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19 | Friday July 21, 2017 | OAKVILLE BEAVER |www.insidehalton.com `C onnected to your Community1 on Calder Cup Next goal for Oakville native is to make Detroit Red Wings' roster and be part of this fall's Little Caesars Arena opening Photo by Sam lannamico / Grand Rapids Griffins By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff W hen Matt Lorito and the Grand Rapids Griffins w on the Calder Cup last m onth, the team held on to the trophy for five days, taking it to banquets and team functions and various other celebrations. But it w asn't until the oldest an nually awarded hockey trophy -- sorry Stanley, the 2005 lockout robbed you of the title -- arrived at his hom e in Oakville last weekend that Lorito had a chance to take a really good, close look at it. "W hen you take time to look at all the names, it' s amazing seeing all the guys w ho have gone on to great NHL careers," Lorito said. "Patrick Sharp, Jeff Carter and Mike Rich ards with the (Philadelphia) Phan toms... that team was stacked. And Carey Price w inning with Hamilton right out of junior. There are a lot of good names on there." Lorito' s will soon join that list, once the 80-year-old trophy goes in for engraving after the players and coaches have all had their day with it. For many of the players on that trophy, the Calder Cup cham pion ship served as a launching pad for their careers. Lorito hopes that will be the case for him. Even before w inning the Calder Cup, Lorito had plenty to be ex cited about in his first season in Grand Rapids. He scored the gam e-winning goal in the AHL all star game, established career highs with 22 goals and 56 points despite m issing a m onth and, in the final w eek of the NHL season, was re called by the Detroit Red Wings. The 27-year-old played in the NHL team' s final two games in Joe Louis Arena, the rink he'd visited m any times as a kid to cheer on his favourite team. "That was unbelievable. It' s been m y goal since I was a little kid to play in the NHL, and to get to do it as a Red W ing in the last two games at Joe Louis, it was pretty cool." Lorito worried it might not hap pen, though. The Red W ings were hobbled by several injuries late in the season, but Lorito -- Grand Rapids' leading scorer -- was nurs ing one of his ow n after needing 10 stitches to close a cut on his hand. Thinking a recall m ight be pos sible, he returned to the Griffins' lineup for a Wednesday game in W innipeg. "It w asn't 100 per cent, but it was good enough to play," Lorito said. After the game, coach Todd N elson told Lorito he had been recalled. He flew back to Grand Rapids with the team the next day and then drove to Detroit. The Red W ings held an optional practice on Friday, but with the team having practised the previous day, Lorito was the only player to show up. So his first NHL practice was him self and a W ings' assistant coach. The next day, Lorito picked up his first NHL point, assisting on Dylan Larkin' s goal midway through the second period against the Montreal Canadiens. "For an offensive guy, I put pres sure on m yself to produce, so for m y first NHL game, I just wanted to create som ething," he said. "I was lucky to make a play coming over the line and then (Tomas) Ta tar made a good pass. It was pretty unbelievable." After playing in the W ings' final game, Lorito returned to Grand Rapids where the Griffins wrapped up the regular season and then w ent on a playoff roll, w inning 11 of 13 games to reach the final. In the opener against Syracuse, he set up a last-minute game-win ner in a 3-2 victory and the Griffins took Game 2 in double overtime. Ten days later in Game 6, the Grif fins scored a goal with 7:19 to play and held on for a series-clinching 4-3 win. "The last six to eight minutes, you're just hanging on and its nerve-wracking," said Lorito, w ho had 13 points in 19 playoff games. "W hen the final buzzer goes, you can't believe it. You've been playing for two m onths, plus seven m onths of regular season, and w hen it' s fi nally over, it' s hard to describe, but it' s pretty special." That could easily sum up the past 12 m onths for Lorito, since he signed a two-year deal with Detroit last July. N ow he' s looking forward to going back to training camp with the confidence of know ing he can play in the NHL and contrib ute to a w inning team. "I couldn't have scripted a better year," he said. "Obviously, signing with the Red W ings was a dream com e true. I wanted to have a strong year and make a good im pression and w e had a really good team, but there' s no better way to finish the year than w inning your final gam e." And after helping close Joe Louis Arena, the only thing better would be helping Detroit open its new rink, Little Caesars Arena, in the fall. "This summer is going to be shorter than most, but I'm going to do whatever I can to give me the best chance to make the Red W ings," he said. "That' s the only goal, to be there to help them move in ."