Since Ryan was walking around reading off of blue note cards for the game, you’ve got me for the recap again tonight. I apologize in advance.
The Admirals were looking to get that bad taste out of their mouth from the loss suffered at the hands of the IceHogs last night. They hosted the road weary Houston Aeros, who entered tonight’s matchup just 3 points behind the Ads. Still missing top producers Linus Klasen and Chris Mueller, the Admirals were forced to find production from elsewhere in the lineup. They found it in three different forwards, and were able to hang on for a 3-2 victory over the Aeros.
While a better effort than last night, Coach Lambert says it wasn’t a complete game. Here are some quotes.
Ryan Thang answered the call for offense halfway through the first. At the 9:18 mark, Matt Halischuk was skating the puck right between the circles when he was met by two Aeros defenders that jarred the puck loose. Thang was trailing Halischuk and in perfect position for said jarred puck. Thang put a slap shot on net that beat Anton Khudobin to give the Admirals the lead. The goal was Thang’s third on the year with the helper going to Hallischuck.
The lead would not last the period as the Aeros are able to score 16:17 into the stanza. What seemed to be a harmless shot from the point by Nate Prosser quickly turned into a dangerous redirect, resulting in an Aeros goal. With Prosser at the far point and an Admirals player crashing on him, he put the slap shot on net with traffic in front. Admirals Roundtable correspondents didn’t see who got a piece of it but the puck quickly went to the ground and beat goaltender Mark Dekanich glove side. I think the goal was Prosser’s way of sticking it to the Admirals production crew for putting him on the Harry’s Bar and Grille Kiss Cam with a teammate. (Where is Mitch Love when you need him?)
The Admirals came out for the second period determined to get more opportunities, however five more shots was all they could muster (wait, 5 shots? That’s all they got 5 GD shots? [ Ryan:] hey you can’t type GD on the Interweb. [Sutty] Don’t worry, they can’t read). Both teams looked sloppy at times but it was the Admirals once again that looked uncomfortable with each other. Way too many turnovers and not enough shooting. The Admirals power play in the second period gave me the impression that we had 5 Cal O’Reilly’s out there because no one wanted to SHOOT THE PUCK CAL!!!!!!! Sorry had a flash back right there.
The real story of the second period was MARK “I Just Bailed You Out” Dekanich. Not once, not twice, not even thrice. Dex was standing on his head for most all of the shots he faced. He defused a breakaway, he stonewalled a couple of great attempts from right in front, and I think I even saw him save a young child in section 209 who was choking on his pretzel with cheese. With any other goalie out there the score would most certainly be much larger in favor of the bad guys, but as it stood they were still tied 1-1.
Coach Lambert says Mark is responsible for the big win.
The third period got started with a bang and a pow. Just 1:35 into the third period Scott Ford shot a puck from the point that struck Aeros winger in the upper body. After striking the Aeros player the puck caromed over to Jamie Lundmark who was at the near side blue line. Lundmark was able to skate up a bit to the top of the circle and put a shot on net that glanced off Ryan Thang in front of the net, and deflected off the back glass. The puck still had enough juice behind it to bounce back to the front of the net on the other side to a waiting Matt Halischuk, who put the puck in the vacant net. The tally was Halischuk’s 7th on the year and good enough to give the Admirals the 2-1 lead.
Before the acclaimed Matt Moore (announcer extraordinaire) could utter those responsible for the goal Blake Geoffrion took a pass just inside the blue line from Mark Santorelli. Geoffrion wound up from the high-high slot and delivered a slap shot that beat Khudobin to give the Admirals the 3-1 lead. The Admirals, scoring two goals in less than 10 seconds, finally had the look of a confident team.
But as they say, the two-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey, even if it was only for one minute and eight seconds. With Josi in the bin for tripping, the Aeros took advantage of the extra attacker. The play was eerily similar to something I have seen in the past. Like the very recent past. The Aeros’ Chad Rau (like in Street Fighter….haduiken! eh, close enough) fed a puck to the far side point to Maxim Noreau, who put a shot on net through traffic. Only on this shot we do know who redirected it. It was Cody Almond, who changed the course of the puck and beat Dex low glove side.
With the Admirals lead shrinking they had to buckle down, and buckle down they did. Even with the Aeros pulling the goalie with about 1:30 left in the final period the Admirals were able to hang on for the win.
LINES:
Lane shuffled em up a bit tonight.
Bourque – Geoffrion – Santorelli
Wilson – Begin – Thuresson
Thang – Lundmark – Halischuk
Bartlett – Van Guilder – Hunter
BEST CROWD OF THE SEASON! For reals.
