Grand Rapids and Manitoba square off at Van Andel Arena tonight in Game 4 of what has been a hard-fought defensive struggle of a Central Division semifinal series (7 ET, 
).
The Griffins, who are looking to celebrate a series win on home ice for the first time since the 2017 Calder Cup Finals, have a 2-1 series lead despite their second-ranked offense being limited to six goals through the first three games.
That’s because their league-leading defense – backed by goaltender Michal Postava (2-1, 1.01, .957) – has allowed only three goals, and only one of those has come at five-on-five.
Griffins defenseman Erik Gustafsson, who had a goal and an assist in Game 3 on Wednesday, is a veteran of nine NHL seasons, including a trip to the Stanley Cup Final with Montreal in 2021.
“He’s a special kid,” Gustafsson said of Postava. “He’s a great goalie. He makes it so much easier for us to play in front of him.”
“Everyone’s got full trust and confidence in him,” head coach Dan Watson said. “Down the stretch he was seeing the puck well, extremely confident, and it’s followed right into these playoffs.
“We have two guys (Postava and Sebastian Cossa) we can go to at any time, and Michal was the guy we went to first. We’ll continue to throw him in the net… It’s an easy decision right now.”
Manitoba is facing elimination for the second series in a row. The Moose dropped Game 1 to Milwaukee in the first round before coming back to win the last two.
“We’ve been in this spot before where we had to win two games,” said captain Mason Shaw, who has scored twice in the series against Grand Rapids. “You use those experiences to lean on. But we haven’t made things easy on ourselves all year. So why would we not go to five games to try to beat these guys?”
Manitoba has also gotten exceptional goaltending in the series, with Domenic DiVincentiis (3-2, 1.43, .955) stopping 99 of 104 shots.
“I have a lot of belief in our group,” Shaw added. “Our backs are against the wall here so we’re going to give them everything we’ve got.”
The Springfield Thunderbirds rewrote the AHL record books last night with their dramatic 1-0 overtime victory over the Providence Bruins.
The win completed what statistically stands as the largest upset in Calder Cup Playoff history, as the Thunderbirds eliminated a Providence team that had finished 38 points ahead of them in the regular-season standings. Dillon Dube scored the clinching goal 4:01 into overtime of Game 4.
Providence entered the final weekend of the regular season one victory away from securing the best regular-season record in the league’s 90-year history. Instead, they lost both ends of a home-and-home with Utica, and then dropped three of four to Springfield to see their season end well short of their Calder Cup aspirations.
“We’ve been talking about this process for a long time, playing the game the right way,” said Thunderbirds head coach Steve Ott. “The guys have been so bought in for so long right now and we know we have a really good team.”
Georgi Romanov made 37 saves in Game 4 and stopped 123 of 129 shots in the series (1.47, .953), outdueling AHL MVP Michael DiPietro (1.96, .931).
When Ott stepped behind the Springfield bench for the first time on Jan. 23, his team was last in the Atlantic Division. They finished the regular season 19-13-2-0 under his guidance and have now upset Charlotte and Springfield to reach the division finals, where they will take on Wilkes-Barre/Scranton beginning Tuesday.
