📝 by Patrick Williams
Alex Nedeljkovic really needed that one.
So did the Grand Rapids Griffins.
After a difficult run with the Detroit Red Wings this season, Nedeljkovic came to Grand Rapids on a conditioning assignment this week and took the Griffins to a 3-1 win against Cleveland on Wednesday night.
Nedeljkovic, who helped lead the Charlotte Checkers to the 2019 Calder Cup, handled 26 of 27 shots from the Monsters to end the Griffins’ three-game losing streak. The victory came at a particularly needed time for the Griffins, who have a visit from the Central Division-leading Texas Stars staring them down tonight.
A month-long slump has left Grand Rapids holding a 12-17-1-0 mark, five points out of a playoff spot.
Nedeljkovic had been limited to only nine games with the Red Wings this season, a situation compounded by Magnus Hellberg’s November acquisition and subsequent emergence in Detroit to work alongside Ville Husso. Nedeljkovic’s last National Hockey League action came Dec. 8, and he has struggled with a 4.09 goals-against average and an .880 save percentage in nine appearances overall.
With the Red Wings fighting to stay in Stanley Cup Playoff contention, they have opted to go with a Husso-Hellberg tandem for now while Nedeljkovic works on his game in Grand Rapids.
It has been a difficult period for Nedeljkovic, who was a finalist for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie with Carolina in 2020-21 before appearing in 59 games for Detroit in 2021-22. Before that, he won the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the AHL’s top goaltender during Charlotte’s 2018-19 championship season.
“It felt great,” said Nedeljkovic of Wednesday’s start. “That was the idea, I think, in this whole situation, getting some game action, feeling the puck and game situations. It had been a while, so I was looking forward to it and put together a good game.”
Nedeljkovic even carried a shutout into the final five minutes of the game period before Cleveland’s Owen Sillinger broke loose in the slot and put a picture-perfect shot over the netminder’s left shoulder.
With the Griffins in action tonight and tomorrow, followed by a stretch of five games in eight days starting Jan. 11, the schedule lines up perfectly to give Nedeljkovic a lot of much-needed work.
“[I am] just looking forward to getting some games now and finding my game again,” he said. “Obviously it’s been a rough start to the season up top, so it’s nice to get a game like this under my belt.”
Nedeljkovic, who turns 27 on Saturday, is just the latest NHL’er trying to regain his footing for head coach Ben Simon’s Grand Rapids club. Alex Chiasson joined the team in November, Hellberg had a conditioning stint in December, and Jakub Vrana joined the Griffins last week after returning to available status after having entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program in October.
“Whatever the circumstance is,” Simon said, “we’re going to welcome them with open arms. We’re going to try and challenge each other as a group, as individuals, and try and get a little bit better every day.
“Each player’s different. Each assignment is different. I think that we approach it with the same general mindset, but you tweak your tone. You’ve got to get to know these guys, where they’re at in their careers, just in their lives in general and try as best you can to help them succeed in the time that they’re here.”
Nedeljkovic has leaned on his wife and parents during this season’s difficulties and is eager to prove that he still has a long-term place in Detroit, where he is signed through this season.
“I know I can do it,” Nedeljkovic said. “I’ve shown I can play at a high level here and in the NHL so it’s just about being myself, having a clear mind, and just having fun. Hopefully I can build on this and build some consistency going forward.
QUICK SHIFTS
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms will have a new look in net for their trip into Toronto to face the Marlies in the AHLTV Free Game of the Week on Saturday (4 p.m. ET).
Felix Sandstrom joined the club on a conditioning assignment from the Philadelphia Flyers in advance of a challenging weekend that begins tonight in Rochester. The 25-year-old Sandstrom has appeared in nine contests for the Flyers this season, but just one in the last six weeks. In 44 games last season for Lehigh Valley, Sandstrom went 16-18-5 with a 2.89 GAA, a .902 save percentage and two shutouts.
Samuel Ersson has played well for the Flyers since his Dec. 21 recall, so when Carter Hart returned from an upper-body injury this week, it left one goaltender too many in Philadelphia. Ersson had made 18 appearances for the Phantoms before the promotion, going 9-8-1 with a 2.72 GAA and a .910 save percentage.
🏒 AHL talent put on one final show to wrap up the IIHF World Junior Championship this week.
Manitoba Moose rookie forward Chaz Lucius capped off a hat trick with the overtime winner to give the United States the bronze medal with an 8-7 victory over Sweden on Thursday afternoon. Lucius finished with seven points (five goals, two assists) in seven contests in the tournament. Rochester Americans forward Isak Rosen had two assists in the loss for Sweden, and finished with six points in seven games.
Rosen’s Rochester teammate, forward Jiri Kulich, tied for second in the tournament with seven goals — including the OT winner in the semifinals — to help Czechia secure a silver medal, and the Cleveland Monsters’ David Jiricek, a force on the Czech blue line, was named the tournament’s top defender, just days after earning AHL Rookie of the Month honors for December.
