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2006 Grand Rapids Griffins Training Camp
Day 1...
By Jason Kasiorek
www.griffinscentral.com
The third phase of training camp in the Detroit organization began this morning at 9:00 AM with a series of skating and shooting drills conducted by head coach Greg Ireland. Joining "GI" on the ice were assistant coach Jim Paek, and newly anointed Muskegon Fury (UHL) head coach Bruce Ramsay. With most of the organization's prospects still in camp with the parent Red Wings, the team on the ice did not bear much of a resemblance to the one that will don the Griffins sweater once the season starts.
Familiar faces Kip Miller, a lock for the roster, Ryan Keller, and Logan Koopmans were all present. Former Griffin's Brett Angel and Ryan Barnes were also on the ice, but were part of a contingent headed to Muskegon (UHL) at the end of camp. The other players in camp were made of other minor league free agents, a group of players in camp for Toledo (ECHL), amateur tryout Jamie Tardif who comes from the Red Wings camp, and Brock Radunske the first of a series of players coming from Edmonton (NHL).
Ryan Oulahen and Derek Meech were assigned to the Grand Rapids camp over the weekend, but both were off the ice with injuries. Stephane Goulet, another player assigned by Edmonton has not arrived yet, but should be in camp soon.
Coach Ireland was happy with the pace of the first day, and dismissed the players to prepare for the afternoon's scrimmage.
Scrimmage Day 1
The players were divided into 2 teams, the white and the blue. The blue team was coached by Bruce Ramsey, and the white by "Mr. Griffin" Travis Richards.
Blue Team
62 Chris Abbott - 50 Godoy - 42 Kaleniecki
9 Miller - 64 Gimblett - 29 Keller
25 Barnes - 63 Cam Abbott - 44 Lawson
2 Angel - 61 Zulyniak
25 Barnes
30 Koopmans
White Team
10 Radunske - 33 Campbell - 53 Beeman
8 Berry - 52 Kosopoulos - 32 Walsh
20 Tardif - 51 Martin
54 Crosty - 55 Galvin
56 McPhee - 60 Ferrara
31 Vicari
The White Team won the scrimmage by a score of 8-5 with Radunske and Tardif both chipping in with a pair, and singles by McPhee and Crosty among others. The game was played in stages the first was 5- on -5, then 4-on-4, then 3-on-3, followed by 5-on-4, and finally 5-on-3 before going to the shootout.
The Shootout:
White - Tardif: Nice move to score Top Shelf
Blue - Keller: Snuck it in just past Vicari's toe
White - Kotsopoulos: Denied by Koopmans
Blue - Lawson: Ripped the puck into Vicari's pads
White - Campbell: Save by Koopmans
Blue - Godoy: stopped by Vicari
White - McPhee: Weak shot stopped by Koopmans
Blue - Kaleniecki: Pad save
White - Walsh: Fired right into Koopmans chest
Blue - Chris Abbott: Stopped by Vicari
Observations:
Brett Angel got smoked into the boards awkwardly and appeared to injure his left knee. He needed to be helped from the ice, but seemed to be walking OK in street clothes on his way out of the rink.
Newcomer Radunske was very impressive and showed off some good stick skills around the net.
Angel and Crosty were the two most impressive blueliner on day one, with Angel appearing to have gained a step in his skating. Crosty looked very mobile, and played hard, winning some battles in the corner and along the boards.
After a lackluster camp in TC it was nice to see Tardif connect twice during the scrimmage. He was very opportunistic with the puck and showed a nice touch around the net.
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