Grand Rapids Griffins Start 4-0 For the First Time Since 2004-05
Photo Credit: Nicolas Carrillo
Manitoba Moose (2) at Grand Rapids Griffins (4)
Griffins Lines
John Leonard - Sheldon Dries - Carter Mazur
Tyler Angle - Amadeus Lombardi - Austin Watson
Eduards Tralmaks - Ondrej Becher - Jakub Rychlovsky
Carson Bantle - Gabriel Seger - Alex Doucet
Griffins Pairings
Erik Gustafsson - Justin Holl
William Wallinder - William Lagesson
Jacob Truscott - Antti Tuomisto
On Saturday, October 18th, the Grand Rapids Griffins took down the Manitoba Moose, 4-2, giving them a 4-0 start to the season for the first time since 2004-05. Rookie netminder Michal Postava stopped 35 shots on route to secure the win and become the eighth rookie in franchise history to win his home debut.
After a sloppy and scoreless first period, Eduards Tralmaks opened the scoring for the Griffins with a power play goal 7:59 into the second period. Ondrej Becher had a nice backwards pass to William Wallinder, who was able to bring the puck across the ice before setting up Tralmaks. In fact, Wallinder is a huge reason why this play turned into a goal. He drove much of the play with simple yet strong passing.
Grand Rapids entered the third period awake and ready to face the world, scoring two goals in the span of 16 seconds. Tralmaks scored his second of the night after redirecting a heavy shot from Justin Holl to give the Griffins the 2-0 lead over the Moose 2:12 into the third period. Shortly after Tralmaks’ goal, Sheldon Dries looked to be going in for a wraparound attempt, but passed the puck off to John Leonard, who was waiting in the slot. Leonard immediately slammed the puck home for the 3-0 lead over Manitoba.
A little under four minutes into the third period, Manitoba’s Mason Shaw had a shorthanded breakaway that pulled attention completely away from Philip DiGuiseppe, who was also speeding up the ice. With no one close enough to stop him, upon receipt of the puck, DiGuiseppe was able to rip the puck into the back of the net from the faceoff dot to spoil Postava’s shutout, 3-1.
With 53 seconds to play in the game, Leonard put a bit more space between the Griffins and Moose, 4-1, by scoring an empty net goal from above the blue line.
Normally, after a team scores an empty net goal to extend its lead, the opponent tends to take its foot off the gas. However, there was no quit in the Moose on Saturday night, and they worked hard to score in the final seconds of play to put them within two of the Griffins, 4-2.
It was too little, too late for Manitoba, and they couldn’t draw up anything meaningful in the waning minutes of play.
But Wait! There’s More!
Special Teams
Power Play
Other than Tralmaks’ second period goal, the Griffins' man-advantage struggled. They just didn't seem to gel quite like they had during the first weekend against the Texas Stars.
This may be where having rotating veterans in the lineup hurts continuity.
Penalty Kill
After two weeks of play, Grand Rapids’ penalty kill sits third in the league with a 91.7% success rate. The numbers are indicative of the way the Griffins play when down a man. They use a combination of grit, skill,and speed that seems to throw the opposition’s power play off.
Notes and Quotes
The Griffins played uninspired hockey in the first period. “We were a little bit sleepy, I would say,” Tralmaks explained of the less than stellar start. “They started better than us. They really wanted it in the first period.” There were many bad passes, and all around sloppy play. It felt like Grand Rapids was just skating in circles with no destination. This extended into much of the second period. Luckily, the Griffins kicked down the door of the third period like the Kool-Aid man, and scored two goals within the first three minutes. Tralmaks jokingly told the media it was because of the gatorade, “Some gatorades maybe. I’m not really sure what they put in our gatorades.” After the laughs in the locker room subsided, he gave a more thoughtful answer stating “We just woke up. The first period was a bad period for us, sleepy. Maybe we didn’t warm up too good, but we knew we had to win this game, and we had to start at some point.”
Michal Postava single handedly kept the Griffins in Saturday’s game. He’s been a lovely addition to the goalie room, and Head Coach Dan Watson couldn’t help but sing his praises in post-game. “We were just talking in the coach’s office about his hockey IQ. It seems like, as Roope mentioned, it just comes natural to him,” said Coach Watson. “He sees the plays. He makes the plays. He’s aggressive. He’s not shy to be aggressive. He knows what he is as a goalie.”
Part of Manitoba’s success came from keeping their sticks down on the ice preventing successful cross-ice passes by Grand Rapids.
William Wallinder played exponentially better on Saturday than he did on Friday. In fact, his passing was a pivotal part of Tralmaks’ first goal of the night.
3 Stars
1st - Michal Postava - Grand Rapids - 37 shots faced, 35 saves, TOI: 59:38
2nd - Eduards Tralmaks - Grand Rapids - 2 goals
3rd - John Leonard - Grand Rapids - 2 goals
Post-Game Press Conference
What’s Next
Manitoba and Grand Rapids meet again on Friday, October 24, 2025 at 7 pm. Remember, every Friday there are $2 beers and $2 hot dogs from 6-8 pm.
You can buy single game tickets here.
The Griffins hit the road for two games : one in Iowa on Tuesday, October 28 at 8 pm est, and one in Rockford on Saturday, November 1 at 8 pm est.
