Blood, Guts, Playoff Hockey – Griffins Look to Finish off Chicago Wolves

The Grand Rapids Griffins and Chicago Wolves rivalry has become a mirror image of the Red Wings and Avalanche in years passed. Grand Rapids has faced no other team in the postseason as frequently – and it shows. Everyone anticipated a heavy hitting series, but coming home to the Van Andel drew out the worst in both teams. Dishing out 144 penalty minutes and 9 misconducts in game three alone, both the Wolves and Griffins were out for victory by way of blood.

By the end of game three, the Chicago bench was down to 11 active skaters and the Griffins bench was alternately starting look slim. The aggression and straight up hate was evident in the regular season and the playoffs amplified that to an uncontrollable degree. The referees, try as they might, lost control of the game after Dylan McIlrath delivered an earth-shattering hit to Tyler Wong. After Wong was carefully removed by stretcher, the game shifted and became a blood bath of cheap shots and missed calls.

Game four was dropped with a crushing 5-2 defeat for Grand Rapids. The Griffins lost McIlrath due to an ankle injury early on which was an obvious gap in ice presence in light of Dominic Turgeon and Givani Smith also being absent – both with suspensions. History repeated itself in terms of hits and calls (or lack thereof). Both teams would argue that the officiating was less than ideal and directly impacted the outcome.

Regardless of the officiating, both teams need to look ahead to game five. Grand Rapids was hoping to put Chicago in their rearview mirror for good this season after Wednesday and unfortunately for them, a return trip to the Windy City is a must.

Game five is critical – for both teams obviously. The series is tied at two will bring out perhaps more vengeance than originally seen. TJ Tynan, Nick Hague, Tye McGinn, and Tomas Hyka, a few of Chicago’s irritatingly skilled point producers, will be looking to finish the job come hell or high water. Grand Rapids will look to do the same while carrying the burden of being still without Turgeon, a fundamental penalty killer, as well as McIlrath and playoff veteran, Brian Lashoff (INJ).

The overall play needs to be a perfect balance. The way the Griffins dominated game 1 is exactly how they need to come out in game five to finally finish it off. The speed, aggressive forecheck, and playmaking needs to be sharp and thought out. Reckless passes and uncontrolled penalties will be the undoing of Grand Rapids if they drift back into the game four woes.

There are a handful of Griffins making their Calder Cup Playoff debut – and they will need to be the ones stepping up if game five is to be a success. Libor Sulak, Filip Zadina, Christoffer Ehn, Givani Smith, and Harri Sateri are all fresh faces to the playoff run and have so far been key ingredients in the Grand Rapids effort. Head Coach Ben Simon, reunited the line consisting of Filip Zadina, Martin Frk, and Wade Megan which has been dynamite the entire series. With that line producing many of the scoring chances, and Harri Sateri doing a fine job of holding down the pipes, Grand Rapids could see themselves advancing to round two.

Game five is Sunday at 4pm Eastern Standard time.