(Photo credits: Scott Paulus)
In their final home game before Christmas, the Admirals welcomed the Lake Erie Monsters out of the cold. And then they kicked them out and shut the door on them, getting the victory 3-0 on Friday night.
Jeremy Smith turned aside all 31 shots he faced for first AHL shutout, and boy did he earn it. Many of the saves were Hasek-esque, and his athleticism was on full display. Well positioned, well timed, and with good vision of the puck all night, Smith solidified his position as the #2 goalie in town after Nashville returns one to us in the very near future.
“Our goalie was the difference in the game,” Coach. Lambert said after the game. Tough to argue otherwise.
“There were some dangerous rebounds at times, but I think the thing that stood out the most for me was his athleticism and his ability to battle on second saves. Some of those saves were desperate saves, and he’s got good quickness and good athleticism that allowed him to do that.”
The Admirals were able to kill off all five Monster power play chances, and Coach is quick to credit Smith for that success.
“And as I’ve said numerous times, your penalty killing is only as good as your goaltender. And they probably should have had a couple power play goals, but our goaltender made the difference.”
The first goal of the game was present for Ryan Thang…giftwrapped by Julien Brouiliette. Along the near boards in his defensive zone, Brouiliette tried to make a cross-ice pass to another player, but his stick got more ice than puck. Since he didn’t get the wood on it that he intended, the puck went right to a forechecking Thang, who beat Jason Bacashihua with a backhand shot that made Teddy Bears fall from the sky.
In the second period, some forechecking by Linus Klasen led to the Admirals second goal. Yes, a steal instead of a turnover from Klasen. After a poor clearing attempt seemed to catch a bad spot on the boards, Klasen picked up the puck, darted towards the net, and instead of shooting, found Mark “The Proof” Santorelli by the right goalpost. It was the Proof’s 7th of the year. That was a set play, after winning the neutral zone face-off, and playing it around the boards. Credit to Klasen for coming away with the puck, and credit to Santorelli for being at the right place in front of the net.
2-0 for the Admirals after two periods, but they were outshot 24-14 in the same span. Lake Erie really did dominate the 2nd period, but Smith and the Admirals’ defense were outstanding.
Jamie Lundmark made it a 3-0 lead with a power play marker in the 3rd. Aaron Johnson was pinching down and took a shot from a sharp angle, and the rebound kicked right to the slot, where Lundmark was working. It was another of the dirty blue-collar goals that Lundmark has had the knack for lately, driving to the net and putting in a rebound. His shot seemed to deflect off of Bacashihua’s skate and hit the roof before bouncing back down and over the line.
Lines:
Thang – Van Guilder – Bourque
Thuresson – Lundmark – Geoffrion (the latter two both took some faceoffs)
Wilson – Hunter – Bartlett
Klasen – Mueller – Santorelli
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION:
No seriously, how awesome was Smith and the defense? Equal MVP’s in tonight’s game, would you say? Any of the defensemen excel over the others?
– Great to see the Ads capitalize on the Monster defensive zone miscues. Lane talks a lot about playing a detailed game, and the Monster defensemen’s lack of detail helped lead to those first two goals. That’s what lack of detail looks like. And we don’t usually see it on our end of the ice. I give Johnson a hard time about his penalties, but we really are fortunate to have 7 bona fide pro defensemen, who are consistently being some of the best players on the ice night in and night out. It’s a luxury that our young goalies are lucky to have right now.
– Thuresson? Bueller? Bueller? Looked like he took a step backwards tonight. Not scoring. Not hitting. No urgency. Fair statement?
– Not Lundmark’s best game, but he made up for some of it with that goal. He’s becoming the go-to-guy in front of the net.
– A couple more penalties for Aaron Johnson. We have now officially renamed the penalty box “Johnson’s Office”. And in our twittercasts, Sutty is giving his teammates tasks to do in Johnson’s office when they go to the box. Like putting some coversheets on some TPS reports. Sutty thinks he’s pretty funny. I think he is too.
– Do you like seeing Klasen get fired up like he did in the 3rd? Or would you rather he stay out of confrontation?
– Anything else catch your eye tonight that you’d like to share with the class?
– And let’s hear it for the pre-game wedding. Let it be a lesson for all you engaged people out there….don’t tie the rings too tight on the pillow! And the ceremony doesn’t need to be long…..the sooner it’s done, the sooner you get to the bar!
