Detroit Red Wings: Griffins need to dig deep tonight on the road

It might not be game seven, but for the Grand Rapids Griffins, it might as well be.  The Detroit Red Wings farm team is in Chicago tonight taking on the Wolves in their first-round elimination game.  It’s win or go home!

It’s been a spirited first four games of the series with players being suspended for a plethora of fights through the last couple of games.  During game three there were 144 penalty minutes issued; in game four there were ten total penalties issued.  It’s been very reminiscent of the 1990s Detroit Red Wings, Colorado Avalanche rivalry.

There has been a lot of drama and banter between the two teams to go along with the abundance of physical play that’s transpired on the ice.  The Chicago Wolves tweeted out a message that included a long list of complaints after game three.  They were complaining that the Griffins ice-crew didn’t know how to make ice, that was alluding to the fact that there was about an hour delay during game three because the ice was starting to melt at one end of the rink.

I mean, yes the ice shouldn’t start to melt during a game, but both teams had to play on the same ice.  It had been the second time this year that the Griffins had a lengthy delay due to ice conditions during a home game.

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Another complaint was of course about the officials after the game three brawl.  The Wolves proceeded to complain that one of the officials was a former Van Andel Arena employee.  Have you ever returned to an employer in which you’ve once worked?  The fact that an official who used to work at the arena was calling the game shouldn’t mean a thing especially if said referee has aspirations to make it to the next level.

The final complaint from the Wolves was about the Griffins continuously head hunting. I mean both teams were targeting guys while trying to lay the body.  Just because big Dylan McIlrath unloaded on a Wolves player skating with his head down with the puck doesn’t mean everyone was head hunting.

It was undoubtedly a thunderous hit but if that was a “bad” hit can you imagine what they think of Detroit Red Wings defenceman Niklas Kronwall?  It seems whoever runs the Wolves official twitter account likes a finesse game while shying away from contact along with being very salty about being down 2 games to 1 at the time of the interaction.  Well, in this organization the fans and their teams take on the identity of their sports teams.

Grand Rapids along with Detroit are hard working cities when the going gets tough, we tie our work boots or in this case skates a little tighter as we get the job done.  Nothing comes easy; tonight is a game five I look forward too, the Griffins will need to get the job done on the road.

Game five is scheduled for 4 pm Eastern today, watch on watchtheahl.com.  It’s sure to have some lingering fireworks, but hopefully, after the dust settles, it will end with a Griffins’ victory heading to the second round of the AHL playoffs.