Action shot of a game between the Grand Rapids Griffins and the San Diego Gulls at Van Andel Arena on Oct. 15, 2022 (Nicolas Carrillo)

After the long offseason, the Grand Rapids Griffins began their 2022-23 season over the weekend, and were able to treat the home faithful to a victory when taking on the San Diego Gulls, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks.

A wild second period sent Grand Rapids spinning on opening night on Friday. The Gulls struck first in the opening period with a goal from Hunter Drew, before Benoit-Olivier Groulx extended their lead to two early on in the second period.

The Griffins were able to break through on a 5-on-3 power play minutes into the middle frame, with Matt Luff scoring the team’s first goal of the season. However, they were unable to capitalize on a major penalty and San Diego took that momentum, coming back with goals from Chase De Leo and Justin Kirkland. Late in the frame, Grand Rapids was able to cut into the lead once again, with Joel L’Esperance hammering home a one-timer to make it 5-2.

L'Esperance scored 49 points in 62 games for the Texas Stars last season (Nicolas Carrillo)

Yet, De Leo added his second of the game in the final frame, sealing the Gulls’ 6-2 win.

There were some positives on the Griffins’ end of their home opener. Former NHLer Austin Czarnik picked up assists on both of Grand Rapids’ goals, with Simon Edvinsson earning his first point in North American pro hockey, assisting on Luff’s goal in the first period.

Jussi Olkinuora gave up six goals on 28 shots in his Griffins debut.

To add insult to injury, Jonatan Berggren’s night ended prematurely after taking a hard hit in the second period. Head coach Ben Simon said last season’s leading scorer is going to be evaluated on Monday, before determining when he will be available to return to the lineup by the team’s next game on Wednesday.

The second game of the weekend started off a lot more helter-skelter than the first. Just over a minute into the contest, Luff knocked in his second of the weekend to give the Griffins the lead. They went to the power play seconds later, and Czarnik made the Gulls pay with his first goal as a Griffin. Six goals ended up being scored in the opening 20 minutes, with Czarnik scoring a shorthanded goal as well.

The hits kept on coming in the second stanza, with the teams trading tallies early on in the frame. Czarnik ended up completing his hat trick, while L’Esperance and Kirill Tyutyayev also found the back of the net. However, the Gulls also added a pair of goals in the period, and Grand Rapids carried a 7-4 lead into the third period.

Czarnik spent time with both the New York Islanders and Seattle Kraken during the 2021-22 season (Nicolas Carrillo)

In the final 20 minutes, the Gulls were able to score to bring the deficit to just two, but Edvinsson sealed the game with his first goal in GR, as the Griffins hung on for an 8-5 win.

Along with Czarnik having a big night, Cross Hanas and Luff each had a goal and an assist. Edvinsson ended up with three points, while Victor Brattstrom picked up the win in net. Despite giving up five goals, the Swedish goaltender made some big stops in the third period on his way to a 33-save performance.

Brattstrom posted an 11-16-4 record during the 2021-22 season, his first in Grand Rapids (Nicolas Carrillo)

While the start of the season was not ideal for the Griffins, Simon liked how his team responded with a big offensive performance in the win.

“It’s good for confidence. We knew we had some good pieces here offensively, so it was good to see that.”

Simon did acknowledge that the team cannot continue to allow an average of 5.5 goals per game, stating that the team’s short time together prior to opening night might be one of the reasons for the shaky start.

Grand Rapids’ power play went 3-for-7 on Saturday after going just 1-for-5 on Friday. Czarnik noted that shooting the puck more helped in the second game of the season.

“We buried our opportunities, and that’s what you need to do on the power play. We were moving it well, we kind of knew already where each other was going to be.”

Making the jump to pro hockey is not as easy as some players might make it out to be, but for winger Cross Hanas, he was able to lay off some of that pressure by scoring his first career goal on Saturday night.

“I’ve just been working really hard the past few seasons for this,” Cross stated after the second game of the season. “It feels great to get the first one off my chest.”

The Detroit Red Wings’ second-round pick from 2020 also mentioned that earning a spot in the Griffins’ lineup, instead of getting sent back to junior hockey with the Portland Winterhawks, was an accomplishment for him.

Hanas also spent some time with the Lincoln Stars of the United States Hockey League on his way to Grand Rapids (Nicolas Carrillo)

During his four seasons in the Western Hockey League, Hanas totaled 161 points in 196 regular season games, all with the Winterhawks. A lot of that came in his last season in Portland in 2021-22, where he led the team with 86 points, helping the team to the second round of the playoffs. Hanas knows that the move to the professional ranks was not going to be effortless.

“You got to make your decisions quick. You have to keep your head on a swivel...there’s a lot of bigger guys out there. It was a little weird off the start, kind of being one of the older guys on the team [in juniors] last year.”

Hanas said that the big club gave him some words of encouragement after a solid training camp.

“They said they kind of expect a lot out of me my first year here. Hopefully, I can keep pushing for that...and the team keeps winning.”

The Griffins have one more game at home before wrapping up October on the road. They are going to take on a familiar foe in the Milwaukee Admirals. The Ads and Griffs have been going at it since the Griffins’ inaugural season in the old International Hockey League back in 1996.

The Admirals have only played one game thus far, starting their 2022-23 campaign on the road against the Chicago Wolves, beating their Central Division rivals on the night the Wolves raised their 2022 Calder Cup banner.

Last season, Grand Rapids went 5-6-1 against Milwaukee, dropping the last three meetings.

Check out more Grand Rapids Griffins’ articles on MLive

UPCOMING SCHEDULE (Home games in BOLD)

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