The headline, courtesy of coach Lane Lambert.
Here’s the full quote.
“I think it’s our worst game of the season, so yeah, I guess you could say that. There’s been other disappointing losses where we’ve played better and not won the game. To hold a 3-0 lead for starters, and then to go into the third period with a lead, and then to give up four goals in the third period is pretty disappointing.”
After spotting the Admirals the 3-0 lead, the San Antonio Rampage didn’t panic. They made adjustments, and skated out of Milwaukee with a 7-5 win, snapping their five-game losing streak.
Before the game was 3 minutes old, Blake Geoffrion was the beneficiary of blooper from starting (not finishing) goaltender Matt Climie. The puck dribbled in to Climie, and attempted to cover it with his glove. He did cover it for a split second, but it the glove wasn’t sealed to the ice. The puck slid out, and Geoffrion was all alone to score the easiest goal of his career.
“When I say easy….I mean SNOOKI easy,” said Sutty, at the time.
Late in the period, Linus Klasen attempted an abbreviated shootout try…with everyone on the ice. Lots of credit goes to Ryan Thang and Blake Geoffrion with a fantastic forecheck. Blake was able to work the puck to Klasen at the top of the slot. And while the Rampage defensemen (including his Yonkness) were tending to Thang and Geoffrion down low, Klasen went right down the yellow brick road, delayed in front of Climie, and scored on the backhand after a deke that would make Gordon Bombay proud.
Kelsey Wilson scored 17 seconds later to end Climie’s night.
But there was a shift in play when Al Montoya took the ice. The Rampage started using their muscle a little more, and making things happen. I don’t think the Admirals were sitting on their lead — I think the Rampage starting playing that much better hockey.
And they scored with 39 seconds left in the first. Former Admiral Bracken Kearns had the puck bounce to him just in front of the crease, and he beat Mark Dekanich.
The Ads skated into the first intermission with the 3-1 lead, and you kind of had the sense that three goals wasn’t going to be enough to take this one home.
It wasn’t. Here’s more from Lane.
In the second period, the Rampage finished up a power play with a goal. It looked like a set play off the faceoff, and featured Aaron Johnson not being able to block the pass, and Geoffrion late getting to eventual goal scorer, Alexandre Picard.
Klasen answered with a power play goal 1:11 later, with a shot from the far face-off dot, through a nice Geoffrion screen.
Then the bleeding started. The start of the 3rd period seemed like a mirror image of the first period, with Dekanich the one not looking all that sharp, and the Rampage piling up the goals.
Here’s the summary.
– A power play goal from Ned Lukacevic 1:41 into the frame.
– An even strength goal from Matt Beaudoin, beating a Dex who had come out pretty far from the crease.
– Matt Watkins scored on a stoppable shot from the far face-off dot.
– Roman Josi scored on a shot from the point that may or may not have been deflected by Dylan Hunter.
– Empty netter by Ryan Hollweg
The end.
———–
NOTES:
– The three-games-in-three-days stretch continues Saturday….in Texas. An unkind part of the schedule, but Lane says that the team will need to make the most of it.
– What a rollercoaster tonight. In the HBO series on the Winter Classic, they spent a lot of talking talking about how quickly momentum can change in hockey. Think we saw a bunch of 180’s tonight.
– Do you think we get the same outcome if Kearns doesn’t score in the Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin Hot Minute?
– Yonkman, with the textbook demonstration of the made up penalty that bears his name. I did enjoy that.
– On a brighter note, how about Darren Pang? What a guy! Gracious with his time, and I’m hopeful that we’ll get to hear his color commentary with Aaron Sims on one of the Time Warner Sports 32 broadcasts. (We also had the chance to interview him…we’ll post that later in the week)
– Packers/Bears wedding proposal….funny or not?
– Thoughts on the special teams (or lack thereof)?
– Were you hoping that Yonkman was going to drop the gloves with someone?
– Can you pick out the moment when the thought that ‘this might not end well’ crossed your mind?
Admirals Roundtable 
I think Kearns’ goal was what set the tone. Instead of trailing 3-0 and having an awful display in the first, the goal gave them a spark, and thats where I knew we had a game on our hands.
Yonkman was Yonkman. Took a lazy penalty right after his team got within 1 at 3-2 and got called for yonking. If only someone would have beat his ass we could have had the Yonkfecta!
