GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—The Rockford IceHogs were shut out 3-0 by the Grand Rapids Griffins on Friday night at Van Andel Arena. Grand Rapids goaltender Sebastian Cossa extended his franchise record unbeaten streak to 19 games with his second AHL shutout, and the Griffins stretched their franchise record, and AHL season-best, home point streak to 19 games.
The IceHogs were called for a bench minor not even a minute into the first period, and the Griffins went on an early power play. After Rockford netminder Drew Commesso got a piece of Matt Luff’s one-timer shot and sent it behind the net with his left pad, Carter Mazur angled the loose puck to the left circle where Jonatan Berggren snuck a wrister past Commesso’s blocker side, scoring the only goal of the frame to take an early 1-0 lead (1:03).
Grand Rapids tallied its second goal of the contest on the man advantage for the second time and extended its lead to 2-0. Rockford’s Ethan Del Mastro was charged with a hooking minor at 16:54, and the Griffins set up a Tic-Tac-Toe passing play where Amadeus Lombardi directed the puck to Joel L’Esperance on the red line who tapped the disc back to the left circle where Zach Aston-Reese netted a one-timer from the left circle (17:20).
Halfway through the third period, the Griffins extended their lead and sealed a 3-0 victory after Taro Hirose’s goal from the right circle snuck past Commesso (15:32).
Stifled on special teams, the IceHogs went 0-for-4 on the power play, while the Griffins went 2-for-5 on the man advantage.
Commesso stopped 29 of 32 Grand Rapids shots but was tagged with the loss, and Cossa recorded his second AHL shutout with 24 saves.
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