Falling Stars : Grand Rapids Griffins Complete Weekend Sweep of Texas Stars
Photo Credit : Texas Stars
Falling Stars : Grand Rapids Griffins Complete Weekend Sweep of Texas Stars
Grand Rapids Griffins (3) at Texas Stars (2)
Griffins Lines
John Leonard - Tyler Angle - Dominik Shine
Carter Mazur - Amadeus Lombardi - Austin Watson
Eduards Tralmaks - Ondrej Becher - Jakub Rychlovsky
Carson Bantle - Gabriel Seger - Alex Doucet
Griffins Pairings
Erik Gustafsson - Ian Mitchell
William Wallinder - Justin Holl
Alex Kannok-Leipert - Antti Tuomisto
The Grand Rapids Griffins completed a weekend sweep against their Central Division foes, the Texas Stars, with a 3-2 win on Saturday night. Michal Postava stopped 27 of the 29 shots Texas threw on net to become the 10th rookie rookie goaltender in Grand Rapids franchise history to win in their debut.
After a scoreless opening period, the Griffins were able to find the back of the net twice within five minutes of each other.
The first goal came 7:06 into the second period on the power play when captain Dominik Shine deflected Erik Gustafsson’s shot into the net. For the 20 seconds leading up to the goal, the first power play unit of Shine, Gustafsson, John Leonard, Amadeus Lombardi, and Carter Mazur kept the puck moving at such a fast pace that the Stars kill lost track of where the puck was located. This allowed Gustafsson to fire a shot down the top of the slot and off of Shine’s stick into the back of the net.
A strong faceoff win by Lombardi led to Leonard scoring the Griffins’ second goal of the night with 7:44 to play in the second. The nice part about this goal was seeing how easily Leonard can pull pucks off the board during battles and then quickly make his way towards a scoring position.
Grand Rapids kept the scoring rolling into the third period when Austin Watson was left unattended in the slot. Leading up to the goal, Justin Holl skated around the back of Texas netminder Ben Kraws, pulling attention away from Watson. Then, Holl passed the puck along the boards to Lombardi, who launched the puck through traffic to Watson. It’s amazing the Stars didn’t deflect or pick off the pass.
It seemed as though the Griffins had this game completely in the bag. But then, the Stars came alive in the final nine minutes of play.
Harrison Scott spoiled Postava’s shutout with 8:37 to play in the game. He was patiently waiting on the doorstep to let the puck in the house.
With 4:30 to play in the game, Cross Hanas deflected Gavin White’s shot into the net to put Texas within one, 3-2, of Grand Rapids.
As hard as the Stars tried to force overtime, Postava wasn’t going to budge on letting any more goals into the net.
But Wait! There’s More!
Special Teams
Typically, a 20% success rate is considered mediocre. However, in this case, the number is not indicative to how Grand Rapids played up a man. Texas’ kill loves to force their opponent to pass on the perimeter until they get antsy and shoot right into traffic. They are very good at slowing down a fast-moving power play. Yet, last night, the Griffins were able to fire off multiple high-danger shots and move the play deeper into the offensive zone until they were in scoring range. There were multiple times players like John Leonard, Carter Mazur, and Dominik Shine were left in the middle to lower slot unattended.
On the penalty kill side of things, Grand Rapids went 5 for 5, and almost scored three times on shorthanded breakaway attempts from Shine (2) and Alex Doucet (1). They found ways to slow the Stars' power play down and were sneaky with their poke checks.
For years, Texas’ special teams have notoriously been one of the best in the AHL. Watching Grand Rapids give their special teams a fit should give fans hope for what is to come this season.
Notes and Quotes
This is the first time the Griffins have started 2-0-0-0 on the road since 2019
Amadeus Lombardi’s three assists was a career-high.
Griffins newcomer Tyler Angle had a strong game until the third period when a faceoff loss and a breakdown in front of the net cost Michal Postava a shutout.
Postava had a phenomenal start to the second period stopping five shots in the first 1:27 of the period. He was calm and focused while getting peppered with shots and shot attempts. Having a goaltender who can stay relaxed while facing an onslaught of shots will prove helpful as the season intensifies.
Gabriel Seger spent the game attacking the net and playing until the whistle blew. This was an aspect of the game he needed to improve on this summer.
We are only 2 games into the season and the Stars and Griffins already hate each other. There were a lot of flowery words being thrown around and aggressive hugging last night. The two squads have six more games to play against each other this season. Luckily, there is a little over a month until the next tilt on Tuesday, November 25, 2025. That should be enough time for the two of them to calm down. Maybe.
3 Stars
1st - Michal Postava - Grand Rapids - 29 shots faced, 27 saves, 59:46 TOI
2nd - Harrison Scott - Texas - 1 goal
3rd - Cross Hanas - Texas - 1 goal
Honorable Mention: Unless the visiting team has a statistically phenomenal game, the “Stars of the Night” are usually home team heavy. Oftentimes, you will also see the award go to goal scorers over play composers, skilled faceoff takers, elite passers, and gritty blue-collar players.
Taking all of those things into account, I think an argument could be made for Grand Rapids forward Amadeus Lombardi to have been the third star. Not only did Lombardi assist all three of the Griffins' goals, but he also made some insane passes to help those goals come to fruition. It’s truly a miracle that the Stars didn’t pick off any of the passes he threw across the ice through traffic. On top of that, Lombardi had a strong showing in the faceoff circle. From what I could see on the stream, most of his faceoff takes were clean and well-directed.
What’s Next
The Griffins head back to Michigan for a week of practice before opening the home portion of their season against the Manitoba Moose on Friday, October 17 and Saturday, October 18. Both games start at 7 pm eastern, and feature a giveaway.
October 17 : Every Friday you can get $2 beers and $2 hot dogs from 6-8 pm. There will also be a LED rally towel and magnet schedule giveaway presented by Huntington Bank. After the game, there will be a post-game open skate.
October 18: There will be a calendar giveaway presented by Fox Motors.
You can see the full giveaway schedule for the Griffins 2025-26 schedule here.
Also, the Detroit Red Wings are not playing on October 18. So, if you want to see your baby Wings, or some of your favorites like Austin Watson and Dominik Shine, make the drive west to the great city of Grand Rapids to watch some hockey.
You can buy tickets here.
