This Week’s Games

GRIFFINS vs. Milwaukee Admirals // Fri., Nov. 29 // 7 p.m. // Van Andel Arena

Listen: WOOD 106.9 FM & 1300 AM at 6:45 p.m.

Watch: AHLTV on FloHockey 

Season Series: 2-0-0-0 Overall, 1-0-0-0 Home. Third of eight meetings overall, second of four at Van Andel Arena

All-Time Series: 115-83-7-9-8 Overall, 62-39-2-3-3 Home

NHL Affiliation: Nashville Predators

Noteworthy: After falling to the Admirals in last year’s Central Division Finals, the Griffins have gone on to win back-to-back games against Milwaukee with a plus-five scoring margin (7-2).     

GRIFFINS at Chicago Wolves // Sat., Nov. 30 // 8 p.m. EST // Allstate Arena

Listen: WOOD 106.9 FM & 1300 AM at 7:45 p.m. EST

Watch: AHLTV on FloHockey 

Season Series: 1-0-0-0 Overall, 0-0-0-0 Away. Second of eight meetings overall, first of four at Allstate Arena

All-Time Series: 102-86-2-8-5 Overall, 52-48-0-2-1 Away

NHL Affiliation: Carolina Hurricanes

Noteworthy: Grand Rapids has faced Chicago 203 times in the regular season dating back to their IHL days, the second-most of any Griffins opponent (Milwaukee, 221). 

GRIFFINS vs. Cleveland Monsters // Sun., Dec. 1 // 4 p.m. // Van Andel Arena

Listen: WOOD 106.9 FM & 1300 AM at 4 p.m.

Watch: WXSP-TV at 4 p.m. and AHLTV on FloHockey 

Season Series: 0-1-0-0 Overall, 0-0-0-0 Home. Second of eight meetings overall, first of four at Van Andel Arena

All-Time Series: 73-40-9-13 Overall, 42-18-4-3 Home

NHL Affiliation: Columbus Blue Jackets

Noteworthy: Cleveland’s Trey Fix-Wolansky is tied for fourth in the AHL with 19 points (9-10—19) while his teammate Rocco Grimaldi ranks second with 21 points (6-15—21). 

Keep The Good Times Rolling: With a 12-4-1-0 record and 25 points through 17 games, the Griffins have tied the second-best start in franchise history, with their best coming in 2005-06 with 27 points and a 13-3-0-1 mark. The Griffins rank first in the Central Division, second in the Western Conference and tied for fourth in the AHL. In 29 seasons, this was the fourth Griffins team to win at least 10 of its first 14 games, and the first since 2009-10. The Griffins have won with defense, as they have allowed two goals or less in 11 of the 17 contests and have scored an average of 3.06 goals per game (T15th).

Let’s Show Some Love to the Defense: The Griffins rank first in the AHL with just 2.18 goals allowed per game, as the 37 goals surrendered rank second in the AHL. For comparison, Grand Rapids ceded 52 goals in the opening 17 games last year and 69 in 2022-23. Dating back to last season, Grand Rapids has allowed just 18 goals in its last 11 regular-season games at Van Andel Arena (1.64 GA per game). 

Busy Bodies: The Griffins will play back-to-back three games in three days during the next two weeks. Grand Rapids will start with Milwaukee, Chicago and Cleveland from Friday to Sunday this week. The Griffins went 3-0-0-0 in their first 3-in-3 from Oct. 25-27, defeating Springfield and Lehigh Valley (twice). This marked the first time since April 5-7, 2002 that Grand Rapids went undefeated while playing three games in three days. 

One, Two Punch: Sebastian Cossa, the 15th overall pick by the Detroit Red Wings in 2021, is off to a strong start through the opening 12 games of his season, showing a 7-4-1 mark with one shutout, a 2.08 goals-against average, and a .931 save percentage. The 21-year-old ranks among the league leaders in minutes played (692:11, 3rd), shutouts (T5th), GAA (T6th), wins (T3rd), and save percentage (5th). Ville Husso has also gotten off to a fast start with the Griffins, as he has a 4-0-0 ledger with one shutout to go along with a 1.58 goals-against average and a .944 save percentage in five appearances. Through six career games with Grand Rapids, Husso has a 5-0-0 record with two shutouts, a 1.29 goals-against average and a .953 save percentage. Jack Campbell joined the goaltending room last week when he was assigned by the Red Wings. Campbell, the 11th overall pick by Dallas in 2010, has appeared in 438 games since 2011-12 and possesses a 229-141-47 ledger with 32 shutouts to go along with a 2.67 goals-against average. Last season, the 32-year-old showed an 18-13-1 record, a 2.63 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage in 33 games with the Bakersfield Condors. 

Czech Mates: Jakub Rychlovsky and Ondrej Becher, who both hail from Czechia, are starting to find their footing in the AHL. Rychlovsky, who paced the Tipsport Extraliga in goals last year (26) and is in his first season of pro hockey in North America, has three points (2-1—3) in his last three games. Rychlovsky had just three points (1-2—3) in his first 12 AHL games. First-year pro Becher has two points (1-1—2) in his last three outings, scoring his first AHL goal last Sunday against Iowa. Becher, selected with the 80th pick by Detroit in 2024, made his AHL debut on Nov. 3 at Cleveland and became just the 25th player to make his Griffins debut the season after he was drafted. The 20-year-old also became the eighth player to make his debut during the first month of the following season and just the fifth Red Wings pick to do so, joining Donovan Sebrango, Moritz Seider, Tomas Tatar, and Filip Zadina. 

