ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Adam Dennis stopped all 33 shots the Grand Rapids Griffins offered Sunday, leading the Rochester Americans to a 1-0 victory at the Blue Cross Arena.

Grand Rapids (20-25-2-5) returns home to Van Andel Arena Friday to face the Lake Erie Monsters at 7 p.m. in Darren McCarty’s home debut. The Griffins finished their season-high six-game road stretch with a 2-4 mark and now have five consecutive games in friendly confines beginning with Friday’s tilt.

Adam Berkhoel and Dennis dueled to a scoreless tie deep into the second period, though the Griffins had outshot the Americans (15-32-3-4) by a sizable margin to that point. The standoff continued until Rochester converted a shorthanded goal after Yannick Tifu was assessed a five-minute major penalty late in the second period for a high stick against Mark Hartigan.

Marc-Andre Gragnani forced a turnover during the Griffins power play and created a breakaway situation for himself. Though Berkhoel stopped Gragnani’s first effort, the Grand Rapids netminder could not cover the rebound and Gragnani stuffed home the game’s only goal at 16:33.

The Griffins were awarded one last power play opportunity in the game’s waning moments as Mike Weber was assessed a major penalty with 37 seconds remaining. A flurry of activity around the Rochester net, however, did not translate into a game-tying goal before the final horn sounded.

Berkhoel, making his second start in the past four games, had 24 saves throughout an outstanding performance in the Grand Rapids net.

Griffins Game Rewind

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