AHL Playoffs: Heat (W5) vs. Grand Rapids Griffins (W4)

[Freeway]

It's time for the Calder Cup playoffs! The team without a home opens the post-season against...last year's Calder Cup winners, the Grand Rapids Griffins!

ABBOTSFORD (43-25-5-3) vs. GRAND RAPIDS (46-23-2-5)

The schedule:
Game 1 – Fri., Apr. 25 – Grand Rapids at Abbotsford, 10:00 ET
Game 2 – Sat., Apr. 26 – Grand Rapids at Abbotsford, 10:00 ET
Game 3 – Wed., Apr. 30 – Abbotsford at Grand Rapids, 7:00 ET
*Game 4 – Fri., May 2 – Abbotsford at Grand Rapids, 7:00 ET
*Game 5 –Sat., May 3 – Abbotsford at Grand Rapids, 7:00 ET

The Heat:
-Finished season 7-2-0-1
-Parent club, Calgary, missed playoffs
-Top goal-scorer: Ben Street (28)
-Top plus/minus: Corban Knight (+11)
-Top goalie: Joni Ortio (27-8-0, 2.33 GAA, .926 S%)
-First rounders: Morgan Klimchuk (2013), Emile Poirier (2013), Sven Baertschi (2011)

The Griffins:
-Finished season 5-5-0-0
-Parent club, Detroit, made the playoffs
-Top goal-scorer: Teemu Pulkkinen (31)
-Top plus/minus: Mitch Callahan (+23)
-Top goalie: Tom McCollum (24-12-4, 2.30 GAA, .922 S%)
-First rounders: McCollum (2008)

Head-to-Head:
Grand Rapids 5 @ Abbotsford 2 (Mar 1 2014) Final
Grand Rapids 4 @ Abbotsford 3 (Feb 28 2014) Final SO
Abbotsford 3 @ Grand Rapids 2 (Jan 18 2014) Final
Abbotsford 0 @ Grand Rapids 3 (Jan 17 2014) Final

Max Reinhart had 7 points against the Griffins. Sven Baertschi had 5.
Teemu Pulkkinen, Jordin Tootoo and Adam Almquist all had 4 points against the Heat.
Joey MacDonald was in net for both Griffins regulation wins.

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

Can you say goaltending duel?

This is going to be a fun one. The Heat are running on all cylinders right now. They're deeper than they've been all season and Emile Poirier has come right in and showed he belongs.

Detroit has taken many of the Griffins' best players. They'll have to find someone to mirror Pulkkinen this whole series (Knight? Olson?).

Friday can't come soon enough.

[Freeway]

Huge edge for the Heat: most of their best players were part of that run at the end of the year that Calgary went on.

[Roof-Daddy]

Didn't realize the first round is best of 5.

[Drury18]

Heat in 4!

[nik-]

Isn't this a bad matchup for us?

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

Originally Posted by nik-

Isn't this a bad matchup for us?

Under normal circumstances, yes. But most of their best players are with Detroit.

While McCollum is a really good goalie, he's no Petr Mrazek. He's actually human. The Heat are much much deeper than the Griffins are right now.

[saXon]

The Heat are stacked. I'd hope its a quick one. I'd have to agree, 4-1 series for the Heat.

[PeteMoss]

I think Mrazek is back with GR.

Having seen a ton of both Mrazek and McCollum in junior... Mrazek is the one to fear. McCollum was a bad 1st round pick - overrated playing on a junior team with an ultra defensive style with Drew Doughty on it.

[getbak]

Yes, Mrazek is back in Grand Rapids. He started Friday's game and was the backup on Saturday.

[devo22]

Luckily guys like Jurco and Sheahan are up with the Red Wings ... and the Jarnkrok trade didn't help the Griffins either, of course. While Pulkkinen, Emmerton and Callahan are pretty good, I'm more impressed by their blueline - Sproul, Ouellet, Almquist and Marchenko have all been impressive in their rookie/sophomore campaigns and they have some nice veteran leadership there with Paetsch and Evans. Plus they got Backman over from Sweden recently ... plus great goaltending obviously.

Gonna be a tough one for the Heat ... better make those two home games count. 3-1 Heat.

[Canada 02]

is Grand Rapids the defending champs?

[Vulcan]

The one game I saw, Almquist looked very good for the Griffins.

[GreenLantern]

So if Detroit gets bumped out, how many guys can come back down to the Griffins? Or can any?

The earliest Detroit could be out is April 26th, if the Bruins win 4 in a row.

After that it is the 28th or 30th. If this series goes the distance and the Bruins pull it out, very good chance that the Griffins would have access to those players for 2 or 3 games. (assuming that there are any they can bring in).

[T@T]

Originally Posted by saXon

The Heat are stacked. I'd hope its a quick one. I'd have to agree, 4-1 series for the Heat.

Isn't it a best of 5?

[Drury18]

The Griffins only scored one more goal then us during the regular season, however they allowed 28 less goals then us. The Griffins are very much like the Heat where they rely heavily on goaltending to win games. The Griffins top guys are at 59, 53 and 46 points on the year with the top guy having 31 goals and the guy below him with only 4 (and 49 assists).

Mzarek and Ortio aren't much different either. Both are odd ball goalies where nothing seems to phase them and yet they aren't robotic. We've seen Ortio punch a guy in the face in a scrum because he was all fired up (and claims to like doing it, it pumps him up) and I've seen Mzarek chirp a guy to mess with him during game.

If we are going to go into a goaltending battle, fully knowing Mzarek went all the way last year and a highly decorated goaltender out of the OHL, I still pick Ortio. He seems to know that he needs to put the team on his back most nights and he likes it. I imagine we are going to see some sort of new gear out of Joni that will be both entertaining and terrifying at the same time.

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

What are the chances we can get the "Kipper serving up a W" picture with Ortio's face on it? Is that blasphemy?

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Pierre "Monster" McGuire

What are the chances we can get the "Kipper serving up a W" picture with Ortio's face on it? Is that blasphemy?

Obviously it's not Heat Win though.

[Drury18]

Originally Posted by Pierre "Monster" McGuire

What are the chances we can get the "Kipper serving up a W" picture with Ortio's face on it? Is that blasphemy?

I think Joni needs his own graphic. He's not Kipper.

[bubbsy]

very curious on who gets into the lineup, especially after the 2 games that poirier had.