Loaded Ammo: Second-year pro Amadeus Lombardi has 12 points (6-6—12) in his last 12 games after having two points (0-2—2) in his first five appearances. Lombardi ranks first on the team in points (8-6—14) and goals (8) in 17 contests. Through the opening 10 games, Lombardi matched his career high with five goals, as he lit the lamp five times in 70 contests last year. The 21-year-old collected his fourth multi-point game of the season last Sunday against Iowa (1-1—2), which already beat his career high of three in 70 outings last year. The Aurora, Ontario, native has 41 points (13-28—41), 16 penalty minutes and a plus-four rating through 89 career appearances.   

Alexander The Great: Alex Doucet enjoyed a career-high three-game point streak (2-2—4) from Nov. 13-16 and has seven points (3-4—7) in his last seven contests. The rookie had just one point in the first eight games of the campaign, securing his first AHL assist on Oct. 25 at Springfield. He later bagged his first AHL goal on Nov. 7 at Iowa and his first two-assist game last Sunday against Iowa. Doucet’s two short-handed goals on the year are tied for first among rookies and tied for second among all skaters. Last season, the 22-year-old showed 41 points (19-22—41) in 52 regular-season games with the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye in addition to suiting up for six games with Grand Rapids.

No Ordinary Joe: Newcomer Joe Snively enjoyed team-high four-game goal streak from Nov. 13-22 and has six points (5-1—6) in his last seven outings. Snively is tied for third on the roster in points (6-6—12) and tied for second in goals (6) through 17 appearances. The Herndon, Virginia, native joined the Griffins after a historic run with the Hershey Bears the last two seasons. Snively won the last two Calder Cups with the Bears and showed a combined 33 points (6-27—33) in 40 games during the postseason with a 28-12 record in the past two playoffs. Snively also aided Hershey to a regular-season title last year with a 53-14-0-5 mark (111 pts., .771), the second-best regular-season record in AHL history and the most wins by an AHL team in a 72-game season. The 28-year-old is in search of his third straight Calder Cup, as only 11 players in league history have won three consecutive cups in the AHL and no one has achieved this feat since the 1978 season.   

Shoot Your Shot: On Nov. 15 against Chicago, the Griffins outshot their opponent for the first time in the opening 14 games of the season and have now outshot their opponent just twice in the first 17 contests. The Griffins have averaged 24.2 shots per game, which ranks last in the AHL. Grand Rapids has been held to under 20 shots three times and has exceeded 30 shots just twice. On the flip side, the Griffins’ opponents have averaged 30.0 shots per game (20th in AHL) and have been held to under 30 shots six times. The third period has given the Griffins the most problems, as they are being outshot 171-109 compared to being outshot 170-156 in the second and 165-143 in the first. However, Grand Rapids has a 9-2-1-0 ledger when recording 20-29 shots and an 8-2-1-0 mark when allowing 30-39 shots.

If You Ain’t First, You’re Last: Starting the game off on the right foot has been imperative for the Griffins early this season. Grand Rapids is 10-1-1-0 when scoring the game’s first goal and 11-1-1-0 when either tied or leading after the first period. When the roles are reversed, the Griffins are just 2-3-0-0, and they are 0-3-0-0 when trailing after two periods. 

Regain Power: The Griffins’ power play struggled out of the gate but has now converted three of its last seven opportunities on the man-advantage (42.9%). However, the power play still ranks 20th on the circuit at 16.1% (9-for-56). If you break it down further, Grand Rapids’ home power play is 3-for-21 (14.3%, T21st) and its road power play is 6-for-35 (17.1%, T19th). The Griffins’ penalty kill is tied for first in the AHL at 89.7% and their four short-handed goals are tied for third. Grand Rapids recorded two short-handed goals in 3:24 of game time on Nov. 7 at Iowa, which equaled the number of short-handed tallies it had in 72 games last season. The last time the Griffins had scored two short-handed goals in a game was in a 5-3 win over Ontario on Feb. 5, 2022. With three short-handed goals through the first 13 games, Grand Rapids had already exceeded its short-handed goal count from last season of two. 

AHL Leaderboard Tracker:
Sebastian Cossa—Third in minutes played (692:11), tied for fifth in shutouts (1), tied for sixth in GAA (2.08), tied for third in wins (7), and fifth in save percentage (.931)
Nate Danielson—Tied for first in short-handed assists (2), tied for ninth among rookies in assists (7)
Alex Doucet—Tied for second in short-handed goals (2), tied for first among rookies in short-handed goals (2)
William Lagesson—Tied for eighth in plus-minus rating (+9), tied for sixth among defensemen in plus-minus rating (+9)
Amadeus Lombardi—Tied for first in game-winners (4)
Gabriel Seger—Tied for seventh among rookies in plus-minus rating (+5)
Austin Watson—First in major penalties (6) 

Milestones:
On Sunday, equipment manager Brad “Dogg” Thompson participated in his 2,000th game in the pro ranks and Austin Watson scored a goal in his 250th game in the AHL.  
Tory Dello—Three games from 200 in the AHL and as a pro, one point from 50 in the AHL and as a pro
Alex Doucet—One point from 50 as a pro
William Lagesson—One game from 350 as a pro
Elmer Soderblom—Two games from 100 as a Griffin and in the AHL, three points from 100 as a pro

Photo by Brianna Evans/Admirals