(griffinshockey.com) – Sparked by Andy Miele’s prolific five-point performance, the Grand Rapids Griffins set season highs for goals, margin of victory and power play goals in a dominant 7-1 win over the Toronto Marlies on Friday at Van Andel Arena.
Jared Coreau remains perfect on the season at 5-0 after a 22-save effort that helped the Griffins improve to 4-1-1-0 in their last six games and 10-4-2-0 in their 16 outings since Nov. 12.
The Griffins (13-10-3-0) will look to continue their recent run with a pair of road games, beginning with a Saturday visit to Cleveland to face the Lake Erie Monsters at 7 p.m.
Going hard to the net paid off twice for the Griffins in the opening period. During a power play midway through the frame, Mitch Callahan pounced on a rebound to the left of Toronto goalie Antoine Bibeau and backhanded a pass through the crease to Miele, who threw the puck into a gaping net at 10:40.
Kevin Porter increased the advantage at 14:38, finding the rebound of Marek Tvrdon’s shot at the right post and whipping a shot past Bibeau.
The Griffins’ power play unit struck for a second time 3:15 into the middle period, as Teemu Pulkkinen took a pass from Nathan Paetsch in the left circle and teed up a blast that slipped through Callahan’s screen and the near post to make it 3-0. Pulkkinen added his second during a 4-on-4 at the 11:01 mark, potting a point-blank shot after Miele’s feed found him alone in front of Bibeau.
Moments after a Toronto timeout, Landon Ferraro finished off a tic-tac-toe play by beating Bibeau from the right post off passes from Anthony Mantha and Miele. With his third helper, Miele tied the Griffins’ record for assists in a single period, accomplished most recently by Tomas Tatar on Nov. 27, 2010 at Chicago.
Coreau lost his shutout bid 50 seconds before intermission, as Sam Carrick stole the puck behind the Griffins’ net and quickly sent it out front to Connor Brown for a goal that cut Grand Rapids’ lead to 5-1.
It took just 47 seconds of the third for the Griffins to push their cushion back to five. Callahan’s second whack at the puck from the doorstep gave Grand Rapids its third power play goal of the game and Miele his fourth assist – one short of the franchise single-game record – and fifth point. Captain Jeff Hoggan was the last Griffin to notch a five-point night (1-4—5), on Jan. 19, 2013 at Rockford.
Mantha scored the nightcap for the Griffins at the 10:36 mark, a power play goal that gave Grand Rapids four goals in five opportunities on the night. The Griffins had gone four straight games without a power play goal and were 3-for-25 over their last eight contests entering tonight.
Bibeau went the distance between the pipes for Toronto (10-14-3-0), finishing with 22 saves.
