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 ArenaSo I think I’ll go through the front gates on Saturday as opposed to the rear gate we usually go through.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A day after celebrating their 500th regular season home game, the Grand Rapids Griffins are expected to welcome the 4 millionth fan in franchise history this Saturday, Dec. 20, when they host the Milwaukee Admirals in a 7 p.m. start at Van Andel Arena.
The Griffins have drawn 3,990,072 fans for their 499 regular season home games over the last 13 seasons, leaving them 9,928 shy of the milestone heading into Friday’s game against Milwaukee – which, barring inclement weather, is expected to draw around 7,000 fans. The magic number should be only a few thousand away when the gates open at 6 p.m. Saturday for the rematch with the Admirals.
The lucky fan will be greeted at the turnstiles in the arena’s main lobby by Griff and Tim Gortsema, the Griffins’ senior vice president of business operations. No. 4 million will then be honored in an on-ice ceremony during the first intermission, where he or she will receive a prize package including:
• A Griffins jersey with the numeral “4” and the nameplate “MILLION” on the back;
• Four lower-bowl tickets to every Griffins home game during the ensuing 4 million seconds;
• Gas card to travel 4 million feet;
• 4 million Zimbabwean dollars;
• 4 million microliters of Pepsi;
• 4 million milligrams of Van Andel Arena popcorn;
• Forty “100 Grand” candy bars;
• Four days of recognition on the griffinshockey.com splash page;
• A four-second standing ovation from Griffins fans during the on-ice ceremony.
4 million feet translates to about 750 miles, 4 million microliters of Pepsi equals one liter of Pepsi, and 4 million Zimbabwean dollars yields $3.50.
Fair Warning: Very random post ahead
LiveJournal is moving from San Francisco to somewhere in Montana. They say it is going to take about 4 hours. I’m not that concerned. They have been giving us notice about the move, but I know there are LJ addicts flipping out.
I buy my dad a Newsweek subscription every year. I paid for it a few weeks ago, but today I decided to check it online to make sure it was paid up and what not. I am not sure when but sometime ago I must have paid for two years. This is what I get online: “Your subscription will expire with the Jan 25, 2010 issue.”
Oh, if you use ZoneAlarm you can get a free copy of ZoneAlarm Pro today only.
Yesterday I sat in our new office space all day waiting for at&t. The window they gave us was 8am to 5pm. I was there from 8am to about 3pm then my boss took my place. They finally showed about around 4pm. So our new phone line and dsl are functional. We should be moving by the end of this week.
The Grand Rapids Griffins were beat by the Milwaukee Admirals on Sunday.
Nov. 16 GriffinsHockey.com – A furious second-period rally by the Grand Rapids Griffins fell just short against the Milwaukee Admirals in the Bradley Center on Sunday evening. The Griffins (8-3-2-1) fell behind 4-1 before scoring three goals in 57 seconds in the second period during a 5-4 loss to the Admirals (7-5-0-1). [More]
There is a second chance for the Griffins tonight in Milwaukee before they host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday.
The Detroit Red Wings shut out the Edmonton Oilers last night. George Malik has plenty of round up here: Wings-Oilers post-game wrap-up: best game thus far!
On Friday Theresa and I took Drake out to do a little Trick-or-Treating. We ended up going to some family houses for his first real Halloween. He was so cute and adorable. He wouldn’t say ‘Trick-or-Treat,’ but he did say ‘Please?’ at every house. He was also real good with saying ‘Thank You’ to everyone.
Saturday night the Grand Rapids Griffins suffered their first regulation loss against the Milwaukee Admirals. Drake spent most of the game on my lap leaning back and just watching the game. I’m not sure what was up, but it took him until about half way through the third period before he started applauding and really reacting to the game.
The game started real bad for Daniel Larsson. He only stopped 3 shots out of the 7 he faced. Which did get him replaced by Jimmy Howard. After the 5th Admiral goal I don’t think Larsson even needed to look at the bench to see that Curt Fraser was taking him out. The good news is that the Griffins were able to get four of those five back, but just couldn’t get it done in the last moments of the game.
November 1, Griffinshockey.com: Tom Galvin’s first goal of the campaign gave the Griffins a short-lived lead during a 4-on-4 only 2:15 into the contest. Backpedaling with the puck above the left circle, he found the top of [Drew] MacIntyre’s net with a seeing-eye wrister. [Read More]
Curt Fraser made this comment to the Grand Rapids Press:
November 2, Grand Rapids Press: “There’s nobody in the building that feels worse than him,” Fraser said. “He’s a proud kid, and takes a lot of pride in what he’s built up and accomplished over in Sweden, being the best goaltender there. To have something like this happen is totally out of character. But all of us make mistakes, and he made a few tonight, but his teammates tried to take care of him.”
Sunday was a nice relaxing day at home. Drake and I got some serious play time in. In the afternoon I noticed that Tetris Party was out and available. I went to download it and first needed to buy more Wii Points. I then needed to make room on my Wii. Once it was down and installed Theresa and I had quite a fun time playing around with it. I foresee many hours of Tetris playing in my future. I think yesterday the Wii logged us at about 3 hours of Tetris playing.
