Wolves, Griffins Set For Do-or-Die Game Five Sunday

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CHICAGO, Illinois -- Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

A highly ranked team — the best in their division, in fact — gets into the playoffs and then immediately appears to abandon everything about their game that got them there.

That’s the story of the Chicago Wolves through much of their opening round series against the Grand Rapids Griffins, where the teams have amassed a truly stunning 226 collective penalty minutes, 144 of which came during Game Three. The Griffins and Wolves lead the AHL in penalty minutes for the playoffs; the Griffins sit at 116 and the Wolves have 108. Their next closest competition is the Milwaukee Admirals with 89 minutes, as they’re locked in their own physical battle with the Iowa Wild.

So far, the Griffins look nothing like the team which limped across the finish line after nine consecutive losses to end their season. The Wolves, however, mostly bear little resemblance to the regular season team which persevered through injuries to key players, call-ups to the NHL, and a young roster with little veteran experience.

To date, the series has seen an escalation in physicality, culminating in a penalty-filled game three in Grand Rapids. The tone was set early as Dylan McIlrath hit an unsuspecting Tyler Wong, an incident which sent Wong off on a stretcher and to the hospital for further evaluation. McIlrath was given a match penalty and ejected from the game, but circumstances didn’t improve from there.

Over the course of the game, eight different misconduct penalties were handed out, forward Gage Quinney had to be helped off the ice after a hit, and unlike in Game Two, the Wolves were unable to brush off the provocations from the Griffins. The Wolves ultimately lost 6-2 in a game that saw them be lured into trying to match the Griffins’ style rather than relying on their own skill.

So far, the series has seen Wong, Quinney, and defenseman Griffin Reinhart miss time due to injuries sustained during play. Griffins defenseman Brian Lashoff was also injured during game two and has yet to return to play.

The Wolves have rebounded after each of their losses and managed to stave off elimination Wednesday night in Grand Rapids with a 5-2 win. Head coach Rocky Thompson attributed this resilience to his team’s leadership group.

“Our leadership stepped up and really took control of the locker room, controlling the emotions of each other, really, and playing a much more disciplined game,” Thompson said after Game Four.

The message was the same after game two, when Thompson was quick to praise his team for elevating their performance and sticking to their style of play, rather than letting the Griffins set the tone. “We've got a young team that I think they didn't realize what it takes,” Thompson said. “It's a learning experience for a lot of guys. I liked how they responded. That's how we’ve got to play. That's what the playoffs are going to look like.”

The physicality of the series hasn’t passed without notice for Thomson, either. “[The Griffins are] trying to have a scrum,” he said after game two. “They're trying to needle you to get on the power play.”

Thompson’s message to his team was clear after they lost the opening game in the series. “We're going to play our own game. If we play our own game, we’ve got to play like we did in the first [period], and we're going to be fine. We got away from that. It cost us.”

The team took that message to heart and responded after both losses and now will return to Chicago for a decisive Game Five on Sunday.

After the win in game two, rookie defenseman Zach Whitecloud was honest about the team’s performance to date. “Hockey humbles you in the weirdest ways, and at times, you don't necessarily want it to,” he said. “We let the game get away from us and [...] I think at the end, especially for myself, it was immature hockey that happened in the last 10 minutes.”

Rather than go home and be upset about the outcome in a loss, however, Whitecloud emphasized being able to learn from the experience and come back a better player the next day. “It's going home and and reevaluating what just happened, giving yourself that time to reflect. [Winning] proves how mature we are as a team and how well-rounded we are.”

In Game Four, the Wolves proved that they can turn aside any frustrations from Grand Rapids’ style of play. With their series on the line on Sunday, the Wolves will need to continue to find the mindset that allowed them to excel in games two and four. If, instead, they allow themselves to continue to be frustrated by the Griffins’ physical play, their season will be over early for a second consecutive year.