Carter Hutton has Milwaukee’s number.

The Admirals tied a season high with 45 shots on goal, but could only get one past Hutton, as the IceHogs sank the Admirals 3-1 Friday night.

Here’s the Coach Herbers High Level Overview, presented by Google Maps…

Hutton is now 5-1 against the Admirals this season.

Over the first two periods, the Ads out-shot the IceHogs 33-13.  So the first 40 minutes can be summed up by two words.  1) Missed 2) Opportunities.

At 12:27 Icehog’s D-man  Ryan Stanton gathered the puck and fired a shot on net from just above the near-side circle. The puck found its way to Teemu Laakso’s knee and was re-directed enough where a set and ready Atte Engren could not recover in time. This goal was Stanton’s first on the year. It was also a first for Laakso’s knee, which has been held scoreless, while his skates have gotten all the credit for past goals scored on his own net.

The Admirals were able to answer back in the second, and it was Victor Bartley playing deep in the offensive zone that got them on the board.  The play of the puck brought Bartley down low inside the near circle. He received the puck off the back boards and dished a pass to Juuso Puustinen in the slot. Juuso tried to receive the pass, but as soon as it hit his stick it was slapped away by an IceHogs’ defender. The puck bounced right back to Bartley, who had a 6’x4′ box to work with as all defenders including the goalie sold out on the pass.

Here’s Bartley with some chalk talk about the goal.

The play of the 2nd period came in the last 2 minutes. As the IceHogs were skating into the zone Paul Zanette had the puck. Scott Valentine turned around and started to skate backwards though the neutral zone. He never took his eyes off Zanette and started to cheat to his side. I thought he was out of place and in danger of letting a man free but he honed in on the puck carrier and leveled him with a shoulder to the chest. Zanette’s helmet came flying off, which aided his view of the ceiling as he was flat on his back. Shawn Lalonde took exception to the hit and came over to give Valentine his thoughts. Lalonde received 4 minutes to think about what he had done while the Admirals received no penalty, and rightfully so.

No-go on that 4 minute power play.  The team went 0-4 for the night with the extra man.

After the power play expired a couple minutes into the third period, Admiral killer Brandon Pirri scored after a Tyler Sloan turnover in the neutral zone.  It was an odd man rush for the Hogs. Rockford’s Ben Smith skated the puck into the zone with Pirri on the other side of the slot. The Admirals last line of defense was a chasing Laakso. Smith flipped a pass to Pirri, who took a couple strides and snapped a wrister past Engren, busting his water bottle to add insult to injury.

Then an offensive zone penalty on Joel Champagne, and a defensive zone penalty on Laakso gave the IceHogs a 2-man-advantage.  While on that power play, Jeremy Morin was down low when he gave the puck to Rostislav Olesz inside the near circle. Olesz passed the puck right back to Morin, who fired a one timer from a tough angle to beat Engren and extend the IceHogs lead to 2 goals.

And the Ads couldn’t really get anything going the rest of the way.  They put 12 shots on net in the third, but nothing like the high quality chances earlier in the game.

NOTES:

Brandon Pirri = Admiral killer.  11 points on in the season series.  5 goals, 6 assists.  Olesz has 8 points.  Bartley leads the Ads in points….1 goal, 4 assists.  Chris Mueller has one goal.  Kyle Wilson has one assist.

Here’s Coach Herbers on the chances we see Smitty tomorrow, and what he thought about Atte tonight.

The IceHogs have killed 38 of their last 40 penalties.  Pretty good.

Admirals and Wolves tomorrow…don’t forget, 7:30 scheduled start…but Marquette has senior day…..so we’ll see how quickly they get in and get out.

QUESTIONS:

– Was Hutton good or lucky or both?  Lots of rebounds out there.

– Thoughts on Valentine’s big hit?

– What made you pull out your hair more….the lack of success on shots, or the lack of success on the power play?

– Hutton has played 28 games for the IceHogs…. If they had him all year long, do you think they’d be in first place?

– How big is the game tomorrow?  A 4 point week sounds a lot better than a 2 point week.