April 30, 2022

CLEVELAND - The Grand Rapids Griffins came away victorious in their final game of the season, as they defeated the Cleveland Monsters 5-2 on Saturday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Riley Barber recorded his second hat trick of the campaign and pushed his AHL season-high point streak to 17 games (18-8—26).

Barber ended the campaign with nine goals in his last five outings and 28 goals on the season, which tied for the 17th-highest single-season total in franchise history and are the most by a Griffin since Chris Terry’s 29 in 2018-19. Barber's 17-game point streak tied Derek King (2000-01) for the second longest in franchise history. Jonatan Berggren added another two points to his season-best 11-game point streak (6-13—19). Berggren’s 21 goals on the season tied for the sixth-most for a Griffins rookie. Samuel Dove-McFalls (0-2—2) and Josh Dickinson (1-1—2) joined Barber and Berggren with multi-point outings. The Griffins concluded the season series against Cleveland with a 7-0-1-0 ledger and are now 14-3-1-0 (0.806) in the last two campaigns against the Monsters.

The Griffins allowed the first goal of the contest for the 15th time in the last 16 games when Trey Fix-Wolansky scored 10 seconds into the outing. Owen Sillinger won a faceoff in Grand Rapids’ zone and Fix-Wolansky gathered the puck and fired it over the blocker of Victor Brattstrom. This was the fastest tally the Griffins gave up this season.

Tyler Angle made it a 2-0 game in favor of the home team with 8:02 remaining in the opening period. Following a blocked pass, Angle from the left wing blasted a shot over the glove of Brattstrom.

The Griffins climbed back into the contest when Barber registered two goals on the power play during the second frame. At 4:21 off a feed from Tyler Spezia, Barber snapped the puck in the left corner from the right circle. On an almost identical play, Barber smashed home a shot past the glove of Jet Greaves at 17:55. Berggren recorded the primary assist on the play, which gave him 43 helpers on the year and finished the regular season tied for first among rookies in the assist column.

The final period was all Grand Rapids, as it tallied three goals and concluded the game with five unanswered tallies. Dickinson got things going for the Griffins in the frame when he put away his sixth goal of the campaign at the 2:03 mark.

The final two tallies came from the familiar faces of Barber and Berggren into empty nets. Barber fired a shot from his own zone but missed wide. However, Berggren raced down the ice and executed on the opportunity at 18:11. With just 32 seconds remaining, Barber grabbed his hat trick when his shot from the left boards trickled into the empty net, handing Grand Rapids a 5-2 victory.

Notes

• The Griffins were once again shorthanded and skated with 19 players, one short of the normal 20.
• Berggren ended the season with an assist in the final five contests, which was a season-high by a Griffin.
• Grand Rapids completed the 2021-22 campaign with a 33-35-6-2 mark (0.487), the first time the team finished below the 0.500 mark since the 2009-10 season.
• Brattstrom’s 31 games this season tied for the fourth-most by a Grand Rapids rookie goaltender.
• The Griffins were 8-2-2-0 (0.750) this year against teams from the North Division.

Box Score
Grand Rapids 0 2 3 - 5
Cleveland 2 0 0 - 2

1st Period-1, Cleveland, Fix-Wolansky 15 (Sillinger), 0:10. 2, Cleveland, Angle 11 (Sikura), 11:52. Penalties-Worrad Gr (slashing), 3:24; Berggren Gr (slashing), 12:56; Payne Cle (high-sticking), 13:09.

2nd Period-3, Grand Rapids, Barber 26 (Spezia, Shine), 4:21 (PP). 4, Grand Rapids, Barber 27 (Berggren, Lashoff), 17:55 (PP). Penalties-Sweezey Cle (holding), 3:13; Fix-Wolansky Cle (high-sticking), 17:48.

3rd Period-5, Grand Rapids, Dickinson 6 (Dove-McFalls, Martin), 2:03. 6, Grand Rapids, Berggren 21 (Barber, Dove-McFalls), 18:11 (EN). 7, Grand Rapids, Barber 28 (Dickinson), 19:28 (EN). Penalties-Martin Gr (cross-checking, fighting, misconduct), 10:19; Sweezey Cle (fighting), 10:19; Schemitsch Cle (slashing), 13:02; Ghafari Gr (cross-checking), 15:18; Yan Gr (roughing), 15:18; Renouf Gr (misconduct), 20:00.

Shots on Goal-Grand Rapids 3-6-7-16. Cleveland 12-8-8-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Grand Rapids 2 / 4; Cleveland 0 / 4.
Goalies-Grand Rapids, Brattstrom 11-16-3 (28 shots-26 saves). Cleveland, Greaves 12-12-2 (14 shots-11 saves).
A-12,123

Three Stars
1. GR Barber (hat trick, assist); 2. CLE Fix-Wolansky (goal); 3. CLE Angle (goal)

Photo by Cleveland Monsters