This Week’s Games
Fri., Oct. 17 GRIFFINS at Charlotte Checkers 7 p.m. WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM/ AHLLive.com
Sat., Oct. 18 GRIFFINS at Charlotte Checkers 7 p.m. WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM/ AHLLive.com

Last Week’s Results
Fri., Oct. 10 Lake Erie Monsters 4 at GRIFFINS 0 0-1-0-0, 0 pts. (T3rd, Midwest Division)
Sat., Oct. 11 GRIFFINS 3 at Lake Erie Monsters 2 1-1-0-0, 2 pts. (T3rd)

A Monster Win: Last week, the Griffins split a season-opening set of games against their new Midwest Division foe, the Lake Erie Monsters, with the away team taking a 4-0 decision on Friday at Van Andel Arena and the Griffins responding with a 3-2 victory on Saturday at Quicken Loans Arena. On Friday, Monsters’ goaltender Calvin Pickard turned away all 37 Grand Rapids shots to earn the shutout, despite a handful of scoring chances for the Griffins. Petr Mrazek posted his first season-opening loss in a Griffins sweater after giving up three goals before Lake Erie’s empty-netter with only 2:19 remaining. Tom McCollum made 17 saves to backstop the Griffins to a 3-2 win on Saturday in Cleveland. Mitch Callahan, newcomer Kevin Porter and Teemu Pulkkinen all picked up goals in the contest. Callahan and Pulkkinen each had an assist in addition, resuming their roles as two of the Griffins’ top point-getters. With the win, the Griffins improved their all-time record in road openers to 12-5-2-0 and McCollum earned his 70th victory as a Griffin, third in franchise history behind Joey MacDonald (109) and Jimmy Howard (90).

Nesty Breaks Through: Last Thursday, center Andrej Nestrasil made his debut with Detroit in the Wings’ season opener at Joe Louis Arena, becoming the 146th Griffins alumnus to play in the NHL. The Prague, Czech Republic, native garnered 12:06 worth of ice time and fired one shot in the 2-1 victory over Boston. Nestrasil, 23, tied for fifth in scoring with 36 points (16-20—36) in 70 regular season games with Grand Rapids last season. In his two previous seasons with Grand Rapids (2011-13), Nestrasil produced 10 points (6-4—10) in 50 games. Now in his fourth year as a pro, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound center split his first two professional seasons between the Griffins and the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye, where he picked up 70 points (18-52—70) in 91 games.

Bad Result, But Good Omen?: While their 4-0 loss to Lake Erie last Friday marked the third straight season that the Griffins dropped their home opener – a franchise first – their previous two seasons under Jeff Blashill turned out pretty well, to say the least. He led the Griffins to the 2013 Calder Cup in his first season as a head coach at the pro level, then improved upon that squad’s 2012-13 record with a 46-23-2-5 mark last season before falling to the regular season and eventual playoff champion Texas Stars in the second round. In 154 regular season games, Blashill has coached the Griffins to a 89-50-6-9 record (0.627). With his next victory, he’ll join predecessors Curt Fraser (146), Danton Cole (116), Greg Ireland (109) and Bruce Cassidy (95) at the 90-win plateau.

Forward, Marchy!: The Griffins’ blueline welcomed back second-year defenseman and 2013-14 AHL All-Star Alexey Marchenko last weekend following his season-ending ankle injury last February. While the Moscow, Russia, native went pointless and posted a minus-two rating on Friday, he reversed his performance on Saturday with a plus-two rating and an assist on Teemu Pulkkinen’s game-winning goal. The assist marked Marchenko’s first point since Feb. 8, 2014 at Rochester – 245 days after his last point. Detroit's 9th choice, 205th overall, in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, Marchenko registered 18 points (3-15—18) in 49 games with Grand Rapids before his injury and made his NHL debut with the Wings on Jan. 4 at Dallas.

Miele in the Mix: A native of Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich., center Andy Miele signed a one-year contract with Detroit on July 2 after ranking first in scoring on the Portland Pirates and tying for third overall in the AHL with 72 points (27-45—72) in 70 games during the 2013-14 season. In April, Miele was named to the AHL Second All-Star Team, along with Griffins goaltender Petr Mrazek and former defenseman Adam Almquist. The 5-foot-8, 175-pound forward also played in seven games with the Phoenix Coyotes last season, picking up two assists and five penalty minutes. From 2011-14, Miele accumulated 179 points (62-117—179) in 209 games with the Pirates and two points (0-2—2) in 15 games with the Coyotes. Miele is currently recovering from off-season surgery, but he could make his Griffins debut at some point in the next few weeks.