Let’s go straight to the questions for discussion:
Was this a good rebound game for Geoffrion? Better to fight with his scoring than his fists? (I don’t know what that even means). Should we have him do autograph corner EVERY night?
This just in. Through extensive research, fact finding, soul searching, mathematical analysis, and advanced calculus, it has been concluded that I, Andrew “Sutty” Sutliff, have scored as many goals as Andreas Thuresson in the last 28 games.
What else can we say about Mark Dekanich? He’s got the swagger.
Should the Admirals keep Bob Vila on retainer, just in case some more stuff breaks? I hear that was the second time a door has been broken from these new boards…
Grant Lewis got to play tonight.
Oh, you want to know why? Ok. Teemu Laakso has a lower body injury. He’s day-to-day….it’s not expected to be serious.
Did I mention it was the best crowd of the year?
Anything else you’d like to share?
(BTW: Thanks to Andy Grebe for providing the sound clips)
Admirals Roundtable 
The crowd was awesome, especially snuffing out the wave as early as they did. Kinda wish the Ads would have did the center ice stick tap salute after the game.
Dex was dex tonight and he showed Houston how to Dexshow tonight…I guess it involves standing on your head.
I thought the Ads played a pretty solid 60 mins. It wasn’t a perfect performance but they kept the pedal to the metal after the 2nd goal (not so much the 3rd) and were able to stand tall and hold them off in the end.
Bourque continued his strong play and its great to see Blake finding his role.
1) Borque had a pretty good game.
2) Was it just me or did Kelsey Wilson seem hurt?
3) Ryan looked cute with that one girl during the little intermission game.
4) I don’t know.
I thought we looked horrible along the boards tonight :( Houston seemed to dominate in that department.
Ok maybe I just never noticed this before, but in the first period Geoffrion would take faceoffs with Bourque and Santorelli on the wings, and half way through the shift, they’d switch places going up and down the ice. Santorelli would shift into the center position and Geoffrion would become the winger, playing along the boards and going in deep. Do they always do that and I just never noticed, or is that something new? The purpose to get the guys into their “best” positions? To confuse the defense??
I really like the way Josi has been playing. Since our team doesn’t seem to understand how to break out of a zone, Josi busts up the ice and does it his damnself. Most of the d-men have been very questionable at best….but Josi has certainly impressed as of late on both sides of the ice. I’m about over Palin. Send Palin and anyone else we’ve gotten from Abbotsford back.
I was enjoying the “W” until I came on here to see Sutty insult my inteligence. Me read…me read very very gooder.
Looked like we shifted into the prevent defense about a third of the way through the 3rd period…but rose to the occasion in the last two minutes. Made it tough for Khudobin to get to the bench, and then folks at all positions were doing well to stifle attempts to send the puck deep in the Admirals zone. I’m very encouraged by how they closed out the game. I’m more used to the proverbial nailbiting.
Maybe we’ve found something with that Thang – Lundmark – Halischuk line?
11 shots through two periods is rough though. If you’re spending most of one of the periods killing off power plays, okay, maybe it’s not as big a deal. But look at the goals that were scored. In the 3rd period, they were both initiated by just putting the puck on net and seeing what happens. I think Khudobin wants the Geoffrion shot back, though.
MiB — You really have it in for Palin and Lundmark. I think you should give them a little more credit. (This, coming from the guy who doesn’t usually seem to give Aaron Johnson a fair shake).
Bob — that’s pretty funny. I try to surround myself with people that look better in HD than I do.
Creed — I’m not sure, I’ll look for that this weekend. My first thought is that it’s something new, and it may or may not be on purpose? I think that’s the first time we’ve had that line combo recently.
it was nice not having a player lift a puck over the glass from their own defensive end in the last minute of the game… You know, Yonking it…
Couple of thoughts:
1. Lewis looked out of place most of the 1st and 2nd periods. He took himself out of a couple of plays to make a big hit.
2. It seemed like Steve Begin was thrown out of every faceoff he was involved in.
3. Dex looked awesome and had some really nice saves.
What is the reason for Begin being thrown out of the faceoffs?
yeah for once it was the other teams captain taking a late-game unnecessary penalty when they were down by 1, I was truly amazed.
I will certainly praise Palin and Lundmark if the time ever comes, I am a pretty fair guy. Last 2 nights however I have seen 21 fall and fail to get a shot off on a breakaway in the third, and again last night he tripped over his own stick in the offensive zone when he had a wide open shot. And Palin just looks slow and whiney lately. He makes Aaron Johnson look decent by comparison.
You guys are tops – many of us down here in Nashburg really appreciate the Ads coverage and the lively, witty writing.
Oh, and thanks for the player loans. We are a bit on the decimated side right now.