Shutouts, Sweeps, and Back-to-Back Losses : April 2026 Griffins Review
Photo Credit: Kristin Ostrowski/Rockford IceHogs
The Grand Rapids Griffins finished their last month of the regular season strong with a 5-3 record.
An IceHogs Shutout
On April 1, 2026, Grand Rapids took down the Rockford IceHogs, 5-0, earning Michal Postava his third shutout of the season. Yet again, the third line of Eduards Tralmaks, Wojciech Stachowiak, and Jakub Rychlovsky played a quick and skilled game. In fact, Tralmaks and Stachowiak both had three-point nights.
Sweeping the Moose
The Griffins headed up North Easter weekend, April 3 and 4, for back-to-back afternoon romps with the Manitoba Moose. While there, Grand Rapids swept Manitoba, outscoring them 13-5.
On April 3rd, the Griffins downed the Moose 6-3. Four players had multi-point afternoons: Anton Johansson (0g, 2a), Michael Brandsegg-Nygard (1g, 1a), Wojciech Stachowiak (1g, 1a), and Amadeus Lombardi (1g, 1a).
The third line of Eduards Tralmaks, Jakub Rychlovsky, and Stachowiak had incredible chemistry and worked very well with the defense.
Grand Rapids had a bit of a rough second period, allowing three goals in under five minutes. The Griffins came alive in the third, shutting down most of the Moose’s attempts at entering Manitoba’s zone.
Grand Rapids kept the winning rolling with a massive 7-2 win over Manitoba, improving their record to 49-13-4-1.
Three players extended their point streaks: Wojciech Stachowiak (five games, 11 points), Eduards Tralmaks (five games, nine points), and Erik Gustafsson (four games, seven points). While Michael Brandsegg-Nygard has his third two-point game in a row. In all of those games, he scored one goal and one assist.
Michael Postava stopped 31 of 33 shots faced.
Back-to-Back Home Losses
Grand Rapids closed out the home portion of the regular season on April 10 and 11 with back-to-back losses against the Chicago Wolves, 4-1, and the Rockford IceHogs, 5-2.
Brandsegg-Nygard was the lone goal scorer in April 10th’s loss to the Wolves. His first period power play goal placed him on a four-game point streak with six points spread evenly between goals and assists.
Former Michigan State University goaltender Trey Augustine made his professional hockey debut, stopping 26 of 29 shots he faced.
On April 11, Rockford scored three unanswered goals, two of which were empty netters, in the third period to defeat Grand Rapids, 5-2.
Jesse Kiiskinen scored his first professional point, assisting Sheldon Dries’ third period goal
Closing it out on the Road
The Griffins hit the road to close out the regular season, winning two of their final three games.
With a 5-2 win over the Iowa Wild on April 15, the Griffins earned their 50th win of the season. This is the first time since the 2005-06 season that the Griffins have reached this milestone.
Tyler Angle and Amadeus Lombardi had two-point nights, assisting each other’s goals.
On April 17, a touchdown and two-point conversion was all it took for Grand Rapids to shut out the Milwaukee Admirals, 8-0. Postaava stopped all 24 shots he faced en route to his fourth shutout of the season. Three of those shutouts were against the Admirals.
Six players had multi-point nights: Antti Tuomisto (0g, 2a), Anton Johansson (1g, 1a), Eduards Tralmaks (1g, 1a), Wojciech Stachowiak (0g, 3a), Erik Gustafsson (1g, 2a), and Jakub Rychlovsky (2g, 0a).
Stachowiak’s three points placed him at over a point per game production with 15 points over nine games.
In their last game of the regular season, the Griffins fell to the Cleveland Monsters, 6-4, but retained their spot as second best in the league with a record of 51-15-4-1.
Dylan James scored his first two professional goals, and Jesse Kiiskinen scored his first AHL goal. Alex Doucet scored the Griffins fourth goal of the night with a beautiful snipe from the bottom of the faceoff circle.
Sebastian Cossa stopped 19 of 22 shots before Trey Augustine replaced him in net. Augustine went on to stop 10 of 12. This was a preplanned replacement to get Augustine reps before the playoffs start.