At It Again: After being held scoreless in the Griffins’ season and home opener on Friday, right wing Teemu Pulkkinen exacted revenge on the Lake Erie Monsters by notching an assist and the game-winning goal in Saturday’s 3-2 victory at Quicken Loans Arena. The 5-foot-10, 185-pound forward led the Griffins in scoring during 2013-14, his first full season in North America, with 59 points (31-28—59) in 71 regular season appearances. While Pulkkinen earned an assist in his season debut last season, it took five games for the Vantaa, Finland, native to earn a goal. His two-point performance on Saturday puts him once again at the top of the Griffins’ scoring leaders, tying with left wing Mitch Callahan, who also potted a goal and assist in the
game.

Capacity Crowds: Coming off a season in which they ranked second of 30 AHL teams in attendance, the Griffins extended a remarkable streak with their 19th consecutive home-opening sellout (10,834) on Friday at Van Andel Arena. So far this season, the Griffins are following their 2013-14 trend and rank second in the league behind only Lake Erie’s home-opening crowd of 13,135 last Saturday.

App-ropos: Last week, the Griffins launched a revamped mobile app for iPhone and Android that allows fans to purchase tickets to any of the Griffins’ 38 home games using both the Schedule button, which displays promotional information and special ticket offers, and the Tickets tab, which displays single-game tickets for the next five available dates. The app also gives members of Griffins Nation the opportunity to interact with players and other fans by using their Facebook or Twitter profile to connect to the Fan Wall. Top fans throughout the season will be rewarded with Griffins memorabilia. Beginning in November, fans will be able to use the app during home games to upgrade their seats or purchase Griffins experiences, such as bench visits, zamboni rides or a quad ride with Griff and Finn.

Walleye World: A number of players that could see playing time in Grand Rapids are currently with the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye, and the team will make its season debut at the Huntington Center on Saturday when it hosts the Cincinnati Cyclones. Detroit-contracted goaltender Jared Coreau and forward Marek Tvrdon and Griffins-contracted forwards Tyler Barnes and Kyle Bonis and defenseman Scott Czarnowczan were assigned to Toledo last Wednesday. The Walleye hope to bounce back from last season’s record of 21-44-4-3, when the team ranked 20th out of 21 teams in the league. Last Tuesday, the ECHL Board of Governors approved the membership applications of seven new teams for the league: the Allen Americans, Brampton Beast, Missouri Mavericks, Quad City Mallards, Rapid City Rush, Tulsa Oilers and Wichita Thunder. All formerly comprised the Central Hockey League.

Scouting Report

Fri., Oct. 17 at Charlotte Checkers (1-2-0-0) – Time Warner Cable Arena – 7 p.m.
Sat., Oct. 18 at Charlotte Checkers – Time Warner Cable Arena – 7 p.m.
Radio: WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM at 6:40 p.m. (Fri. and Sat.) Web Casts: Video web cast at AHLLive.com, free audio available through woodradio.com. All-Time Series: 4-8-0-0 Overall, 2-4-0-0 Road. 2013-14 Series: 2-2-0-0 Overall, 1-1-0-0 Road. Season Series: First and second of eight meetings overall, first and second of four in Charlotte. NHL Affiliation: Carolina Hurricanes. Head Coach: Jeff Daniels (4th season). Notes: Friday’s game between Grand Rapids and Charlotte will be the Checkers’ home opener, after the team played three road games last weekend…Newcomer center Ben Holmstrom leads the Checkers in scoring with a goal and assist in three games. Prior to joining Charlotte, Holmstrom spent five seasons from 2009-14 with the Adirondack Phantoms, including seven appearances with the parent Philadelphia Flyers, and amassed 122 points (49-73—122) in 256 games…Former Griffins goaltender Drew MacIntyre is a member of the Checkers this season. MacIntyre played in 37 games for Grand Rapids from 2004-06 but spent the past two seasons with the Toronto Marlies. He was Toronto’s primary netminder against the Griffins in their second-round series during the 2013 Calder Cup Playoffs.

