March 16, 2017

By Pete Wallner, MLive
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GRAND RAPIDS - Jared Coreau once had a goal of 40 wins this season with the Grand Rapids Griffins, but a bigger dream was realized when he spent two-plus months with the Detroit Red Wings.

Now, barring another injury to Jimmy Howard or one to Petr Mrazek, the fourth-year pro is back for the duration and out to regain the workhorse load he originally expected this season.

Coreau is scheduled to start Friday when the Central Division-leading Griffins (38-17-1-4) host second-place Chicago (37-17-5-3) to start a three-game weekend. They play at Chicago on Saturday and at Milwaukee on Sunday.

The 25-year-old rejoined the Griffins during a west coast swing last week and played Saturday and Sunday with mixed results. He was flawless at Western Conference-leading San Jose in a 1-0 shootout loss and allowed four goals at Stockton in a 5-4 shootout loss.

The mental adjustment is already there, Coreau said, and now it's a matter of getting into the routine again of an AHL schedule.

"I feel fresh," he said. "I'm excited to get playing again because once you start playing two of three, three out of four you get into a rhythm."

Of course, he'll take time in the NHL over the AHL but it came with a cost. He didn't play much after a successful start when he had two shutouts in his first seven games after his December recall. He appeared in four games from Jan. 22 to March 8 and allowed 17 goals.

Coreau has wrestled with the overall takeaway.

"There are different ways I've looked at it," he said. "Like, obviously, it's really good I got called up and got some minutes up there. That's big for development. Also, too, though I've kind of wondered what it would have been like if I was here the whole year because I sort of had a goal of around 40 wins. Now that's not feasible.

"So, it's all good, but there is that little bit of 'what if' factor if I had been here the entire year."

What Coreau learned most was how NHL teams looked to score immediately even after a goal.

"I know what I had to do better was stop the bleeding," he said. "There were times where I'd give up three quick ones ... that's something I learned to admire from the everydayers up there and how they're able to do it successfully."

In Detroit, Coreau has a 3.46 goals against average and .887 save percentage in 14 games. With the Griffins, Coreau has a .233 GAA and .924 save percentage and two shutouts in 21 games.

In his absence, the Griffins stayed strong with backup Eddie Pasquale and Toledo call-up Cal Heeter alternating. Heeter especially turned heads. The 28-year-old headed back to the ECHL this week with a 2.07 GAA and .933 save percentage in 12 games.

Griffins coach Todd Nelson wants to see how Coreau fares before returning the heavy workload from the start of the season. The Griffins have three games in a row the next two weeks followed by another with three games in four days.

"We'll see how he is after that (Chicago) game," Nelson said. "I may have Jared go back to back. We'll see. It's all up in the air. We'll see how he feels. He hasn't played a lot of hockey ... there's always a fatigue factor you worry about, but we'll see how it plays out."