We had slightly different issue which wasn't solved using cordova-android-play-services-gradle-release.
We were using cordova-plugin-background-geolocation which was adding
com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:11+
which was in conflict with phonegap-plugin-push. (I think the difference with OP being -location specified at the end)
Couldn't find a gradle for the play-services-location so the only way to fix was to re-install the plugin with the --GOOGLE_PLAY_SERVICES_VERSION specified, eg...
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-mauron85-background-geolocation --variable GOOGLE_PLAY_SERVICES_VERSION=11.6.2
Am fairly new to cordova development, but I get the impression that most (all?) plugins allow you to specify this variable and you should use it just as a matter of course to resolve these conflicts before they happen.