GRIFFINS (25-14-3-4) at Texas Stars (22-17-3-2)

Griffins Game #47 * Road Game #23 * AHL Game #683

Season Series: 1-2-0-0 Home Series: 1-1-0-0 Road Series: 0-1-0-0
All-Time Series: 26-14-2-3 All-Time Home Series: 14-6-0-3 All-Time Road Series: 12-8-2-0

Griffins at Stars
Fourth of eight meetings overall, second of four at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park…Grand Rapids is making its first trip to Cedar Park since a 3-1 loss in the season opener on Oct. 5, which also served as Ben Simon’s AHL head coaching debut…In the two teams’ last meeting on Dec. 1 at Van Andel Arena, Chris Terry and Colin Campbell each scored two goals while Harri Sateri made 28 saves for his fourth straight win, helping Grand Rapids to a 6-3 victory…Terry leads the team in scoring in the series with five points (3-2—5) and his last goal against the Stars on Dec. 1 marked his 500th point as a pro player…Sateri has started all three contests against the Stars and shows a 3.37 GAA and a 0.878 save percentage…The Griffins are 6-3-1-0 in their last 10 at Texas, outscoring the Stars 34-25 in that span…Since the 2013-14 campaign, Grand Rapids is 16-7-1-1 in 25 games overall vs. Texas…Texas goaltender Landon Bow is 4-1-1 with a 2.35 GAA and a 0.925 save percentage in seven career games against Grand Rapids…The Stars rank second in power play efficiency at 23.3% and have converted on 3 of 12 chances (25.0%) against the Griffins...The Stars have a handful of players with ties to the Mitten: Joel L’Esperance is a native of Brighton and played four seasons (2014-18) at Michigan Tech; Dallas native Colton Hargrove played at Western Michigan from 2012-15; Nicholas Caamano appeared in 154 games with the OHL’s Flint Firebirds from 2015-18; Erik Condra is a native of Trenton; Tony Calderone is from Trenton and played at the University of Michigan from 2014-18; Robbie Payne is from Gaylord, played college hockey at Northern Michigan from 2014-18, and played for the NAHL’s Kalamazoo Jr. K Wings from 2011-13; Shane Hanna played at Michigan Tech from 2013-17; and Ben Gleason is from Ortonville.

Texas Two-Step
Since the 2014-15 season, Grand Rapids is a combined 11-7-1-0 (0.605) against the two Texas teams on away ice with a +13 goal differential.

Last Game (Saturday): Barracuda 2 at Griffins 3 SO - Read the full recap here
For the fourth time this season, Grand Rapids rallied back from a two-goal deficit to win…The capacity crowd of 10,834 marked the Griffins’ fourth sellout of the season, their third since New Year’s Eve and their second in the last four games (Jan. 19)…Harri Sateri made 24 saves and stopped all three in the shootout to run his winning streak to four, matching a season high…Matt Puempel skated in his 100th game as a Griffin and was the only scorer for either side in the skills competition…Filip Zadina and Carter Camper both notched their 11th goals of the campaign.

Status Update
The Griffins have totaled points in 13 of their last 16 outings (10-3-1-2), including wins in four of their last five, and pace the Central Division with 57 points and a 25-14-3-4 overall record. Following four days off from games due to the AHL all-star break, Grand Rapids heads to the Lone Star State this week to play the Texas Stars tonight and the San Antonio Rampage tomorrow. The Griffins will then return to Van Andel Arena next week to begin a seven-game homestand, the team’s longest since a seven-game stretch from Nov. 29-Dec. 14, 2013.

Coming Up After the Break
Since joining the AHL in the 2001-02 season, the Griffins post a 288-203-7-16-27 (0.579) record in games played after the all-star break. Grand Rapids has tallied a 0.500 mark or better in each of the last eight seasons after the hiatus, including going 20-7-1-3 last season and a combined 84-37-4-7 (0.678) since 2014-15.