Darren Pang? Awesome. What an amazingly nice guy, and a great hockey ambassador. Normally when “celebrities” come to Admirals games they don’t want to be bothered with, but Panger was super gracious with his time to everyone and he is an incredible guy to talk to. Aaron did tweet that this game will be the featured on TWC…anyone wanna tape it and put it on dvd for me?
Bears/Packers….knew exactly what was gonna happen as soon as the superjumbomegatron went to them. And it wasn’t nearly as good as the EWK skit.
For a team that came out guns blazing in the first 10 minutes…we sure took a giant Yonkman on the ice for the next 50 minutes. Ugly.
Words can not explain the night fully.
The power play was not special! It was the cookie cutter Vegas style special. Gilded, sticked and disgusting.
The power play was a super cluster of profanities. None being enough, yet even them all combine still end up way short. It was terrible, impotent, futile, embarrassing et all.
It was so bad, I even considered leaving after the empty net goal, yet the lines for the exit were longer than what was left in the period.
Yonks seemed like he was up for a fight, yet the Ads seemed to avoid him. Lots of dirty looks, no action. Kelsey Wilson needed to level the Rampage player that cheap shotted him late in the second period. We are seriously lacking an enforcer out on the ice. I’ve never missed Triston Grant more. We have a team full of Twinkies (soft and sweet) no rock candy. Lane needs to start firing them up, they look flatter than a short stack at IHOP in the second half of the game. Young teams need fire, we were as cold as the weather outside.
We are still playing well, yet we need to win these types of games if we want another banner at the BC.
Go Ads!!
That comment made me hungry.
Yeah, it was Holweg who cheapshotted Kelsey in the face, then hopped onto the bench like a pu…I can’t say that word but you know what I mean. I kept waiting for those two to appear on the ice at the same time but it never materialized. What a dirtbag move.
What happened to Kelsey Wilson?
He used to be a serious bad@%#
Who knew that playing in Europe would turn American tough into Euro chic.
We need the old Kelsey back!!!
We have to excuse Dex. Before tonight he has been playing like he was standing on his head. today he looked like he was sitting on his butt.
The D was like a yellow light, slowed them down but didn’t stop anyone.
I will try to tone down the food puns, they are making me hungry as well.
Can the ads leave jon blum in milwaukee for saturdays game and dress grant lewis?? It might just be me but Blums play these past two game is a poor showing of what he can do long pass from our own zone right to the oppostion that led to goal in the second was enough for me to scrath him! frustrating to watch this team play 37 and half minutes every game.
The defense needed to play better in the second and third periods. Dex got peppered like crazy. SA would have scored 10 on an average goalie. I don’t know what adjustments SA made after the first period, but they killed the Admirals offense. The forwards couldn’t hang onto the puck in the neutral zone. Lane needs to figure that out and counter it. Free advice: don’t stop 5 feet inside the offensive blueline when you struggle to get there. Get the puck deep and make the defenders pack it in the zone!
SA got away with a few cheap shots, Palin took two sticks to the face, Wilson in front of the benches in the third, Yonkman punching Blake in the back of the head after the whistle, Dex getting dumped at the end of the first period. The Ref had his head up his butt. The first penalty he called in the game was for hooking when it was really holding the stick by SA. Yonkman was a goon and the ref ignored it the entire game.
The Bears/Packers skit was a disgrace. The people around me were booing like crazy. It was almost as loud as the booing for those drunks from Mo’s up in the corner. Don’t let those morons ever come back to another game as a group, they detracted from the game, which is saying a lot when you go from 3-0 to 5-7. Panger was great!
I felt that they have been overdoing it on the Jumbotron showing the fans with Packers jerseys and showing the fans with Bear Jerseys. I felt sorry for the Bears fans who were on the Jumbotron. I felt the the Packer/Bears wedding proposal was stupid. As for the game, I always said that the most dangerous goals are goals scored during the last couple of minutes of a period. When the Rampage scored that goal with 39 seconds left, the momentum went their way. Hopefully the Admirals will rebound in Texas tomorrow.
At one point in the 2nd, I thought SA could have easily had a 5-6 goal night by that point. Dex was phenomenal as always..just got bailed out.
