Griffins whitewash Marlies in opener

 

7
0
Game 1

Picking up where they left off last round, the Grand Rapids Griffins stormed into Ricoh Coliseum on Friday night and dismantled the Toronto Marlies, 7-0, in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series.

After defeating Houston by the same score in last Saturday’s series-clinching Game 5, the Griffins have outscored their opponents by a 14-0 count over their last six periods of play.

Tomas Tatar notched two goals and an assist for Grand Rapids, his second consecutive three-point effort. Chad Billins added a goal and two assists, Francis Pare tallied three assists and Luke Glendening chipped in a goal and an assist.

Petr Mrazek (4-2) made 25 saves for his second consecutive shutout.

Toronto, which had been off since completing a first-round sweep of Rochester nine days ago, was outshot 38-25 in the game. Drew MacIntyre allowed six goals on 28 shots before yielding to Garret Sparks, who stopped nine of 10 shots in relief.

The teams get right back at it on Saturday, with Game 2 set for 3 p.m. ET.