Ahead of a pivotal Sunday clash, Milwaukee and Grand Rapids kept their impressive streaks alive on Saturday.
Two of the hottest clubs in the AHL, on a collision course for Sunday, kept incredible streaks alive on Saturday.
Cal O’Reilly scored two third-period goals, including the game-winner with 2:24 to play, to lift the Admirals to a 5-4 win over the Chicago Wolves and give them their 19th consecutive victory last night.
O’Reilly finished the night with three points and surpassed Darren Haydar as the team’s all-time leading AHL scorer with 277 points (64g-213a), which includes 24 this season (8g-16a).
Milwaukee’s win streak runs to 19 games, which is now nine shy of the AHL’s record of 28 set by the Norfolk Admirals back in 2011-12 and pushes their home winning streak to 15 games which is a team record. The Ads haven’t lost on Panther Arena ice since December 6th.
Troy Grosenick stopped 27 shots in net for Milwaukee and that pushes his personal winning streak to 14 games, tying Yaroslav Askarov for the team record for consecutive wins. Askarov won his 14th straight on Thursday afternoon against the Wolves.
In addition to O’Reilly, Zach L’Heureux posted a three-point night scoring a goal and adding assists on both of O’Reilly’s tallies. Juuso Parssinen (2a) and Joakim Kemell (1g-1a) also added multi-point efforts for the Ads and Cody Hodgson found the back of the net for the second consecutive game.
Not to be outdone, Jonatan Berggren and Elmer Soderblom combined for two goals in 13 seconds during the second period, which helped push the Grand Rapids Griffins' point streak to 14 games with a 4-1 victory over the Texas Stars at Van Andel Arena on Saturday.
Grand Rapids last reached a 14-game point streak (10-0-2-2) during a 15-game run from Nov. 18-Dec. 26, 2015 (15-0-0-0). It has been roughly eight years since the Griffins have sported a home contest point streak (6-0-2-1) of nine games, as it last occurred when the team Cearned a point in 15 consecutive outings at Van Andel Arena from Nov. 11, 2015-Jan. 17, 2016 (14-0-1-0). Since Dec. 31, Berggren has been above a point per game with 21 points (10-11--21) in 19 contests.
Simon Edvinsson collected a tally, which added to the defender's team-leading points by a defenseman with 26 (7-19--26). In his 400th contest with Grand Rapids, Dominik Shine picked up a goal. Michael Hutchinson stretched his point streak to six outings (4-0-2) after he denied the Stars more than one tally with a .957 save percentage (22-of-23).
The Admirals and Griffins square off in a highly anticipated showdown later this afternoon.
*Statistics courtesy of the Admirals and Griffins