Griffins rebound, post 5-2 win (with a hat trick for Tomas Jurco)
By Pat Evans –
GRAND RAPIDS – Following two lackluster showings in Texas, the Grand Rapids Griffins showed up in force Tuesday night at home, winning 5-2 at Van Andel Arena Tuesday night.
Tomas Jurco highlighted the night with a three-goal performance, stopping a 102:46 goal drought from the Griffins, spanning back to Jurco’s goal in the second period of Game 1. His three goals and forward Riley Sheahan’s two assists put them ahead of Landon Ferraro and former Griffin Darryl Bootland in the franchise’s playoff scoring list with 19 points, both tied at No. 9.
The win pulls the series to 2-1, following Texas’ two wins over the weekend.
“You don’t want to get down 3-0,” Griffins head coach Jeff Blashill said. “You have to get to four as fast as you can, but it’s gotta start with one. Obviously that was a big game tonight. We’ll do the same thing tomorrow.”
Jurco’s hat trick is the sixth in Griffins’ playoff history and the first since Matt Ellis found the net three times on April 21, 2007 in Manitoba. Jurco has five goals in the playoffs this season.
“I just played my game. Luckily tonight, it went in, and sometimes it doesn’t go in,” Jurco said. “I actually could have scored a couple more goals, but not everything can go in.”
Petr Mrazek stopped 35 shots on the night.
Despite spending most of the first period on the defense, Jurco started the scoring for the Griffins with a wraparound from the left side of the net, which he slipped behind Texas goalie and Michigan native Jack Campbell at 7:06 in the first period.
“The first goal was a big thing for us, that was a big deal,” Blashill said. “They did a good job in the first eight minutes, we relaxed and played the way we’re capable of.”
About seven minutes later, Jurco struck again, this time on the power play. Sheahan found Jurco from across the ice and he buried the puck before Campbell could recover.
The Griffins extended the lead to three goals just 25 seconds into the second period when Teemu Pulkkinen crossed the net and dangled a nifty backhanded pass to Andrej Nestrasil, who found space above Crawford’s right shoulder.
Pulkkinen found the net 8:23 into the period as he followed Corey Emmerton up the right side of the ice, who flipped around and handed the puck off to Pulkkinen as he skated by and slapped one from the right circle past Crawford.
Jurco scored his third goal at 16:07 of the second period, much in the same fashion as the first goal, coming from behind the goal and scoring by slipping the puck past the goalie’s leg pad.
The Stars found their way onto the board twice in the third period, once on a breakaway goal from Mike Hedden at 2:24 into the period, and again three minutes later with a goal from Brendan Ranford.
“When games go 5-0, weird stuff happens,” Blashill said. “My focus to our guys was the way we played the first two periods. It was a real hockey game those first two periods and we did lots of good stuff.”
The Stars pulled their goalie with more than four minutes left in the game, but couldn’t find the net another time.
Although significantly lower than the 7,000-plus attracted to the first round playoff games, Tuesday’s 4,293 attendance mark was a 57 percent increase over Game 3 of last year’s Western Conference Semifinals against Toronto.
In two years under Blashill, the Griffins are 10-2 when within two losses of elimination.
The Griffins turn around and take on the Stars in Game 4 Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
“It’s a good win for us, and we got some confidence for sure,” Pulkkinen said. “It’s just one game and you need four to win the series, so you just have to keep going.”