The Admirals won 4-2 over the San Antonio Rampage Saturday night. Calle Jarnkrok continued his hot start with the Ads by scoring his fifth goal with the Admirals. Also making a major dent in tonight’s game was goaltender Scott Darling who stopped twenty-five of twenty-seven shots on goal in his first win since January.

“Tremendous,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason of Darling’s performance. “[Darling’s] game was in control – really in control. To not play for as long as he did and then have the composure that he did in that hockey game – clearly we feel comfortable with either [goalie].”

Calle Jarnkrok continued his incredible start in an Admirals sweater by netting his eighteenth goal of the season to make it 1-0. Jarnkrok’s initial shot, right on the goal mouth, was kicked out by Scott Clemmensen to the front of the net. After some skipping and knuckling the puck found its way right back to Jarnkrok who tipped it by for a power-play goal – and his fifth goal as an Admiral.

The Rampage did have an answer goal in the first period. And boy was it a good one. John McFarland was able to take advantage of Charles-Olivier Roussel as he was skating backwards, deked him to the outside, and flew across Scott Darling – beating him post to post. That’s McFarland’s seventh goal of the season. I doubt he scores a better goal than that one.

With their power-play just set to expire, Anthony Bitetto whipped a wrist shot towards the net and found a redirection from Austin Watson to give the Admirals a late 2-1 second period lead. It’s Watson’s fifteenth goal of the season – and first scored in five games.

Controversy decided to make an appearance in the third period in the form of a shorthanded breakaway and call for a penalty shot. The Admirals lost their zone and Ryan Martindale was off to the races. Patrick Cehlin was the closest man to him and reached out with a stick, catching Martindale ever so slightly on the arm, and it drew the call for a penalty shot – and also robbed Darling of a magnificent save. On the penalty shot, Martindale was able to best the Ads netminder – outwaited him and elevated the puck high once Darling spread out – and it gave him his seventh goal of the season.

“The ref will see it when he watches the replay,” said Scott Darling of the penalty shot call. “It’s just unfortunate, but the Hockey Gods shined on us tonight.”

Hockey Gods, indeed. The Admirals had a karma boost moments later when Mark Van Guilder, sitting on Clemmensen’s blocker side of the net, was in the perfect place at the perfect time. Bitetto’s shot on goal couldn’t be contained by the veteran goaltender and it was a tap in for Van Guilder’s twelfth goal of the season – and restored the Admirals one goal advantage.

The game was capped off by a rather bizarre empty net goal. Miikka Salomaki ended up getting credited with it. If so, he scored the empty netter with the net off of its moorings. There was some discussions from the refs in regards to the play and it could well see a scoring change if they ruled San Antonio intentionally pushed the net off. No matter who receives final credit for the goal – it sealed the Admirals sixth win in seven games.

Ramblings: With their victory tonight – the Admirals have leaped the Rockford IceHogs in the standings. Scott Darling made his first appearance in net for the Admirals since 2/23/14 at Grand Rapids. In that game he earned his fourth shutout of the season, making twenty-nine saves, but losing in the shootout. Calle Jarnkrok now has seven points in five games with the Admirals: five goals and two assists.

Thoughts from tonight’s win? Is the team finally starting to find their identity and groove? Does the effort tonight by Scott Darling have you wanting more or should the balance in net remain as is?

The Admirals won 6-5 in a shootout against the Rockford IceHogs Friday night. It wasn’t as physically destructive as last weekend – but it was one heck of a game to watch.

“We knew that they were going to come hard at us,” said Calle Jarnkrok. “We beat them pretty big two times. Great battle today. Good win for us. Big win.”

The game was fairly wide open from the first period forwards, saw many quick response goals, and trucked into the shootout where the Admirals took the final point after a Vinny Saponari game-winner.

Marek Mazanec stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout to win his first career shootout on North American ice. In the game he stopped twenty-four of twenty-nine shots on goal for his twelfth win of the season.

Francis Wathier scored his first career goal as an Admiral to kick off a first period that saw seven-combined goals. Mark Van Guilder tied up with Terry Broadhurst in the low left wing and caused the puck to flip up. When it settled back down on the ice Wathier was in a shooting position and smacked it by Jason LaBarbera for his sixth goal of the season.

“It was nice to get the first [goal],” said Francis Wathier. “You always want to help your new team to succeed. To get the first one – was a little bit over-excited but that’s how much I wanted that one.”

The IceHogs managed to score the next two goals off of the tape of Jeremy Morin. His first goal of the night came from a left wing drive where he barreled in on Marek Mazanec and coolly slid the puck between the wickets. On his second of the night, he was able to cash in on one-timer on the power-play following a Mathieu Tousignant faceoff violation. Morin now has twenty-four goals on the season – five of which came against the Admirals

The Ads responded thirty-three seconds after the second Morin goal with a beauty of a passing play. Wathier dropped the puck behind him as he entered the zone to Anthony Bitetto. Mark Van Guilder was working his way down the slot – and was greeted by a phenomenal shot pass at the blue line from Bitetto. It was begging for a redirection to goal – something Van Guilder did with ease for his eleventh goal of the season.

Brad Mills, the pest from last weekend’s festivities, picked up a goal for the IceHogs following a sloppy shift from the Admirals in their own zone. Scott Ford and Scott Valentine were both in scramble mode following failed clearances – and it put Mills right between then for his fourth goal of the season.

The Admirals were able to equalize and claim a late first period lead after successive goals in the span of seventeen seconds.

