GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Grand Rapids Griffins finished their regular season on a high note, as Carter Mazur’s overtime-winner pushed them past the Milwaukee Admirals in a 2-1 overtime win at Van Andel Arena on Sunday. 
The Griffins’ overtime win secured a second-place finish in the Central Division for Grand Rapids along with home-ice advantage in its upcoming Calder Cup Playoffs series against the third-place IceHogs. Game 1 of the best-of-five division semifinals will take place at the BMO Center on Saturday, April 27 before the series shifts to Van Andel Arena for Games 2 and 3 on Wednesday, May 1 and Friday, May 3. For the complete series schedule and ticket information, click here.
Sebastian Cossa holds the third-most wins by a rookie goaltender with 22, which is the most since Petr Mrazek’s 23 wins in 2012-13. Mazur’s tally tied him for 14th place for goals by a rookie with 17.
Following a scoreless first period, a scramble ensued on the doorstep after a backhanded shot reached the net, which allowed Alex Campbell to net a power-play goal for the Admirals at 10:57 in the middle frame.
The Griffins tallied a man-advantage goal of their own in the third period, as Joel L’Esperance rocketed the puck past Troy Grosenick from the left circle to tie the game with 12:16 remaining.
With the game still deadlocked at one, Grand Rapids and Milwaukee entered overtime. Less than a minute into the frame, Cossa denied the Admirals on a 2-on-1 breakaway at 47 seconds. Following the save, Austin Czarnik sent a bullet to the net, which was deflected behind Grosenick by Mazur with 2:50 remaining to seal a 2-1 overtime victory against Milwaukee.
Notes
– Grand Rapids finished its eight-game series against Milwaukee with a 4-3-1-0 record.
– The Griffins finished with a regular season attendance of 275,078 over 36 games at Van Andel Arena, for an average of 7,641 fans, which, is the team’s largest since the 2018-19 campaign. Grand Rapids ranked seventh out of 32 AHL teams in attendance this season. Excluding the 2020-21 season when capacity was severely restricted due to COVID, the Griffins have averaged more than 7,000 fans for 15 consecutive seasons.
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