GRAND RAPIDS - Eric Zane, the public address announcer for the Grand Rapids Griffins the past 12 years, never saw anything like Tuesday’s playoff game between the Griffins and Chicago Wolves.

With good reason, too, because it was bizarre. The game at Van Andel Arena featured, in general order, a player carted off on a stretcher, fights, a delay of an hour because of bad ice, more fights, a fan ejected and then a player ejected due in part because the fan was ejected.

Really.

All told, there were 144 minutes in penalties and eight misconducts in a 6-2 Griffins win that took 3 hours and 46 minutes to complete in regulation. And the teams pick it up again 7 p.m. Wednesday with Game 4 at Van Andel Arena.

“Craziest game I ever saw,” said Zane, who sits between the penalty boxes and shared what he saw from his perspective on the “Eric Zane Podcast” on Wednesday morning.

Some highlights:

* The Wolves’ Nic Hague, who wanted to fight Griffins’ Givani Smith most of the game, finally exchanged a few briefs swings with about five minutes left in the game. But Hague was left displeased, Zane said.

"He's pissed off because Smith apparently started fighting him before he could get his gloves off," Zane said. "Smith smirks and then the fireworks go off and Hague goes nuts … So, he says to Givani Smith, 'Yah, I'll punch your eyes shut.' … and he kept repeating it and squinting his eyes as he said it. I never heard that one."

* The fighting became so out of control, Zane said, that when Chicago’s Steffan Matteau went to the box for fighting in the third period - one of 15 penalties in the period - a referee struggled to put the pieces together.

“So, Matteau goes into the box and the ref is starting to come unglued a little bit,” Zane observed. “… He was getting frustrated and he seemed confused who Matteau was fighting with. (Libor) Sulak (whom Matteau fought) was not in the box and the ref can’t remember who the hell Matteau was fighting with. So, he sticks his face in the little hole he talks to us from and goes, ‘Hey!’ and skates over to Matteau and … says, ‘Who were you in a fight with?’ And Matteau goes ‘What? C’mon man!’”

* Fighting nearly spilled into the stands late when a fan threw a cup, apparently filled with beer, over the glass from the penalty box onto a Wolves player. From there, Zane was overheard calling for security on the PA.

As security arrived, Zane said, “the Wolves guy just tosses the cup back over the glass and the ref sees that. So, he skates over and kicks the player out of the box.”

* The game even got to the Griffins mascot who, Zane said, early on hung over the glass “screaming at players” in the penalty box.

"So Alex Gallant (from the Wolves) squirts a water bottle at Griff. Does it do anything to Griff? No! But does it fly all over Eric and where he's working and his nice suit? Absolutely it did. Fans go crazy and I'm thinking, 'Boy this is going to be a long night.'"

And it was, thanks to a nearly one-hour delay caused by a bad patch of ice behind the Griffins net. As crews worked to fix it, at times using a fire extinguisher to freeze the ice, Zane got one of the biggest ovations when the camera panned to him showing a photo on his cell phone. It was of Steve Yzerman, the Red Wings new general manager, holding the Stanley Cup.