This Week’s Games
Fri., Oct. 17 GRIFFINS at Charlotte Checkers 7 p.m. WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM/ AHLLive.com
Sat., Oct. 18 GRIFFINS at Charlotte Checkers 7 p.m. WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM/ AHLLive.com

Last Week’s Results
Fri., Oct. 10 Lake Erie Monsters 4 at GRIFFINS 0 0-1-0-0, 0 pts. (T3rd, Midwest Division)
Sat., Oct. 11 GRIFFINS 3 at Lake Erie Monsters 2 1-1-0-0, 2 pts. (T3rd)

A Monster Win: Last week, the Griffins split a season-opening set of games against their new Midwest Division foe, the Lake Erie Monsters, with the away team taking a 4-0 decision on Friday at Van Andel Arena and the Griffins responding with a 3-2 victory on Saturday at Quicken Loans Arena. On Friday, Monsters’ goaltender Calvin Pickard turned away all 37 Grand Rapids shots to earn the shutout, despite a handful of scoring chances for the Griffins. Petr Mrazek posted his first season-opening loss in a Griffins sweater after giving up three goals before Lake Erie’s empty-netter with only 2:19 remaining. Tom McCollum made 17 saves to backstop the Griffins to a 3-2 win on Saturday in Cleveland. Mitch Callahan, newcomer Kevin Porter and Teemu Pulkkinen all picked up goals in the contest. Callahan and Pulkkinen each had an assist in addition, resuming their roles as two of the Griffins’ top point-getters. With the win, the Griffins improved their all-time record in road openers to 12-5-2-0 and McCollum earned his 70th victory as a Griffin, third in franchise history behind Joey MacDonald (109) and Jimmy Howard (90).

Nesty Breaks Through: Last Thursday, center Andrej Nestrasil made his debut with Detroit in the Wings’ season opener at Joe Louis Arena, becoming the 146th Griffins alumnus to play in the NHL. The Prague, Czech Republic, native garnered 12:06 worth of ice time and fired one shot in the 2-1 victory over Boston. Nestrasil, 23, tied for fifth in scoring with 36 points (16-20—36) in 70 regular season games with Grand Rapids last season. In his two previous seasons with Grand Rapids (2011-13), Nestrasil produced 10 points (6-4—10) in 50 games. Now in his fourth year as a pro, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound center split his first two professional seasons between the Griffins and the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye, where he picked up 70 points (18-52—70) in 91 games.

Bad Result, But Good Omen?: While their 4-0 loss to Lake Erie last Friday marked the third straight season that the Griffins dropped their home opener – a franchise first – their previous two seasons under Jeff Blashill turned out pretty well, to say the least. He led the Griffins to the 2013 Calder Cup in his first season as a head coach at the pro level, then improved upon that squad’s 2012-13 record with a 46-23-2-5 mark last season before falling to the regular season and eventual playoff champion Texas Stars in the second round. In 154 regular season games, Blashill has coached the Griffins to a 89-50-6-9 record (0.627). With his next victory, he’ll join predecessors Curt Fraser (146), Danton Cole (116), Greg Ireland (109) and Bruce Cassidy (95) at the 90-win plateau.

Forward, Marchy!: The Griffins’ blueline welcomed back second-year defenseman and 2013-14 AHL All-Star Alexey Marchenko last weekend following his season-ending ankle injury last February. While the Moscow, Russia, native went pointless and posted a minus-two rating on Friday, he reversed his performance on Saturday with a plus-two rating and an assist on Teemu Pulkkinen’s game-winning goal. The assist marked Marchenko’s first point since Feb. 8, 2014 at Rochester – 245 days after his last point. Detroit's 9th choice, 205th overall, in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, Marchenko registered 18 points (3-15—18) in 49 games with Grand Rapids before his injury and made his NHL debut with the Wings on Jan. 4 at Dallas.

Miele in the Mix: A native of Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich., center Andy Miele signed a one-year contract with Detroit on July 2 after ranking first in scoring on the Portland Pirates and tying for third overall in the AHL with 72 points (27-45—72) in 70 games during the 2013-14 season. In April, Miele was named to the AHL Second All-Star Team, along with Griffins goaltender Petr Mrazek and former defenseman Adam Almquist. The 5-foot-8, 175-pound forward also played in seven games with the Phoenix Coyotes last season, picking up two assists and five penalty minutes. From 2011-14, Miele accumulated 179 points (62-117—179) in 209 games with the Pirates and two points (0-2—2) in 15 games with the Coyotes. Miele is currently recovering from off-season surgery, but he could make his Griffins debut at some point in the next few weeks.

