CLEVELAND -- In the Grand Rapids Griffins’ 3-1 victory over the Cleveland Monsters at Rocket Arena on Friday, Gabriel Seger collected the game-winner to extend his goal streak to three games.

Grand Rapids recorded its first 90-point season since 2017-18 (93 pts., 76 games) and notched its 20th road victory of the campaign (20-3-1-1). Carter Mazur potted his sixth goal in seven games, while Tyler Angle bagged his fifth of the season. Michal Postava tallied 20 saves to move to 12-4-0. The Griffins competed without three of their top-five scorers, John Leonard (27-14—41), Michael Brandsegg-Nygard (16-21—37) and Dominik Shine (21-16—37). 

Just 54 seconds into the opening period, the Griffins claimed a 1-0 lead. William Lagesson passed one down low to Angle, who knocked his rebound opportunity past Ivan Fedotov on the door step. Seger walked in across the near side, carried the puck to the goal mouth and tucked it past Fedotov’s glove on his backhand with 8:12 left to claim a two-goal advantage.

Cleveland scored the only goal of the second frame to cut its deficit to one when Roman Ahcan snapped one inside the left goal post from the right circle with 16:58 on the clock. The Griffins’ best opportunity came when Angle skated into the right circle and sent a wrister toward Fedotov, who gloved the chance at 4:08. 

With 11:12 left in the final slate, Mazur let a wrist shot fly into the top-left corner from the right circle to reclaim a two-goal edge for the Griffins. Cleveland pulled Fedotov with 4:04 to go, and Grand Rapids killed the entire man-advantage, en route to a 3-1 victory.

Notes

• Dan Watson coached his 200th game as the Griffins’ head coach.
• Canton, Michigan, native and former Michigan State Spartan Nicklas Andrews made his AHL debut.
• The Griffins improved to 20-0 when leading after the first period, and 32-1 when scoring first. 
• Grand Rapids went 2-for-2 on its league-leading penalty kill.

Box Score

Grand Rapids 2 0 1 - 3

Cleveland 0 1 0 - 1

1st Period-1, Grand Rapids, Angle 5 (Lagesson, Doucet), 0:54. 2, Grand Rapids, Seger 7   11:48. Penalties-Ahcan Cle (tripping), 13:33; Watson Gr (slashing), 20:00.

2nd Period-3, Cleveland, Ahcan 13 (McCue), 3:02. Penalties-Wallinder Gr (hooking), 4:54; McCue Cle (tripping), 11:35.

3rd Period-4, Grand Rapids, Mazur 6 (Dries, Tralmaks), 8:48. Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Grand Rapids 15-8-3-26. Cleveland 7-7-7-21.

Power Play Opportunities-Grand Rapids 0 / 2; Cleveland 0 / 2.

Goalies-Grand Rapids, Postava 12-4-0 (21 shots-20 saves). Cleveland, Fedotov 20-12-4 (26 shots-23 saves).

A-13,204

Three Stars

1 . GR Mazur (goal) 2. GR Postava (W, 20 saves) 3. GR Angle (goal)

Record/Next Game

Grand Rapids: 43-9-3-1 (90 pts.) / Fri., March 13 vs. Milwaukee 7 p.m.

Cleveland: 30-18-6-1 (67 pts.) / Wed., March 11 at Hartford 7 p.m.

Photo by Cleveland Monsters