Seger's Third Straight Goal Powers Griffins Past Monsters, 3-1

Gabriel Seger has made a habit of finding the back of the net, and at Rocket Arena on March 7 he did it again in the most decisive fashion possible. The Grand Rapids Griffins forward walked in across the near side, carried the puck to the goal mouth and tucked it past Ivan Fedotov's glove on his backhand with 8:12 left in the first period, a goal that stood as the game-winner in a 3-1 win over the Cleveland Monsters.

The victory pushed Grand Rapids to a 43-9-3-1 record and 90 points, while also marking the franchise's 20th road win of the season.

Grand Rapids needed just 54 seconds to draw first blood. William Lagesson fed the puck down low to Tyler Angle, who knocked his rebound opportunity past Fedotov on the doorstep, putting the Griffins up 1-0 before most of the Rocket Arena crowd had settled in. Seger's backhand conversion later in the period pushed the lead to two.

Cleveland answered early in the second when Roman Ahcan snapped one inside the left goal post from the right circle with 16:58 on the clock to cut the deficit to 2-1. The Monsters applied pressure but couldn't find the equalizer. Angle had the Griffins' best chance in the period, skating into the right circle and sending a wrister toward Fedotov, who gloved it at the 4:08 mark.

Carter Mazur put the game away in the third. With 11:12 left, he let a wrist shot fly into the top-left corner from the right circle, restoring the two-goal cushion and effectively closing the door. Cleveland pulled Fedotov with 4:04 remaining, but Grand Rapids killed the entire man-advantage to seal the 3-1 result, going 2-for-2 on its league-leading penalty kill on the night.

The situational numbers behind this Griffins team tell the story of a dominant season. Grand Rapids improved to 20-0 when leading after the first period and 32-1 when scoring first. The club leads the AHL with 3.51 goals per game and has outscored opponents 193-110 overall, with its largest margin coming in the third period at 77-35.

The evening carried added significance beyond the standings. Dan Watson coached his 200th game as the Griffins' head coach, and Nicklas Andrews, a Canton, Michigan native and former Michigan State Spartan, made his AHL debut. Ian Mitchell also played in his 200th AHL game, according to the team.

Grand Rapids is set to face Milwaukee on Friday, March 13.