After a bad bounce led to a quick Barons score 30 seconds into the game, the Admirals scored three of their own in the first period, and cruised to a 3-2 win over the Oklahoma City Barons.

Coach Muller says it was a team win.

As previously alluded to, the Barons took the 1-0 lead just 30 seconds into the contest.  As the Barons were entering the zone from the near side, Alex Plante sent the puck around the glass. Harmless enough, right? Jeremy Smith skated out behind the net to play the puck. Sounds logical, right? As the puck was about to reach Smith it hit a seam in the glass and shot out into the slot where Phillippe Cornet had what will be probably one of the easiest goals of his career. It was one of those, “what’ya gonna do” plays.

After the first goal it would have been easy for the Admirals to put their head down and say “it’s not our day again”. Instead they bounced right back with a  Mark Van Guilder goal. At the 8:33 mark, Ryan Flynn had the puck behind the net with a defender crashing on him. Flynn dished a great pass to MVG who redirected it past David LeNeveu, tying the game at 1.

The Admirals wern’t done yet. They only needed 1:20 to light the lamp again. This time it was on the Mountain Fury Power Play. (Serioulsy where is our internet money Roundys? Pay up.) Ryan Ellis had the puck at the point and fired a rocket that was deflected in traffic. The puck was re-directed to the far circle where Juuso Puustinen put a slap shot on net to beat LeNeveu short-side and give the Ads a 2-1 lead.

But wait! There’s more! About a minute and a half later, the Barons’ Taylor Chorney had a pretty bad turnover — reminiscent of Roman Josi’s from the last game. Chorney tried to pass the puck up to a player on his own team, the puck wasn’t even close and instead found Kyle Wilson’s stick. Wilson skated in uncontested and fired a shot that beat LeNeveu to give the Ads their 3rd goal of the period.

Three goals in six minutes.  Coach said it was good they capitalized when they did.

The Barons finally put up a crooked number with about four and a half minutes left in the game.  Chorney had the puck at the point. He fired a shot on net that was redirected by Phillippe Cornet. The puck somehow found light behind Smith off the redirect and cut the Barons deficit to one.

That was as close as they would get as the Admirals held on for a 3-2 final.

Notes:

Some shuffled lines tonight.

Bourque – Mueller – Stortini
Wilson – Van Guilder – Flynn
Thang – Latta – Beck
Ryan – Lajunen – Puustinen

After the first 3 goals I thought David LeNeveu really played well. He had some HUGE saves; among them some dandies against Roman Josi.

The Barons recorded 17 official shots on net (a few were added after the game). That sure makes life easy for a goaltender when you can keep the other team from him.

The Barons were a team playing their third in three days, after playing the first two at home, splitting a pair of games with the Charlotte Checkers.  They looked a bit tired.  But that’s life in the AHL, Holmes.

Questions:  Josi look better to you tonight?  Like the new line combos?  I don’t want to hear about the officiating…both teams got away with some stuff in the 3rd.  Do you think the team was able to keep the pressure on over the last 45 minutes or did you see a form of the prevent defense out there?  Ready to see Chicago again next Friday?  What was the funniest thing a player said to you during the camera night festivities?