from the point and rocketed one past Mrazek, who said he lost sight of the puck somewhere in its flight to the net.

The period rocked back and forth between the two teams as the game seemed destined for overtime until a ill-timed high-sticking call came against Hoggan with 1:20 remaining in the game.

It took the Heat 18 seconds to net the game-winner, when Markus Granlund backhanded the power play shot past Mrazek.

Ortio played stellar for the Heat, making 34 saves, although those stats include some open net shots the Griffins couldn’t capitalize on.

If the Griffins continue to generate the opportunities they did Wednesday night, head coach Jeff Blashill sees no reason they can’t make another run at the Calder Cup, especially considering the team still leads the first round series 2-1 with two more games at home in the best-of-five series.

“You refocus and put it behind you,” Blashill said. “If you get chances, get chances, get chances and you don’t give up much you’re going to win more games than not. It was a pretty even game, but we’ll have to go Friday and get as many chances as we can without giving many up.”

Hoggan, who captained the team to last year’s Calder Cup is confident his team will find its way to the next round.

“We’ve been through this before, it’s highs and lows, you deal with it,” Hoggan said. “It wasn’t a bad game by any means. Sweeps are not common. It’s the playoffs, it’s a grind.

“You just gotta get past it and come back to work on Friday.”