Griffins achieve historic 6-0 start! Prospect Danielson nets shootout winner, Postava shines as Red Wings' future fuels team's unprecedented success.
The Detroit Red Wings earned their second straight win over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night, starting off their upcoming road trip in style. However, much more historic news came out of the franchise that some may not even realize.
Their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, beat the Iowa Wild 4-3 with the shootout victory being their sixth straight to open up the season. This is the first time in Griffins history that they have ever started 6-0 with Tuesday's win being led by a pair of familiar faces for Red Wings fans.
In just his second game of the season, Nate Danielson scored his first goal and the shootout-winner to help lift his team in a tough spot and to an historic victory. Another forward that was impactful in the win was Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, who was sent to the AHL a few days ago and made his presence felt early with four shots on net with one going off the crossbar.
In between the pipes, Michal Postava was once again sensational, making 37 saves while also carrying the team with three shootout stops. The win improved the Czech goaltenders numbers to an undefeated 3-0-0 with a 2.29 goals against average and a .934 save percentage.
The game was a battle from the beginning as the Wild opened the scoring midway through the first period when Gerry Mayhew capitalized on a 5-on-3 advantage, giving Iowa a 1-0 lead. The Griffins responded early in the second period, as forward Tyler Angle set up Alex Doucet for the equalizer.
Later in the frame, Jacob Truscott forced a turnover and sent the puck toward the net, where Nate Danielson tipped it in to give Grand Rapids a 2-1 edge. The assist on the play was Truscott's first point as a pro and it came in timely fashion. However, Iowa tied the game before the intermission when Liam Öhgren’s long-range wrister found its way through traffic and past goaltender Postava.
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In the third period, Amadeus Lombardi set up John Leonard, who slipped the puck under Samuel Hlavaj’s glove to restore the Griffins’ lead with under nine minutes to play. The Wild pulled their goalie late, and Mayhew struck again with 27 seconds remaining to force overtime. Despite Iowa’s slight edge in shots during the extra frame, neither team scored which led to Danielson's winner and Postava's three straight stops.
After a perfect start, Leonard leads the Griffins in points with his goal on Tuesday marking as his sixth goals over his last four games, bringing his season total with two assists to eight points. Behind him is the injured Carter Mazur, who is tied with Amadeus Lombardi with six points each while new Grand Rapids captain Dominik Shine is leading by example with three goals and two assists for five points.
The Griffins will look to continue their legendary start to the season by adding another win when taking on the Rockford IceHogs this Saturday. Listen to live coverage of all Griffins games on WOOD 106.9 FM & 1300 AM, or stream the action on AHLTV via FloHockey.
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