Geoff Ward defends Tkachuk, fires back at Paul Maurice with accusations of his own.

Well this situation has definitely just heated up.

The Winnipeg Jets, primarily via head coach Paul Maurice and forward Adam Lowry, have been tossing some pretty big accusations in the direction of Calgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk and although Tkachuk himself has refuted those accusations, no one on the Flames had really responded until now. Fittingly enough, given that the accusations have been coming from the Jets head coach, it is Calgary Flames head coach Geoff Ward who has fired back at Paul Maurice, and he has done so by tossing some accusations of his own right back at the Jets head coach.

Most recently Maurice reiterated the accusations he made against Tkachuk, accusations that stem from an incident in Game 1 in which Jets forward Mark Scheifele was injured, claiming that the Flames forward had been deliberate in his intent to injure Scheifele. 

"I don’t think he came off the bench and said, 'Hey I’m going to see if I can go stab the back of Mark Scheifele’s leg with my skate.' I think he got to that point and I think that’s exactly what he did," said Maurice earlier today.

Maurice's comments have not been well received by the hockey community at large, multiple former NHL players have come out and criticized his decision to level those accusations against Tkachuk, and unsurprisingly they have not been very well received by the Flames' bench boss either. On Sunday Ward responded after several comments from Maurice regarding his player, stating that he felt he simply needed to step up and defend his player. Ward however did more than just defend Tkachuk, he also called out Maurice for using his own dirty tactics and even accused him of trying to use public pressure in an effort to give his team a competitive advantage.

"I feel at this point in time I have to defend my player," said Geoff Ward in regards to the comments made by the Jets head coach. "Was there intent there to put his skate on Scheifele? No. There was no intent. I understand what Paul is doing. He’s trying to get an elite player on our team suspended."

Something tells me things are only just heating up in this series.