Last night at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, the Griffins skated to a 2-1 win over the visiting Manitoba Moose. With the win, Grand Rapids improved to 3-1 on the young season. 21-year-old Amadeus Lombardi (whom the Detroit Red Wings drafted in the fourth round in 2022) supplied both goals, while Sebastian Cossa (the Red Wings’ 2021 first round draft choice) made 29 stops on 30 shots to backstop the victory.
With Marco Kasper up with the Red Wings (at least for the time being), Grand Rapids needs Lombardi to be among its primary offensive drivers, and he delivered just that Saturday night, providing his team with his first two-goal performance in pro hockey. Lombardi’s game is built around his speed and slick puck-handling, and both were on full display in last night’s victory. “Definitely felt good,” said Lombardi after the game. “It’s important that we got the win, and I’m happy about that, but it’s obviously nice to get the first goal of the season out of the way and then get the other one for my team and help us get the win. So it was a fun night.”
Meanwhile, Cossa was excellent between the pipes, though in conceding the one goal he snapped a personal home shutout streak that stretched all the way to 103:31, while the team shutout streak was all the way up to 163:52, in part thanks to Ville Husso’s shutout the game pervious. Through four games (an admittedly small sample), the Griffins’ 1.25 goals against per game is among the five best marks in the American Hockey League.