Refs did let A LOT of stuff go tonight. I wish there was more consistency in the AHL and pro hockey altogether. Both goalies got ran, tons of crap after the whistle.
Anyone want to explain the Packers/Bears wedding
guess this meltdown cannot be blamed on klasens defense. He was +/- 0 while others had minus.
I think it was there third goal, the one that just got under the sliding Johnson to a player sitting on the crease,for the easy tap in. At that moment I looked to the sky and said, ” here we go”. There was a point in the 3d, where Thuresson was keeping the puck in the Rampage zone that was special.
Probably the best Thuresson has played all year. Bourque can be relentless at times.
Josi is so fun to watch. Yonkman dropping the gloves is nothing I want to see. I don’t think the kearns goal itself changed the outcome. The Rampage was relentless, they just wanted that game
The Power Play just doesn’t seem to flow. Maybe we should just shoot ,shoot ,shoot,and not pass,pass,and pass. We have enough talented forwards,where we should have at least one good power play unit.
Darren Pang was the only goalie to play in the NHL who had a six hole… The bobblehead seems to be of better quailty. I wonder if they dumped China,and had these made in North Veitnam.
Santa c,
Although Klasen did have a good game you can’t praise his D based on /-… he did have 2 goals and an assist and still ended with /- 0 meaning he was on the ice for 3 ga… I will tell you what though, man is he amazing to watch when he goes head to head on a goalie. I think Climie is still looking for his jock strap.
THe hardest part was putting up those 3 goals on Climie early. He’s one of the better goalies in the league, so when they yanked him I expected this to be a blowout. Yet Montoya picked up the slack and played a good game. Not great, but good enough to pick up the W.
Long-time readers will remember that we’ve never thought that highly of Al Montoya, and I think more credit should go to his defense than him. He was a rebound machine after coming it, and those are usually the kinds of goalies that the Admirals can feast on. Don’t know how he got the 3rd star….we certainly didn’t vote for him.
Sutty vs SantaC — Eh, Klasen was on the ice for Beaudoin’s goal and the empty-netter. I wouldn’t point to the +/- for him today….and I wouldn’t single out Klasen’s defensive game today. Everyone gets a piece of the blame.
The wedding sketch was staged for an easy laugh/cheer. I think he sold it pretty well….I think she could have sold it better. It was funny to hear the people to the left of press row asking her to “SAY NO! SAY NO!”
The ref let a ton of stuff go….we notice the stuff that burned us, but I’m sure we got away with some stuff too. Although not sure how Montoya can have his arm around an Admirals player’s neck for about 5 seconds and then have NOTHING be called either way. Put the whistle away in the 1st and 3rd periods. Linesmen let a lot of stuff go too. ‘Offsides? Eh, close enough.” But the loss can’t be blamed on the officials. Let’s be clear about that.
Josi I thought had another pretty good game, despite the -2 on the night. Dex had a pretty good night, but the Rampage just took their play to a whole new level. I think he’d like to have a couple of the 3rd period goals back, though.
Big character game today in Texas. Need a big win to end the 3-in-3 stretch with 3 points. First and seventh place in the division are separated by just four points. Can’t afford any extended slumps.
Perhaps the following would be a help:
1. De-europeanize the players. Girl scouts belong in the stands, not on the ice.
2. Buy a new set of playbooks, so every player has the same version. And you may as well number the pages in large type, so everyone can get to the same page.
3. Teach defensemen the meaning of the word defense. Goalies left without help are doomed.
4. Send referee Ghislain Hebert back to the northwoods- forevermore. He sucks worse than our power play, and that’s a statement.
5. Find the magic bullet to instill drive, determination, chutzpa, vigor, verve, enthusiasm, and whatever other positive adjectives you can think of into the players. This grind mentality is a bunch of horse pucks.
And by the way, it was overheard last night that Yonkenstein would like to have a go at someone, but he knows that the team is nothing but a bunch of p*ssies. Can’t say I disagree much with that. We need someone who can, and isnt’ afraid, to throw their weight around.
I said we had a weak team all year…its just that no one has brought attention to it besides me until now. Its sad when Scott Ford leads the team in fights, and Geoffrion is in the top 3 or 4.
Was_it_real_or_a_nightmare,
Nice work!
You hit all the points perfectly.
I really enjoyed your post.