Griffins set to kick off AHL Playoffs against Milwaukee

The Detroit Red Wings may be out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but that doesn’t mean that the organization is done with hockey for the season. The Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit’s American Hockey League affiliate, will begin their push for the 2016 Calder Cup against the Milwaukee Admirals tonight.

The Griffins head into the postseason as one of the league’s most intriguing, yet inconsistent teams. While the club had been in contention throughout the year, their hopes for a deep playoff run were amplified in the late winter as they ran through the longest winning streak of any team in the league this year, starting with a 5-2 win over Charlotte on February 20th and ending after 13 games via a 2-0 shutout loss to San Antonio exactly a month later.

Since then, the team has sputtered, winning just three of their final thirteen games, a run which included a five-game losing streak immediately after their run of victories, and another streak of the same length to close the season. Because of this, the team took a nose dive from a serious push to take the Central Division title to the 7th seed in the Western Conference.

The Admirals, on the other hand, took a much different path. While the team dropped was blown out by a combined 12-3 in their last two games, Milwaukee went on a 10-0-1 run between March 19th and April 12th to push themselves to the third highest point total in the league and the second highest points percentage in the Western Conference. 

The two sides faced each other eight times this season, with the Griffins winning five of them. With that said, the last Griffins victory against the Admirals was back on February 17th, while their final meetup on March 29th resulted in a 4-1 Milwaukee win which saw the Nashville Predators affiliate take Jared Coreau on a wild ride for the middle half hour of the game.

The Griffins are an interesting group of project aged players; a roster that is full of players looking for their last shot at getting into the NHL. Their top three scorers (Mark Zengerle, 47 points, Eric Tangradi, 56 points, and Andy Miele, 62 points) are all between 26 and 28 years old, and players like Nathan Paetsch (33), Dan Cleary (37) and Jeff Hoggan (38) all see regular roster time. Ten players that were at least 25 years old played 30 games or more for the team this year.

That’s not to say that there aren’t a few young players to keep on. 23-year-old defenceman Robbie Russo impressed with a 39 point season. 22-year-old Martin Frk quieted his naysayers with 27 goals, and Anthony Mantha had a bounce back, and 21-year old Anthony Mantha has bounced back to have an impressive 45 point year which saw him get a late-season look with the team. Andreas Athanasiou, who has won over the hearts of many with his play in the big this year, had some cold stretches but still managed to put up over half a point a game. Unfortunately for the Griffins, Athanasiou won’t be joining the team; he’s been allowed to return home for personal reasons. 

Joakim Andersson also will not be rejoining the team (ineligibility), while Xavier Ouellet, who has been another breakthrough young defenceman this year, will join them.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee’s roster is filled to the brim with young talent. Their top eight scorers started the season at an age of 23 or younger, and nobody in their top 15 in scoring is older than 26. Kevin Fiala (50 points in 66 games, 20 years old) and Vladislav Kamenev (37 points in 57 games, 20 years old) are their top young guns. 

For the Griffins to win this series, they’re going to have to play to their biggest strength; fast-paced, run-and-gun hockey. The Griffins took the second-most shots in the AHL this year (33.28 per game) while allowing the eighth most in return (31.62). More than anything, they’ll need one of their goalies to heat up, whether it’s Jared Coreau (29-15-2, 0.922), or Tom McCollum (15-13-0, 0.923). The two netminders combined for the league’s second-best save percentage this season but have been a bit off their game in recent weeks.

At the end of the day, the Griffins are in an interesting situation heading into this series. The Admirals are playing some of the best hockey in the league right now, but as Grand Rapids showed weeks prior, that can blow up in your face very quickly. All it would take for this series, which will likely be more difficult than a second round matchup against the victor of Lake Erie / Rockford, to go their way is a bit of puck luck in either direction. I’m struggling to commit to a predicted victor, but I do believe that this series will go the five-game distance. 

We’ll be covering the Griffins’ full playoff run here on Wings Nation, with updates after every game, so don’t go too far away!

Game 1 @ Milwaukee: Friday April 22nd at 8:00 PM

Game 2 @ Milwaukee: Saturday April 23rd at 8:00 PM

Game 3 vs. Milwaukee: Tuesday April 26th at 7:00 PM

Game 4 vs. Milwaukee: Wednesday April 27th @ 7:00 PM (if necessary)

Game 5 @ Milwaukee: Saturday April 30th @ 8:00 PM (if Necessary)