Teemu Pulkkinen’s hat trick powers Griffins to Game 1 win over IceHogs
By Pat Evans –
GRAND RAPIDS – Despite not playing their best game, the Grand Rapids Griffins beat the Rockford IceHogs, 5-3, thanks to a hat trick from Teemu Pulkkinen in Game 1 of the American Hockey League Western Conference Semifinals Wednesday night at Van Andel Arena.
“I didn’t think we played our best and Rockford had something to do with that,” Griffins head coach Jeff Blashill said. “We had moments of good tonight, but not complete enough to have the long-term success we want to have in this series, so we’ll have to be better.”
Grand Rapids jumped out to a lead when forward Anthony Mantha intercepted an attempt to clear the puck from the Rockford zone and zipped the puck to forward Kevin Porter to the who dangled the puck and slid it past IceHog goalie Michael Leighton.
The IceHogs retaliated 8:41 into the second period when they intercepted a Griffins pass in front of goalie Tom McCollum. Rockford forward Garret Ross, a Dearborn Heights native, twirled around and threw it to Mark McNeil who tossed the puck in the open net.
Seeking to generate some scoring, Blashill switched up the lines and put Pulkkinen with forwards Andy Miele and Tyler Bertuzzi. The move paid off.
Bertuzzi found Pulkkinen with a pass to send him rushing towards the Rockford end halfway through the second period, when Pulkkinen sliced his way through two IceHogs and beat the Leighton 13:05 into the second period.
A few minutes later, Bertuzzi passed the puck from behind the net to Pulkkinen who fired it into the net to give the Griffins a 3-1 lead.
His three goals give him nine in six playoff games this season. The goals also made him the all-time playoff goal scorer in Griffins history with 17. Pulkkinen also is tied for third in playoff points with 25.
Both Bertuzzi and Miele were awarded with assists on the goals. Miele joked he hasn’t seen a playoff goal streak like Pulkkinen’s besides Washington Capital Alexander Ovechkin.
“Just give him the puck and let him do the rest,” said Miele, who led the Griffins in points during the regular season. “He scores from every where. It looks harder than what it is. It’s pretty simple when you have a guy like that.”
At 3:16 into the third period, Rockford forward Stephen Johns sniped the top glove-side corner of the net with McCollum fully screened to bring the IceHogs within a goal.
Rockford struck again 9:20 into the period when Johns fired another shot toward the goal and Ross tipped it into the corner of the net to tie it up.
With lines switched up again, Grand Rapids forward Tomas Nosek found Pulkkinen in front of the net as he slipped the puck past Leighton for the third time of the game.
None of Pulkkinen’s goals came via a slapshot, his normal go-to play.
“Sometimes you don’t have the time for slapshots,” he said. “Today I had three shots and three goals. That’s pretty good.
“I try to play the same way I did the whole season, nothing special, just shoot it and sometimes it has to go in. That’s how it goes.”
Forward Louis-Marc Aubry added an empty-netter near the end of the game for the final score.
Blashill said the ability for Pulkkinen to score even when he, and the team, aren’t at their best shows how the team reached 100 points this season.
“Teemu is funny. He’s one of those guys who, even when he doesn’t have his best game, and I don’t think he had his best game tonight, he can score goals,” Blashill said. “He just can flat-out score goals. Tonight was one of those nights I don’t think we played our best, but we found a way to outscore our opponent.”
McCollum also was at his best despite giving up three goals, according to Blashill.
He made 34 saves, including several spectacular sequences.
“He was at times our best player,” he said. “He made big saves at big moments. I thought he looked the way he looks when he’s elite, which was most of the season.”
McCollum will start Game 2 Friday.
The Griffins acknowledged they can play better, and said they’ll do their best to do so Friday. Still, they’ll take the 1-0 series lead.
“They played good,” Pulkkinen said. “We kind of stole the win from them. That’s hockey: who scores more goals wins the game, and we scored five, so we won the game.”
Pulkkinen notes
Between the second and third period of Sunday’s series-clinching victory against the Toronto Marlies, Detroit Red Wings General Manager Ken Holland and head coach Mike Babcock discussed Teemu Pulkkinen’s struggles to find the net at the NHL level.
Griffins head coach Jeff Blashill acknowledged the parts of Pulkkinen’s games he needs to work on following his hat trick during Wednesday’s Game 1 victory against Rockford.
“The one thing we’ve talked lots about is making sure he gets a little more structure in his game. I think he gets away with some things at this level that you don’t get at the next level and one of those is earning the coach’s trust and when you’re random a little bit in the way you play, you don’t earn the coaches trust and you don’t get out there as much.
“He’s earned my trust overtime because he can outscore, sometimes, his mistakes down here but you’ll never outscore your mistakes at the next level. He’s made huge strides in that because of two things: He’s an extremely completive person who works extremely hard and has a special ability and when you do those things, you’ll find long term success.
“I think it has to do with the level. I wouldn’t say I accept [his mistakes], but he does have the ability to score, so you accept more than if he wasn’t scoring. Most nights he has more positives than negatives. Part of my job is to make sure he knows he can’t do those things, and he’s gotten way better. It’s a process and the next time he goes up, he’ll be even better.”
Pulkkinen, meanwhile, just wants to win games.
“Always nice to score goals. Big thing is we won the game,” he said. “I’m here to win games and my goal is to win the Calder Cup, so it doesn’t matter who sores the goals, we won the game.”