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Griffins Rip Rochester 5-1
Hoggan wins battle of the Griffins' captainsÉ
By Jason Kasiorek
www.griffinscentral.com
December 6th, 2013

The visiting Rochester Americans featured two of the most popular captains in Griffins history, but it was the current Griffins champion who ended up with the win and two assists to boot. Landon Ferraro scored a pair of goals including the game-winner and a fight to fuel the attack for the home team. The Griffins also got tallies from Tomas Jurco (11), Riley Sheahan and Patrick Eaves for a 5-1 win. Petr Mrazek picked up his 8th straight win, stopping 33 of 34 shots.

Nice pre-game tribute to former Griffins captains Matt Ellis and Jamie Tardif now playing for the visiting Rochester Americans. Tootoo gets things started off right with a couple if big hits. GR timeout midway through the first to rest players on an icing call and to slow things down. Tardif scored the games first goal on the powerplay, shoveling the puck through Mrazek from the edge of the paint. Jurco tipped in a big drive by Sproul from the point on the powerplay to put Grand Rapids on the board. Shots on Goal: GR 10 - Roc 12.

Ferraro and Tootoo banging at the puck in the crease and it trickled just past Hackett for a goal. Ferraro was given credit for the tally scored just over a minute into the period. Glendening set up the third Griffins goal with a nice centering feed to Ferraro in the slot for an easy one-timer. Another big hit by Tootoo has the Amerks looking for him on the ice. Jensen's shot hit Callahan and went in, but the goal was waived off due to phantom goalie interference. Callahan agitating around the net. Sheahan carried the puck into the circle on a two-on-one and ripped a shot in over Hackett stuck side for a 4-1 lead. Ferraro and Roy dropped the gloves on a pretty even tussle. Roy started strong but Ferraro finished strong and put him down. Shots on Goal: GR 13 - Roc 8.

Jurco stole the puck at the line and fired a beautiful pass up the gut to Eaves all alone in the slot. Eaves showed great patience to freeze Hackett and tuck the puck in glove-side. Tootoo and Hackett jawing back and forth at each other and both are clearly agitated. This goes on for several shifts before Tootoo ended up in the box, setting up a late Rochester powerplay. The Griffins killed it off and walked off with a 5-1 win. Shots on Goal: GR 11 - Roc 14. For the Game: GR 34 - Roc 34.

Lines:
Hoggan - Sheahan - Pulkkinen
Ferraro - Glendening - Tootoo Jurco - Jarnkrok - Eaves
Grant - McIntyre - Callahan

Pairings:
Sproul - Ouellet
Paetsch - Marchenko
Almquist - #14 Jensen

Starter: Mrazek
Backup: McCollum

Scratches:
Evans
Fournier
Nestrasil

PP:
Eaves - Jarnkrok - Jurco
Sproul - Almquist

Hoggan - Sheahan - Pulkkinen/Ferraro
Marchenko - Paetsch


PK:
Callahan/Sheahan - Glendening
Paetsch - Almquist/Marchenko

Sheahan - Ferraro
Ouellet - Marchenko/Amquist

Observations:

Jordin Tootoo and Mitch Callahan were doing a world class job of agitating the Americans and were frequent targets of retaliatory attempts. Tootoo however took it one step to far and took a bad penalty late in the game.

Jurco played a very physical game and really looked like he had a chip on his shoulder. He roughed up a couple of Rochester players and was looking for contact.

Nick Jensen made his season debut for the Griffins and looked rusty early on. He did not see a ton of ice time, but did look better as the game went on.


Official Game Sheet