"I'm really proud of our effort and the toughness we showed in the second half," Groce said. "It's something to build on for sure.

"We'll let them go home for Christmas and get them back on the 26th, get things in order and head to Chicago. The drum just keeps beating.

"We don't allow one game to define us. We're going to play 35-plus games. We want to continue to get better and my guys showed me something tonight. They showed me fight and they showed me great passion."

Tupper