Gold medal winner Canada featured four players with brief AHL experience already: Shane Wright (Coachella Valley) and Brandt Clarke (Ontario), who had stints earlier this season; and Olen Zellweger (San Diego) and Joshua Roy (Laval), who made their pro debuts during the 2022 Calder Cup Playoffs.
🏒 The Utica Comets kept the lights on while rookie defenseman Simon Nemec was away at the World Juniors.
Nemec, 18, captained Slovakia and finished second in team scoring with five points (one goal, four assists) in five games, including three helpers in an upset win over Team USA in group play. The second overall pick in last year’s NHL Draft, Nemec has handled himself well in Utica, settling into a regular role for head coach Kevin Dineen.
The Comets were 4-0-2-0 without Nemec in the lineup and bring an eight-game point streak overall into a three-game weekend, beginning tonight against Hartford.
🏒 Calvin Pickard returned in a big way for the Bakersfield Condors on Wednesday night, making 46 saves in a 3-2 victory over Ontario. It was his first appearance since being injured during a Nov. 15 game, and his return comes at an especially opportune time for the Condors, who have three road games against division powers Calgary and Coachella Valley next on their slate.
“It feels good to play again,” Pickard told reporters after the game. “It was a tough injury. A lot of hours spent with the goalie coach [Sylvain Rodrigue] and the training staff. It felt good getting back out there with my teammates.”
🏒 Manitoba is facing its first downturn of the season. The Moose have lost three in a row for the first time since March, including a 6-3 setback on Wednesday in Laval in the opener of a six-game road trip to the Eastern Conference.
The Moose (16-10-2-1) are now fourth in the Central, and are 5-6-0-0 in games outside their division.
🏒 Second-half hockey often has served the Syracuse Crunch well.
Last season, Benoit Groulx’s club played at a .655 clip (33-16-5-1) after New Year’s, carrying them into the Calder Cup Playoffs following a slow start and a long schedule break forced by the COVID-19 pandemic’s resurgence.
This season, the Crunch head into 2023 with a 13-11-2-2 mark and in the middle of a North Division that sees just nine points separating second place from seventh. Syracuse had won six out of seven games going into the Christmas break, but lost both ends of a two-game visit to Laval last week. They will try to reset with a busy three-in-three weekend that includes visits from Belleville and Rochester before a trip to league-leading Hershey on Sunday.
🏒 The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are facing life without standout Dustin Tokarski, who was recalled to Pittsburgh following Tristan Jarry’s injury in Monday’s Winter Classic in Boston. The two-time Calder Cup champion ranks fifth in the AHL in both GAA (2.22) and save percentage (.926) for Wilkes-Barre this season.
Taylor Gauthier made his AHL debut in net for the Penguins on New Year’s Eve in a 4-1 victory at Lehigh Valley, and followed that up with a win over Charlotte on Wednesday.
The Pens are home for Charlotte and Hartford this weekend.
🏒 Joel Hofer will be sticking around with the St. Louis Blues organization.
The St. Louis Blues signed the 22-year-old goaltender to a two-year, one-way contract extension through 2024-25. After helping the Springfield Thunderbirds reach the Calder Cup Finals last season, Hofer is 10-8-4 and ranks among the league’s leaders with a 2.39 GAA and a .922 save percentage in 2022-23.
🏒 Saturday will be Mental Health Awareness Night in Grand Rapids when the Griffins host Texas. Partnering with non-profit organization I Understand, the Griffins will wear a helmet sticker in support of people managing mental health issues, and Van Andel Arena will be sensory-friendly with features such as a sensory room and seating away from crowd and noise, no goal horn, no strobe lights or pre-game pyrotechnics, and decreased volume in the building.
🏒 The Coachella Valley Firebirds will celebrate Pride Weekend with special jerseys and giveaways Saturday vs. San Jose and Sunday vs. Ontario.
🏒 The Springfield Thunderbirds will turn back the clock on Saturday as they wear 1994-95 Springfield Falcons jerseys for their game against Utica. That inaugural Falcons team, a split affiliate of the Hartford Whalers and Winnipeg Jets, included future AHL Hall of Famers Rob Murray and John Stevens, as well as notable players like Manny Legace, Nikolai Khabibulin, Marek Malik and Michal Grosek.
QUOTEBOOK
🗣️ “I’m pretty old now. My wife tells me I’m old.”
— Rochester goaltender Eric Comrie, 27, to reporters this week. Comrie is in Rochester on a conditioning assignment from Buffalo.
Patrick Williams has been on the American Hockey League beat for nearly two decades for outlets including NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, The Hockey News, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio and SLAM! Sports, and is currently the co-host of The Hockey News On The ‘A’ podcast. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