Admirals Roundtable 
I kind of wanna have Jeremy Smith’s baby… With that said, we sat right behind him in the 2nd, and to say he looked GASSED would be an understatement. Every break he would lift his mask for some water and he looked like he was about to pass out! Great to see he still had enough in the tank for that shutout!!! Klasen should steer clear of fighting…unless he plans to quit hockey to chase his dreams of joining a midget wrestling league.
I’m assuming you got my email about the cookies a little too late because I didn’t see I was “awesome-er” than everybody else until almost 5PM. We’ll be at the game on the 29th, I’ll email a reminder after Christmas!!!
Solid all around for the Admirals tonight, and for the entire Predators organization. Good to see quality hockey being played by the Admirals and Predators.
Thang impressed me a lot tonight. Was strong on the forecheck, battled well, and was rewarded with a goal…so we were rewarded with hearing Wild Thing.
Smith was solid, nice to see he has dropped his shaky start. But you were right, the D were solid in removing loose pucks and making sure he had a clear lane to see shots.
Thuresson…..makes me sad. SO much ability, but can’t shake the monkey. (wow that sounds disturbing)
Lundmark has never impressed me all that much. He scores garbage goals (which is nice) but the only time I ever notice him is when he is crying to the officials. I know there is a certain twitterer in Nashville who says every single day that he thinks Lundmark should get the call…but I think Lundmark should stay here for awhile.
Johnsons Office, administered tonight by off-ice official Jim Johnson…nice.
I think I like the feisty side of Klasen, it was nice to see Ford coming to his aid though as soon as it got out of hand.
The wedding was annoying. Just what I want to see before a fast-paced sport that goes for blood is 2 attention whores soaking up unneeded attention. Great, it was all on skates, but it took Doug Russell longer to waddle out to center ice than it did for the ceremony (and thank god)
MiB — I edited your comment. Take shots at the players, take shots at me (and Doug Russell’s skating aptitude was pretty awesome too), but when you branch out of that region, it can be considered questionable content. Just be advised.
This was definitely one of Thang’s best games, I think. Great play on the goal, deked a defender out of his skates in the 2nd period and ultimately drawing a penalty…. Nice to see it from him.
As for the wedding, MiB…. I think as you plan yours, you’ll find that you want to do cool stuff for it. And it’s not about being attention whores. It’s about doing something incredibly memorable. Their friends are probably going to always say that Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so did it their way, and it was perfect for them. I saw a wedding ceremony at a hockey game in Rockford once and it took up the whole 1st intermission. I think the way it was done tonight was much more tasteful.
Mark — yeah, was away from my computer until I got to the rink, and that was later than usual. We’ll arrange for delivery next time around. Nice job being awesome-er.
One more thing — I think Johnny B got robbed in the JSOnline photo game. The dude in the picture was surfing. Where was he? In the water. I think that should have been good enough to be counted as a correct answer.
He was actually ON the water. Big Red said he was in. Big difference.
Totally agree about the water question/answer. When he said that as his answer, I turned to my girlfriend and said, “Well, he’s not wrong.”
The in/on water arguement is getting a little too technical. I don’t know the guy, but he got shafted. I’ll buy him a beer.
did klasen really play on the 4th line, are you kidding me?
I listed it 4th….I don’t think it’d technically be considered the 4th line. It was just the order I wrote it down. It’s a line with the team’s two leading goal scorers, so I think it’s safe to say that it’s a scoring line. I’ll be better about listing them next time.
I think it’s nice to see Klassen play with a little grit and energy as well as stick to scoring, however I don’t like to see him retaliate back with slashes like he did last night. He’s lucky he didn’t get called for that one. Next time he will get called. Dumb penalties like that is what hurts a team. Let him get scrappy but let Ford or someone else clean up :)
Maybe I missed some other play, but the only grit I saw from Klasen came after one of the Monster d-men took exception to his showboaty “Ima gonna pass to my foot then kick it back to my stick and shoot like Tootoo into Cash’s chest” move in the 3rd Pd.
I like players being feisty, but don’t provoke them with that type of stuff, esp. when you’ve been scratched for not playing D and your team is only 4th (3rd?) in the division.
BTW, anyone ever get excited to see Lake Erie? I’m pretty sure I circle these games each year and note them as “MEH”, which is about how LEM played too.
I get excited to play LE, because it’s not Chicago, Rockford, Peoria…or one of the other teams we play 90% of our games against! But yeah, that’s really the only reason.