Road Trippin’
After a four-game winless stretch on the road (0-3-1-0) from Dec. 7-16, the Griffins have points in six of their last eight on foreign ice (4-2-1-1) and are a +3 in goal differential in that span.

Griffins in General
The Griffins’ 3-0 win against Milwaukee on Jan. 19 marked the franchise’s 950th all-time regular season victory…Grand Rapids is 952-643-27-54-112 (0.586) in the regular season since 1996-97…Grand Rapids’ 292 regular season wins and 631 points since the 2012-13 campaign are both the second-most in the AHL in that time, trailing only Toronto (300 / 646) and just ahead of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (290 / 624).

Wading Back In
Wade Megan leads the team with 11 points (6-5—11) in 10 January games. Since being assigned by Detroit on Jan. 3 following nearly a month’s stay in the NHL, Megan has points in seven of his 10 games back in Grand Rapids’ lineup, including six (4-2—6) in the last four.

Puemped Up
Matt Puempel leads the team with 13 multi-point efforts on the season and has points in six of his last nine games (4-6—10). His 10 points (4-6—10) in January place second on the club. The sixth-year pro ranks second on the Griffins in both goals (17) and points (36) and his team-leading 148 shots are second in the league.

You’re a Wizard, Harri
Harri Sateri is on a four-game winning streak to match his season high and is good for a 1.45 GAA and a 0.953 save percentage (123 of 129) in that stretch. He has let in two goals or less in each of his last four starts. The Finnish netminder has points in 13 of his last 15 starts (11-2-2) and in eight of his last nine (7-1-1). Sateri’s 15 wins on the season tie for sixth in the league.

Rybar Supports
Patrik Rybar has points in six of his last eight games (4-2-2) and shows a 2.20 GAA and a 0.919 save percentage with one shutout in that span. Rybar, who led the Czech Extraliga with seven shutouts last season, recorded his first clean sheet on North American soil after stopping 24 shots during Jan. 19’s 3-0 victory against Milwaukee. He ties for fifth in the AHL with a 2.38 overall GAA.

(Don’t) Put It In Reverse Terr
The AHL’s leading scorer from a season ago, Chris Terry is tied atop the league’s goal leaderboard with 23. The 10th-year pro has reached the 20-goal plateau for the sixth time in his AHL career and is on pace to become just the third Griffin ever to bank 40 or more goals in a single season. He is bidding to join Teemu Pulkkinen (34 in 2014-15) and Donald MacLean (56 in 2005-06) as the only Griffins to lead the league in goals. He ties for eighth in the league with 42 points overall. Competing for the Central Division at the 2019 AHL All-Star Classic, Terry earned his third consecutive AHL All-Star bid and fourth overall (2012).

Page Turner
Turner Elson places fourth on the team with 28 points (12-16—28) and is just two shy of matching his career high of 30, which he has attained twice previously (2014-15 with Adirondack and 2015-16 with Stockton). Sixteen assists has already equaled his career best total from 2015-16. He has also bettered his output from his first season with the Griffins in 2017-18 (9-12—21 in 57 GP). Elson has all three of the Griffins’ shorthanded goals this season, which ties for second in the AHL. Three shorties is the most by a Griffin in a single season since Landon Ferraro and Tomas Nosek both collected three in 2014-15.

On This Date in Griffins History
2002: Rookie netminder Simon Lajeunesse extends his unbeaten streak to 10 games (7-0-3-0) with a 3-3 tie at Houston.
2003: Travis Richards becomes the first player to appear in 500 regular season games as a Griffin in Grand Rapids’ 4-3 win at Milwaukee. Jason Williams nets the Griffins’ lone hat trick of the season.
2004: In a 5-2 victory at Utah, Michel Picard becomes the first player to reach the 150-goal plateau for his Griffins career.
2006: Donald MacLean wins the Hardest Shot portion of the 2006 AHL All-Star Skills Competition in Winnipeg, launching a shot clocked at 98 mph.

Photo by Sam Iannamico/Griffins