Cleveland Monsters 0 at GRAND RAPIDS GRIFFINS 5

Jan. 21, 2017

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins and goaltender Cal Heeter authored a thorough domination of the defending Calder Cup champions on Saturday, slaying the Cleveland Monsters by a 5-0 count before a sold-out Van Andel Arena.

Heeter earned his first AHL shutout since 2013-14 behind 35 saves, while Martin Frk, Evgeny Svechnikov, Tomas Nosek and Robbie Russo each registered two points. As a result, Grand Rapids pushed its conference-leading record to 27-10-1-2 (0.713), tying for the second-best percentage in franchise history through 40 games of a season.

Van Andel Arena continues to be a house of horrors for visiting teams, as the Griffins improved their home record to 15-4-0-2 (0.762), including an impeccable 9-1-0-2 (0.833) since Thanksgiving. They’ll look to further build upon that success next week when they finish their homestand with three games in four nights, beginning with a Wednesday matchup versus the Iowa Wild at 7 p.m.

A Frk slap shot from the high slot produced the only tally of the first period at the 9:37 mark, as he one-timed Nosek’s pass while falling to his knees, blowing his 14th goal of the season past Anton Forsberg to tie Nosek for team leadership.

Only 47 seconds into the middle period, Cleveland’s Justin Scott drew four minutes in penalties for high-sticking Matthew Ford in the face, and the Griffins’ top-ranked power play capitalized during the second half of the advantage to take a 2-0 lead. Eric Tangradi popped a rebound under the crossbar from just outside the crease off assists from Frk and Nosek at 3:34, pushing Grand Rapids’ streak of scoring a power play goal to 10 games.

Svechnikov extended the cushion to three at 10:57, slipping a shot through Forsberg’s five-hole from the bottom of the left circle, and less than a minute later the Monsters’ Brett Gallant tomahawked Joe Hicketts to earn himself an early exit for slashing and give the Griffins a five-minute power play. It was Ford’s turn to exact vengeance, as he staked out his position to the right of the net to deflect Svechnikov’s feed with 5:53 remaining before intermission.

Cleveland (18-16-1-3) had perhaps its best scoring chance of the night with 45 ticks left in the period. Alex Broadhurst was pulled down on a breakaway and awarded a penalty shot, but Heeter denied him with a nice glove save to preserve the 4-0 score. He made another 14 saves in third period to secure the shutout, and Dylan Sadowy provided the nightcap by scoring with 1:23 remaining.

The Griffins officially finished 2-for-8 on the power play, not including Svechnikov’s goal that came four seconds after a Monsters penalty expired, finding success against the league’s fourth-ranked penalty killers. Grand Rapids showed much greater discipline, affording Cleveland only two opportunities.

Notes: Heeter’s 35 saves were the most by a Griffins goalie in a home shutout in more than three years, since Tom McCollum made the same number of stops in a 3-0 win over Abbotsford on Jan. 17, 2014. Heeter’s last AHL shutout came 13 days prior to McCollum’s effort, when he made 33 saves in Adirondack’s 4-0 victory over Albany on Jan. 4. He spent the last two seasons playing overseas in the KHL and Germany…Tonight’s capacity crowd of 10,834 combined with Friday’s 10,153 fans to give the Griffins a cumulative weekend attendance of 20,987. Their season average of 7,764 represents an increase of 139 fans per game over their 21-game average from last season, when they went on to post an attendance increase for a franchise-record sixth straight season.

Three Stars: 1. GR Heeter (W, 35 saves, SO); 2. GR Svechnikov (goal, assist); 3. GR Frk (goal, assist)