Milwaukee Admirals 0 at GRAND RAPIDS GRIFFINS 3

Dec. 21, 2016

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Evgeny Svechnikov’s first two-goal game as a pro gave Grand Rapids more than enough offense and Eddie Pasquale shut the door on the other end with 27 saves to propel the Griffins to a 3-0 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals on Wednesday, before a robust Christmas-week crowd of 9,761 at Van Andel Arena.

Grand Rapids, which earned its second home win in two weeks against the Central Division and Western Conference leaders, has allowed only five goals to the Admirals over their six regular season meetings at Van Andel Arena since the start of last season.

Winners of four straight with points in 12 of their last 13 (9-1-1-2), the Griffins take an 18-7-1-2 record into a five-day Christmas break. They’ll be back on the ice for practice on Tuesday before heading to Cleveland for a 7 p.m. matchup with the Monsters next Wednesday, Dec. 28.

The Griffins needed just 26 seconds to jump on top, after Robbie Russo threaded a pass to Svechnikov at the Milwaukee blue line. With steps on two defenders, Svechnikov patiently skated in on Marek Mazanec before slipping a backhand through the five-hole to cap off a blur of stickhandling.

Midway through the frame, Joe Hicketts set the tone by rocking Mike Liambas with a devastating but clean hit into the glass at center ice, igniting the pugilism of 6-foot-5 defenseman Jonathan Diaby, who immediately went after the 5-foot-8 Hicketts and drew two minutes for instigating, five for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct.

The physicality continued with 5:10 remaining in the period, when Cody Bass drove Kyle Criscuolo head-first into the neutral zone boards from behind, briefly sending Criscuolo into the training room and earning himself a five-minute boarding call and a game misconduct. Svechnikov made the Admirals pay for Bass’ transgression during the ensuing power play at the 17:57 mark, blasting home a one-timer from the slot for his second goal of the night. Exacting a measure of revenge, Criscuolo and Hicketts logged the assists, with the former providing the feed to Svechnikov after the latter made two plays at the blue line to keep the puck in the zone.

A much less eventful and scoreless second period saw the Griffins take their 2-0 lead into the final 20 minutes, and Russo made it a three-goal cushion at the 2:35 mark. Dominic Turgeon won a faceoff in the left circle back to Russo, whose wrister from the boards slipped through Mazanec.

Criscuolo sustained more abuse with just over 10 minutes remaining, taking a high stick from Trevor Murphy that gave the Griffins a four-minute power play that was soon after diluted by penalties on each side. Milwaukee eventually pulled Mazanec for an extra attacker with two minutes remaining, but Pasquale finished off his perfect performance to record his first AHL shutout since Dec. 6, 2013 (St. John’s vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) and improve his point streak to a personal-best eight games (5-0-1-2).

Despite 29 saves by Mazanec, Milwaukee fell to 1-2-1-0 (0.375) versus the Griffins this season. Against the rest of the AHL, the Admirals are 16-4-1-1 (0.773).

Three Stars: 1. GR Pasquale (W, 27 saves, SO); 2. GR Svechnikov (two goals); 3. GR Russo (goal, assist)