Despite the best start in the AHL’s 90-year history through 40 games (32-5-2-1, 67 points), the Grand Rapids Griffins lost 4-1 to the Cleveland Monsters on Wednesday at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids.
Eduards Tralmaks scored his career-high 16th goal and Sebastian Cossa made 39 saves for the Griffins, who have lost two in a row and dropped five of the last eight games.
“We have to have a talk,” Grand Rapids coach Dan Watson said. “We have to have a meeting. This is the third straight game and eight periods out of nine that we haven’t been good. Obviously, that’s a trend and we have to stop that right here, right now.
“The same thing happened last year around this very exact time. We had a first-place lead right before the All-Star game and we lost a couple of games to Colorado in a bad fashion. We’ll try and nip it when we can, turn the page and be ready for a tough Chicago team.”
N.Y. Islanders 5, (at) N.Y. Rangers 2: Ondrej Palat scored the opening goal and added an assist in his debut with the Islanders, who defeated their cross-town rival Rangers.
Simon Holmstrom had a goal and two assists, David Rittich made 14 saves, and the Islanders won their second straight game. Mathew Barzal, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Emil Heineman also scored.
Mika Zibanejad and Taylor Raddysh scored for the Rangers. Spencer Martin stopped 31 shots, but the Rangers lost for the fourth time in their last five games and are 2-8-1 since they won the Winter Classic in Florida on Jan. 2.
(At) Columbus 5, Philadelphia 3: Charlie Coyle had a goal and an assist and Columbus beat Philadelphia for its third straight win.
Kirill Marchenko, Eric Gudbranson, Sean Monahan and Mathieu Olivier also scored for the Blue Jackets to offset a hat trick by Philadelphia’s Travis Konecny.
Elvis Merzlikins stopped 24 shots for Columbus and Zach Werenski had two assists, giving him 35 points in his last 21 home games.
(At) Ottawa 5, Colorado 2: Tim Stutzle had a goal and an assist, Artem Zub added two assists and Ottawa defeated league-leading Colorado.
Nick Cousins, Ridly Greig, Claude Giroux and Brady Tkachuk also scored for Ottawa and James Reimer made 16 saves.
Parker Kelly and Valeri Nichushkin scored for the Avalanche, who have now lost three of their last four. Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 18 shots. The Avs will face the Wings Saturday in Detroit at 1 p.m.
New York – Washington Capitals forward Brandon Duhaime was fined $2,500 for unsportsmanlike conduct for poking Seattle’s Jacob Melanson while on the bench.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced the supplemental discipline Wednesday. The department, led by retired enforcer George Parros, recently took over control of all the league’s in-arena disciplinary decisions, some of which were previously handled by hockey operations.
Duhaime made contact with Melanson while the Kraken player was skating by with just over seven minutes left in the second period of the teams’ game Tuesday night. Melanson reached for his right arm and left the ice immediately but remained in the game, and no penalty was called on the play.
Duhaime started a fight with Melanson with just over a minute left in the Capitals’ 5-1 loss and got an extra minor penalty for roughing. Duhaime, 28, is a pending unrestricted free agent and could be dealt ahead of the March 6 deadline if Washington opts to sell.
The Capitals will face the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Montreal – The Montreal Canadiens fired goaltending coach Eric Raymond on Wednesday.
They made the move 53 games into the NHL season despite sitting in a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Goalies Jakub Dobes, Samuel Montembeault and Jacob Fowler have combined for a save percentage of .884 that ranks 28th among the league’s 32 teams.
Marco Marciano was promoted from the same job with the American Hockey League’s Laval Rocket to fill the role on an interim basis for the remainder of the season. Raymond had served in the job since 2021.
Montreal is the second team to make a goalie coach change this season. The New York Islanders fired Pierre Greco six games in and gave the job to Sergei Naumovs, who has an extensive history coaching starter Ilya Sorokin.
Since making the move, Sorokin and backup David Rittich have combined for the fourth-best save percentage in the NHL at .907 over the past 46 games. They were 25th at .880 before that.
Wednesday
▶ Cleveland 4, Grand Rapids 1
▶ NTDP U18 5, Youngstown 4
Thursday
▶ Washington at Red Wings, 7:30
Friday
▶ Michigan at Ohio State, 6:30
▶ Michigan State at Penn State, 6
▶ Nebraska at Omaha at Western Michigan, 7
▶ Michigan Tech at St. Thomas, 8:07
▶ Bemidgi State at Northern Michigan, 6:07
▶ Muskegon at NTDP U18, 7
Saturday
▶ Colorado at Red Wings, 1
▶ Michigan at Ohio State, 5
▶ Michigan State at Penn State, 1
▶ Nebraska at Omaha at Western Michigan, 6
▶ Michigan Tech at St. Thomas, 7:07
▶ Bemidgi State at Northern Michigan, 6:07
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