Going to a game at the Allstate Arena in Chicago means that you will most likely be one of a handful of Griffins fans, surrounded by Chicago fans. Let me tell you, it's always a great time at games in Chicago, especially if you aren't a fan of the home team.
Here's the rundown, along with some things that are fun:
The Wolves had a kinda cool pyrotechnics show for their players to skate out to. Of course, lots of cheering and lots of booing when the Griffins skated out.
First Period: McCollum made some great saves and I was pretty impressed with his goaltending, maybe Mrazek is keeping him motivated to improve. I must admit though, when I found out it wasn't Mrazek, I was a little disappointed. It was much the same disappointment as when I found out Conklin would be in goal on my birthday last year, we won that one too. The Wolves' one and only power play of the game came when Mini Chicken Parm, Ferraro, got booted for interference. The PK went to work and shut it down. Grand Rapids really carried the play the first period and I was sitting by their bench, so not much was down by me. I took that as a great thing because down by me was Tom McCollum and the place where I wanted no hockey puck to end up, the back of the Griffins net. There was an ALMOST goal late in the first, would have made it 1-0 good guys, Joakim Andersson appeared to have scored but, turned out he kick it in and you can't do that if you want the goal to count. GR also had a PP in the first, nothing came of it and at that point it really seemed that goalie Matt Climie was keeping Chicago in the game. By the end of the first, GR had outshot the Wolves 15-5.
End 1st period: Nothing but a couple of goose eggs :)
Second Period: 50 seconds into the second frame, Chicago took a penalty and ten seconds later they paid for it. Nathan Paetsch fed Adam Almquist and Almquist took it from there, one timed it past the goalie and in after deflecting off a Chicago defender. Same story here, Griffins carried the play this period and Chicago didn't get a shot on goal for 10 minutes.
End Period: Good Guys 1 - Chicago 0
Third Period: The Griffins had a shot advantage of 26-9 going into the final frame and they were not going to let that stop them from adding to their lead. Four minutes and some change into the period, Andersson found Ferraro who shot the puck right into the goalie, Andersson went in for the rebound though and it paid off for him. 2-0 Griffins. Brendan Smith got checked in the corner, broke his stick and was disgusted with the fact that it happened. He got a new one and all went on from there. A mere two minutes after the Griffins drew blood the second time, they got a third on a beautiful play by Nyquist and Tatar (The Souse - Thanks
Kevin). Sousequist made it 3-0 Good Guys, and I got to gloat to the not so nice women beside us.
End Game: Griffins 3 - Chicago 0
Lets talk about my favorite players:
Nyquist: Great all night, looked like a true NHL player. Darn lockout!
Tatar: Man, am I impressed with him. That guy is a serious difference maker out there! All night I was looking at my dad every time there was a great play and then I realized that most times Tatar was right in the middle of it!
Mrazek: He was charting face-offs all night... :(
Smith: He played very well. Made good defensive choices and didn't try to stretch himself too far. He was really disgusted with his broken stick.
- Near the end of the second period, the GR equipment manager said after the game he'd give me a stick and started pointing out sticks. I must have nodded extra vigorously when he pointed to Smith because he decided on that one. The thing is though, it broke in the third period. He looked at me all sad and mouthed "it's broken, still want it?" and of course I said yes. He taped the two pieces together and tossed them over the glass. Broken B. Smith stick now in my possession? YEAH!!!
- The woman sitting next to us said she wouldn't want the Brendan Smith stick as her kids were so jealous. My dad goes, that's a Brendan Smith stick, without the lockout, he'd be an NHLer. She goes "pfft, I still don't want it." My thought: Your loss, and you're dumb!
- B.Smith and Nyquist both smiled at me... No pictures of either one but, it happened I swear :)
- The equipment manager obviously felt bad about the fact that the stick he promised me was broken because the next thing I knew, Souse's stick is coming over the glass to me. I could not stop smiling and the kids next to us were jealous again. Ferraro had thrown them a puck but, a puck is not the same as two, TWO(!), game used sticks! My mom looked at them and, being her adorable self, said "You don't want that, your mom said so..."
- After the game, Chicago fan told me to go back to Grand Rapids... The thing is though is that I'm not from Grand Rapids, I live here. Whoops! I guess I just know who the better team is.
