The Grand Rapids Griffins and the Detroit Red Wings both ended their loosing streaks on Sunday. I am more excited about the Griffins winning. Yes I know it was against Rochester, but a win is a win. We have two games left, and one of them is against the Hamilton Spectator
GriffinsHockey.com – Jimmy Howard stopped all 21 shots he faced and Brian Lashoff notched two assists as the Grand Rapids Griffins shut out the Rochester Americans 3-0 at the Blue Cross Arena on Sunday. The shutout was Howard’s fourth of the season, while Lashoff has now recorded a point in all four games he has played with the Griffins since coming out of the Ontario Hockey League on March 29.
It looks like the Wings crushed the playoff hopes of the Minnesota Wild. Looking at the standings this morning I noticed that if the post season started today the Wings would face the Anaheim Ducks. I think just for the travel issues I would much rather see the St. Louis Blues, or the Columbus Blue Jackets.
This weekend was filled with one thing: Hockey. The Griffins were playing three games in three nights. The Red Wings played Saturday and Sunday as well.
After a boring and mildly uneventful day at work we had some dinner and took off for the arena. There wasn’t a large promotion or anything going on, but the Griffins played very well and put the hurt on Peoria.
griffinshockey.com – Returning from a five-game absence due to a concussion, Jimmy Howard made 24 saves to best former Detroit Red Wings netminder Manny Legace and guide the Grand Rapids Griffins to a 4-1 win over the Peoria Rivermen on Friday at Van Andel Arena.
Darren McCarty and Garrett Stafford each had a goal and an assist while Ryan Oulahen had a pair of assists to help the Griffins claim their fourth win in five games and stay within five points of first-place Manitoba in the North Division race.
Saturday started with some shopping and a bathroom project. The valve that controls the shower nozzle failed last week. By Friday taking a shower was not an option due to very little water actually going up instead of down the spout. This situation was a very easy fix. I just replaced the spout with one that has a gate diverter on it. Total Cost: $11.23 & 5 minutes.
I then watched the Red Wings game on TV. They were able to get past the Blues. Then it was off to the arena for day two of Griffins vs. Peoria. This time it didn’t turn out so well for the Griffins.
griffinshockey.com – The game was scoreless until a flurry of goals in the final six minutes of the second period saw Peoria go to the locker room with a 2-1 lead. The Rivermen (34-30-1-1) scored the first two, with Ryan Reaves cleaning up a loose puck in the crease at 14:22 and Nicholas Drazenovic splitting two defenders before beating Jimmy Howard at 17:09.
The Griffins would answer before intermission, as Francis Pare potted his 21st goal from just outside the crease, putting a rebound past Holt. Pare now stands as one of only five rookies in franchise history to score more than 20 goals in a season.
An unfortunate bounce for Grand Rapids resulted in a gift goal for former Griffin Carl Corazzini and a 3-1 Peoria lead just 1:11 into the third period. As Howard skated behind his net to stop a dump-in, the puck took an odd deflection off the end glass and caromed out in front of the vacated net, allowing the charging Corazzini an uncontested goal.
Sunday came and it was promising to be a long day of everything Hockey. The annual Season Ticket Holder Event was going on before and after the afternoon game. After lunch we arrived at the arena around 1pm. We collected our Jiri Hudler jersey cards and headed in. Our first stop was waiting for the next tour of the press box and control room. During this time Drake took a bunch of pictures with my camera. He must really like the flash and screen because he laughed after almost every picture he took.
We all headed up to the press box where we were told that Drake could not be for safety and security reasons. It was basically because there is no barrier keeping him from jumping from the table up there. I call BS, it’s not like I would have set him down up there. From there we were treated to the control room to see the sound and video boards. I even got to press the air horn button!
Down on the ice we were treated to the penalty box, and the chance to shoot some pucks. Drake was so cute and adorable playing with a full size stick. Yes, there are pictures below. After some fun down there we headed up to our seats, where Drake did take a short nap.
The game proved to be as tough as I thought it was going to be. They had to play three games in three nights, and the Admirals are a good team.
griffinshockey.com – The Grand Rapids Griffins suffered the season’s sixth one-goal loss at the hands of the Milwaukee Admirals on Sunday, dropping a frustrating 2-1 decision in their third game in three nights at Van Andel Arena.
The game was scoreless for nearly 58 minutes until a controversial interference call on Darren McCarty resulted in a power play goal by Milwaukee’s Cody Franson with 2:04 remaining, and the Admirals held on as the Griffins suffered consecutive regulation losses at home for the first time this season.
After the game we all seperated a little to gather some autographs. I sent Theresa to wait for Jimmy Howard. My dad was second in line for Justin Abdelkader, as I waited for Darren McCarty. Once those were completed we headed to the basement where the Griffins locker room is at. Yes, it is a locker room. Yes, it smells like a locker room wehre plenty of hockey players just changed out of game equipment.
Okay, on to the pictures. There are 77 pictures in thumbnail form below the cut. There are also two videos from the locker room. Enjoy!
