Griffins Hold AHL's Best Record at 43-9-3-1 Through 56 Games

Ninety points. Fifty-six games. One regulation loss since the season began in the fall.

The Grand Rapids Griffins entered their March 13 matchup against the Milwaukee Admirals carrying a 43-9-3-1 record, a ledger the team's own game notes describe as one of the most dominant starts in AHL history and one that placed them at or near franchise and league records for best starts through multiple checkpoints this season.

The foundation for that record was built early and relentlessly. By late December, Grand Rapids had pieced together a franchise-record-tying 15-game win streak running from Nov. 22 through Dec. 27, a run that also tied for the sixth-longest in the AHL's 90-year history. The streak ended in overtime on Dec. 31, but the Griffins barely paused. They extended a separate 19-game point streak from Nov. 22 through Jan. 7 at 18-0-1-0, the longest such run in franchise history, before that too ended on Jan. 9.

Through 35 games, Grand Rapids had tied the 2005-06 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, who went 29-3-2-1 with 61 points, for the best start in the AHL's 90-year history. The Griffins also reached 60 points three games faster than any team in the league's history. By Jan. 21, when they hosted the Admirals at Van Andel Arena for Game 37, the record stood at 30-3-2-1 with 63 points.

The offensive engine behind those numbers has been historic in its own right. Through the Jan. 21 game notes, Grand Rapids ranked first in the AHL with 3.64 goals per game and had outscored opponents 131-66 overall, including a 61-32 margin at home and a 70-34 edge on the road. The Griffins' largest scoring margin came in the third period, where they outscored opponents 52-24. Perhaps most striking: Grand Rapids was 22-0 when scoring the game's first goal.

The lead-scoring has been complemented by goaltender Sebastian Cossa, who before the Jan. 21 contest had become just the sixth netminder in franchise history to appear in 100 games. In a 3-0 win over Milwaukee at Panther Arena, Cossa stopped 26 shots for his fourth shutout of the season, the most by a Griffins goalie since Eddie Pasquale in 2016-17. That performance also gave Grand Rapids consecutive shutouts for the first time since Feb. 15-17, 2018.

In that same stretch, forward Michael Brandsegg-Nygard extended a point streak to four games with an assist, while William Wallinder provided a glimpse of the Griffins' offensive execution by beating Admirals netminder Matthew Murray with a wrist shot from the top of the circle to knot a game at 1-1 with 8:55 remaining in the first period. Andrej Becker earned the other assist on the play, with Brandsegg-Nygard credited for screening Murray's sightline. Despite the team's larger dominance, the Jan. 21 matchup itself was decided in overtime, with Milwaukee completing a 3-2 win when a Griffins player went down and the Admirals converted a 2-on-0 breakaway 58 seconds into the extra period, the shooter beating Cossa through the legs. Grand Rapids earned a standings point for taking the game to overtime, preserving a streak of just one regulation loss entering the new year.

The Admirals had entered that night having just snapped a nine-game losing streak.

Even with a brief mid-January scoring slump, collecting only 10 goals over five games compared to 17 in the previous five outings from Dec. 21 through Jan. 3, the Griffins' overall trajectory never bent. By March 13, that 43-9-3-1 record through 56 games stood as the clearest statement yet that this Grand Rapids team is operating on a different plane from the rest of the AHL.