At It Again: After being held scoreless in the Griffins’ season and home opener on Friday, right wing Teemu Pulkkinen exacted revenge on the Lake Erie Monsters by notching an assist and the game-winning goal in Saturday’s 3-2 victory at Quicken Loans Arena. The 5-foot-10, 185-pound forward led the Griffins in scoring during 2013-14, his first full season in North America, with 59 points (31-28—59) in 71 regular season appearances. While Pulkkinen earned an assist in his season debut last season, it took five games for the Vantaa, Finland, native to earn a goal. His two-point performance on Saturday puts him once again at the top of the Griffins’ scoring leaders, tying with left wing Mitch Callahan, who also potted a goal and assist in the
game.

Capacity Crowds: Coming off a season in which they ranked second of 30 AHL teams in attendance, the Griffins extended a remarkable streak with their 19th consecutive home-opening sellout (10,834) on Friday at Van Andel Arena. So far this season, the Griffins are following their 2013-14 trend and rank second in the league behind only Lake Erie’s home-opening crowd of 13,135 last Saturday.

App-ropos: Last week, the Griffins launched a revamped mobile app for iPhone and Android that allows fans to purchase tickets to any of the Griffins’ 38 home games using both the Schedule button, which displays promotional information and special ticket offers, and the Tickets tab, which displays single-game tickets for the next five available dates. The app also gives members of Griffins Nation the opportunity to interact with players and other fans by using their Facebook or Twitter profile to connect to the Fan Wall. Top fans throughout the season will be rewarded with Griffins memorabilia. Beginning in November, fans will be able to use the app during home games to upgrade their seats or purchase Griffins experiences, such as bench visits, zamboni rides or a quad ride with Griff and Finn.

Walleye World: A number of players that could see playing time in Grand Rapids are currently with the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye, and the team will make its season debut at the Huntington Center on Saturday when it hosts the Cincinnati Cyclones. Detroit-contracted goaltender Jared Coreau and forward Marek Tvrdon and Griffins-contracted forwards Tyler Barnes and Kyle Bonis and defenseman Scott Czarnowczan were assigned to Toledo last Wednesday. The Walleye hope to bounce back from last season’s record of 21-44-4-3, when the team ranked 20th out of 21 teams in the league. Last Tuesday, the ECHL Board of Governors approved the membership applications of seven new teams for the league: the Allen Americans, Brampton Beast, Missouri Mavericks, Quad City Mallards, Rapid City Rush, Tulsa Oilers and Wichita Thunder. All formerly comprised the Central Hockey League.

Scouting Report

Fri., Oct. 17 at Charlotte Checkers (1-2-0-0) – Time Warner Cable Arena – 7 p.m.
Sat., Oct. 18 at Charlotte Checkers – Time Warner Cable Arena – 7 p.m.
Radio: WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM at 6:40 p.m. (Fri. and Sat.) Web Casts: Video web cast at AHLLive.com, free audio available through woodradio.com. All-Time Series: 4-8-0-0 Overall, 2-4-0-0 Road. 2013-14 Series: 2-2-0-0 Overall, 1-1-0-0 Road. Season Series: First and second of eight meetings overall, first and second of four in Charlotte. NHL Affiliation: Carolina Hurricanes. Head Coach: Jeff Daniels (4th season). Notes: Friday’s game between Grand Rapids and Charlotte will be the Checkers’ home opener, after the team played three road games last weekend…Newcomer center Ben Holmstrom leads the Checkers in scoring with a goal and assist in three games. Prior to joining Charlotte, Holmstrom spent five seasons from 2009-14 with the Adirondack Phantoms, including seven appearances with the parent Philadelphia Flyers, and amassed 122 points (49-73—122) in 256 games…Former Griffins goaltender Drew MacIntyre is a member of the Checkers this season. MacIntyre played in 37 games for Grand Rapids from 2004-06 but spent the past two seasons with the Toronto Marlies. He was Toronto’s primary netminder against the Griffins in their second-round series during the 2013 Calder Cup Playoffs.