The Daily: Griffins Need Road Wins to Earn Bye; Sharks’ Woes

The Grand Rapids Griffins will have to win on the road if they want to earn a first-round bye for the AHL playoffs. Coach Dan Watson’s Griffins hold a two-point lead over the Chicago Wolves for third place in the AHL’s Central Division.

The top three finishers in the division will earn a bye, and the fourth-place finisher will have to play the Rockford IceHogs in a best-of-three series. It’s called a divisional semifinal, but it looks like a play-in series. If you win that semifinal, you still must win four rounds to win the Calder Cup playoffs.

The Griffins have two road games against Rockford remaining, plus another game against Iowa. Chicago has road games against Iowa and Milwaukee, plus a home game against Rockford to end the regular-season. The Grand Rapids magic number is five, meaning if the team’s combination of points earned and points Chicago doesn’t earn totals five, then  the Griffins get third place.

Grand Rapids plays Rockford Wednesday and Friday this week.

Two Detroit prospects have joined the the Griffins recently and provided a spark. Emmitt Finnie has four points in his past five games. Defenseman Anton Johansson had put up five assists and delivered some big hits in his first nine games with Grand Rapids.

Red Wings In Case You Missed It

Bob Duff asks what if the Red Wings had given Jonatan Berggren an extended opportunity to play in the top six? He scored an impressive goal and added an assist Monday playing with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond.

Detroit prospect goalie Rudy Guimond is 19-0 this season playing in the QMJHL. His Moncton team is trying to go up 3-0 in their best-of-seven playoff series tonight.

Rookie Albert Johansson has showed he can be part of the defensive solution moving forward.

Red Wings Extra

Detroit closes the season with road games Wednesday (New Jersey) and Toronto (Thursday). Goalies Petr Mrazek and Alex Lyon will each start one of those games. After Monday’s win against the Dallas Stars,  the Red Wings are now picking 12th (before NHL draft lottery results). Only the bottom 11 has a shot at winning the No. 1 pick in the lottery.

Hockey Now Network

Boston: Fabian Lysell looks like he can help David Pastrnak deliver offense next season. Boston Bruins.

Colorado: Are the Avalanche about get Gabriel Landeskog back for the playoffs? Colorado Avalanche

Philadelphia: Rumor has Aleksei Kolosov returning to the KHL after this Flyers season. Philadelphia Flyers.

Pittsburgh: NHLPA player poll still gives plenty of love to Sidney Crosby. Pittsburgh Penguins.

San Jose: Sheng Peng looks at when the losing might stop for the San Jose Sharks.