Tags: Carl Corazzini, Chris Holt, Darren McCarty, Detroit Red Wings, Drake, Flickr, Francis Pare, Garrett Stafford, Grand Rapids Griffins, Hockey, Jimmy Howard, Justin Abdelkader, Manny Legace, Milwaukee Admirals, Nicholas Drazenovic, Peoria Rivermen, Ryan Oulahen, Ryan Reaves, Theresa, Van Andel ArenaThe weekend started a little early with me starting a clean install of Windows on my computer at home. I backed up all of my data and made note of programs that I needed to install. Once I got Vista installed and upgraded to Ultimate I started the process of getting my programs back on the the computer.
The only thing that is not working correctly now is pyTiVo. I use this to transfer videos back and forth from my TiVo units. For some reason I cannot get the TiVo units to see my computer. The computer can see 3 of the 4 TiVo units in the house. What’s even stranger is that now the TiVo units cannot see all of the other units in the house. I still cannot figure it out. The only real bad thing about this is that I cannot transfer my movie collection that is on my computer to the TiVo units. This might put a damper on Free Movie Monday with Redbox.
Thursday Criterion Games released new cars for Burnout Paradise. Yes I did buy them, just like I bought the Party pack. This whole paid DLC is new for me, as this is the first bit of Add-Ons that I have purchased for games that I already own. Both of the packs have seemed worth it to me. The new car packs that have been announced, Toy Cars & Boost Specials, may see screen time in my house, but I’m not sure. I do know that I will purchse the Big Surf Island pack as well as the Cops & Robbers pack. I still think they should bring back Crash Mode.
Drake went to a play date with Aunt Pat, and an old friend of mine stopped by to say hi.
Friday was a short day at the office. For lunch we went to the bar next door for some food. After that we just decided to call it a day. We went to the arena for a hockey game, but couldn’t get in. I had ripped the wrong tickets our of our season ticket pack. Theresa and Drake waited for me as I ran back to the car to go home and get the correct tickets, I still can’t believe I did that. That was the first time I brought the wrong tickets, now I’ve forgoten to bring tickets all together twice, but not the wrong ones.
The Griffins on Friday put together one heck of a game against the Manitoba Moose. This bit of statistics make me happy:
GriffinsHockey.com: With the victory, earned before a raucous capacity crowd of 10,834, the Griffins (33-13-6-5) pulled within four points of Manitoba (38-15-0-5) in the North Division race, broke the Moose’s eight-game point streak and ended their 14-game road point streak one game shy of the American Hockey League record.
Saturday morning it was nice to sleep in a bit as Drake didn’t feel the need to wake up at 6.30am. After we got up and what not Drake and I left to go to my parents house. Theresa stayed home to get some shopping and a few things around the house done. My mission was to install an external hard drive and move the document folders on the computer at my parents house. I had forgotten that the internal drive there is only 30GB. They now have plenty of space on their new 500GB drive. I also tried to fix the VHS/DVD Recorder combo unit that I bought for them some time ago. It is acting really strange, it shuts off after being on for only about 14 seconds. Since it is out of warranty the only suggestion the manufacturer had was to leave it unplugged for a while to see if it would reset itself.
The Saturday night game was a different story then Friday night. On paper we should have had no problem beating the Lake Erie Monsters. On the ice however we did have a problem. I’m not sure if the Griffins were all there mentally for the game.
Per Ledin scored twice to lead Lake Erie to a 4-2 victory over the Grand Rapids Griffins on Saturday, making the Monsters the only team this season to claim a pair of regulation wins at Van Andel Arena.
GriffinsHockey.com: Grand Rapids owned a commanding 33-18 advantage in shots for the game, but Garden City, Mich., native Jason Bacashihua made 31 saves to help the visitors to their second road win in as many nights against a second-place team, following the Monsters’ 3-1 win at Rockford on Friday.
Sunday morning Theresa and Drake stayed home from church. She was not feeling well, and a bunch of snow had fallen. We had a laid back morning watching TV and playing video games. The Grffins played at 4 in the afternoon which gave them 3 games in less then 72 hours. This time they were able to pull out a win, which shouldn’t have been a probem, but the third period was almost heart stopping.
GriffinsHockey.com: Jimmy Howard made 32 saves in his return from the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday, including 20 during a frantic third period, to help the Grand Rapids Griffins claim their third win in five nights, a nail-biting 5-4 triumph over the San Antonio Rampage at Van Andel Arena.
Combined with Manitoba’s 2-1 loss at Chicago this evening, the Griffins have moved within two points of the first-place Moose in the ever-tightening race for both North Division and overall AHL supremacy.
After the game we went to the grocery store to pick up some dinner and some food for the week. I think this week I am going to be playing more of Burnout and Roller Coaster Tycoon, as long as I don’t get sucked into too much TV.
Drake got out his goalie mask tonight and let me snap a few pictures. The kid just loves hockey. He gets excited to go see a game. He even gets excited to watch one on TV. You can click the images below for larger views.
