Admirals Stay Unbeaten Behind a Hat Trick & Shutout; win 4-0

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Marek Mazanec has earned his first career AHL shutout after a 29-save effort against the Iowa Wild. He was a rock while rookie Viktor Arvidsson collected a natural hat trick in the Admirals 4-0 win Saturday night. (Photo Credit: Steven Christy)

The Admirals won 4-0 on the road against the Iowa Wild Saturday night. It is only the third time in team history that the Milwaukee Admirals will have started the season off with four-consecutive wins. You’d have to go back to the 1988-89 and 1982-83 seasons to find the other two.

Tonight’s standout performers were highlighted with man in net shutting the door and another picking up a natural hat trick. Marek Mazanec earned his first career AHL shutout by stopping all twenty-nine shots he faced in net tonight. And rookie winger Viktor Arvidsson scored the Admirals first road hat trick since 3/29/09 when Mike Santorelli did so in Chicago.

The Admirals fourth line kept their solid start to the season going by scoring tonight’s opening goal. Zach Budish fired a low-wrister from the right wing that netminder Johan Gustafsson kicked back into the slot. Joe Pendenza’s center-lane drive saw him get to the rebound before Gustafsson could spot the puck. It was a tap in for Pendenza – his second goal of the season.

After a frantic night for the penalty box last night there was only one penalty called in the first period. The Wild’s captain Stephane Veilleux was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct as he was on the bench.

The resulting power-play saw Viktor Arvidsson score his second goal of the season. The Wild’s penalty kill was pressuring the puck carrier heavily and the Admirals cycled along the wall to escape the thick puck pursuit. Garrett Noonan jumped up on the play and stationed himself behind the net before laying a pass off to Arvidsson that was taken first-time. The shot would have missed the net completely if not for the unintentional assistance of ex-Admiral Jonathon Blum. The puck hit his leg and flew past his goaltender to give the Ads a 2-0 lead in the first period.

Arvidsson’s scoring would continue in the second period as he tallied two more timed to complete a natural hat trick. For his second goal of the night he was leading a two-on-one rush with Triston Grant on the left wing side of him. Rather than slip a pass, Arvidsson faked a slap shot and threw a change-up along the ice and past Gustafsson’s five hole to make it 3-0.

On the Admirals second power-play of the night – Arvidsson would complete his first North American hat trick with an absolute howitzer. His slap shot was borderline violent and resulted in his fourth goal of the season, third goal of the night, and third power-play goal of this young season.

The third period was really cruise mode for the Admirals. The defending stayed strong and allowed for a first career AHL shutout for Marek Mazanec. The 23-year old Czech never looked rattled for a moment in tonight’s game. He stopped all twenty-nine shots he faced tonight. It’s the fourth time in two seasons that Admirals have shutout the Wild.

Ramblings: The defensive shuffling continued tonight with Taylor Aronson being brought back into the lineup at the expense of Jimmy Oligny. Jonathan-Ismael Diaby kept his place in the team-sheet for his second appearance of the season. Scratches outside of Oligny included the injured pair of Patrick Cehlin and Mike Liambas. The hat trick by Viktor Arvidsson was the first by an Admiral since Austin Watson’s teddy bear toss night performance on 4/12/14 against the Chicago Wolves. Raphael Bussieres of the Iowa Wild was injured late in the second period and did not return to the contest. The Admirals have scored 17 goals in 4 games this season. The next closest in the AHL are the Bridgeport Sound Tigers with 15 goals.

Thoughts from tonight’s game? Is Marek Mazanec becoming a rock for a young Admirals defense? Is there something wrong with Colton Sissons and Miikka Salomaki offensively or are the rookies just looking that much better through four games? How long can this unbeaten run to start the season last for the Milwaukee Admirals?

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11 thoughts on “Admirals Stay Unbeaten Behind a Hat Trick & Shutout; win 4-0”

  1. I would post Video Highlights if I could. Unfortunately it appears the Wild only seem to upload home highlights when they win… could be a slow YouTube year for them at this pace. Also, apologies for using the same ol’ Mazanec road photo but the Wild are also rather tight when it comes to their photo gallery – which hasn’t been updated since last season and really includes photos of their fans only. …can’t all be like the Milwaukee Admirals can we?

  2. Maybe the Iowa Wild need to hire a real staff or just move (again)!
    Lost 8-3 in a home series. Loser, loser, loser!

  3. miikka and colton should be fine their are lot more scoring on this team then last year and with mazanec playing well is helping the defense so far

  4. It will be a lot easier writing about the team this season if they decide to just not lose. All kidding aside, this 4-0 start is for real. Remember when I said David Poile was emptying the cupboards to go for a title run in Nashville a few years back? As of late Nashville has done a terrific job doing just the opposite, scouting and stockpiling prospects in a full-scale rebuild. If things go south again this year in the Music City, Ribiero, Jokinen and Roy could all fetch even more prospects/picks. Yeah, and that whole Forsberg trade is working out mighty nice.

    Believe what you are seeing Admirals fans. This is team is legit and are for real. Get your tickets now, get your butt to the rink and go watch one of the AHL’s best up-and-coming teams.

    Question is now, can they keep it going during the growing pains and call ups this season?

  5. This team is stacked, really. I saw that when the Preds signed yet more FAs to contracts and didn’t leave much space for the kids. Fisher and Cullen are still healing to return in a month or so, so the need for call-ups will be minimal. Someone might even get sent down.

    So if you’re not excited for your team…what’s it going to take?! ;)

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