Patrick Cehlin marked his return to the ice with a power-play goal. LaBarbera allowed a rebound to get away from him and, after much grinding on the side of the net, Cehlin was able to squeeze the puck past the veteran netminder for his fifth goal of the season.

“I felt good,” said Patrick Cehlin on his return to the ice. “I was a little bit out of shape but I got to play with two great guys. So, it was easy coming in. It felt good.”

Only seventeen seconds later, an Austin Watson pass found Taylor Beck all alone in front of LaBarbera. Beck actually seemed to freeze in front of the net – but had the time and space to get a shot off. It might not have gone in, but LaBarbera’s initial save gave Vinny Saponari plenty of net to shoot on as he belted in the rebound for his thirteenth goal of the season.

“I can’t even remember it,” laughed Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason about the wild first period. “My gosh, we were just reeling. We were up. We were down. Up. Down. Emotionally we were all over the place.”

In the second period the IceHogs were able to equalize from an impossible angle shot. Joakim Nordstrom was skating down the left wing wall, almost right in the corner, and tossed a puck to the net. It appeared to catch Mazanec off guard and he allowed the puck to jump up and by him to make it a 4-4 game. It was Nordstrom’s sixteenth goal of the season.

Calle Jarnkrok was able to net his fourth goal against the IceHogs in a week at the start of the third period. Filip Forsberg found his fellow Swede all alone on the left wing faceoff circle, fed him, and Jarnkrok’s wrister beat LaBarbera far post and down. It’s his seventeenth goal of the season – and he now has six since becoming an Admiral.

The IceHogs were able to score yet another lightning quick power-play goal to level the game at 5-5. Following the faceoff win, Adam Clendening’s point shot took a redirection by Mills for his second goal of the game.

After some really open hockey to finish off the third period, and overtime, the game required the shootout.

Milwaukee chose to shoot first and put Tousignant out for the opening attempt. It was Patrick Kane-like on the stickhandling. No joke.

“[Mathieu Tousignant] is cocky enough,” said Evason on selecting Tousignant first in the shootout. “He doesn’t care where he is. What he is doing. He has confidence that he is going to score a goal. That’s what we love about him.”

That set the stage for a Mazanec save followed by a Beck shootout goal – swinging from the left wing and softly placing a shot against the grain on the near post.

Mazanec, never having won a shootout on North American ice, did not allow allowed an IceHogs goal during the shootout.

Having seen Jarnkrok’s bid at ending the game after three shooters go bust – followed by another Mazanec save – it was up to Vinny Saponari to deliver the goods. He skated in, pumped, and went underneath LaBarbera to finish off a fantastic game in the Admirals favor.

What do you take from this game? How are the newbies, Calle Jarnkrok and Francis Wathier, looking the more the settle in?

The Admirals lost 3-2 against the Iowa Wild Wednesday night. The visitors jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead and were able to defend it from there on out – despite goals from Miikka Salomaki and Joe Piskula. The loss for the Admirals ends a four-game winning streak.

“[The Wild] played with desperation,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “They started the game the right way. We did not start the game the right way. We were not ready to play that game and that is on us.”

There is no secret that the Wild did not want a repeat of their last encounter in Milwaukee. They were able to deny the Admirals a hot start – and much more. They skated off after the first period with a 3-0 lead.

With a four-on-four situation, the Wild were able to get numbers on Charles-Olivier Roussel behind his own net and create a turnover that spilled out to the glove side of Marek Mazanec. Brett Bulmer’s initial shot attempted wasn’t doing – but his follow up effort, from his belly, elevated over Mazanec’s blocker and in for his eleventh goal of the season.

Then came the first of two power-play goals by the Wild in the first period. Both goals were rather identical. The goal from Zack Phillips, his eleventh of the season, was scored on Mazanec’s glove side following a wing-to-wing pass by Brad Winchester.

Their next power-play goal was the same story. It was a wing-to-wing pass that finished on Mazanec’s glove side. Kris Foucault set up Stephane Veilleux’s fifth goal of the season to make it a 3-0 first period lead for the Wild.

“We didn’t have desperation,” said Evason. “Is it because we scored all these goals as of late and all of the sudden we think we’re goal scorers? We tried to talk to them about simplifying our game and doing what we do but I don’t know. We’ll address it tomorrow. We’ll watch the tape. We didn’t play a fast hockey game tonight and they did.”

The Admirals were able to get on the board in the second period after a hope and a prayer shot from Miikka Salomaki. The puck was skipping into the left wing corner and Salomaki instantly tossed the puck on net from the red line – almost the Potawatomi graphic outside the trapezoid. John Curry was just getting back in net and the puck beat him to the blocker-side post and in for Salomaki’s fifteenth goal of the season.

In the third period the Admirals were able to make it a one goal game on the strength of a Joe Piskula bomb from the blue line. The Ads were able to win an in-zone face off – Piskula picked up the puck – waited for a shooting lane to open up – and blammo. He was able to zip a shot glove side of Gustafsson for his third goal of the season.

With 1:57 remaining in the game the Ads had a late power-play following a delay of game penalty by Marc Hagel. The pressure throughout the period was great from the Ads, owning the shots on goal in the frame 16-3, but the Wild defense was that much better.

With the man-advantage. With the net empty and the extra attacker on. The Admirals were just not able to get that final goal to force overtime. The Wild escaped the late pressure from the Ads to win 3-2 – holding on to that first period surge – and ending the four-game winning streak for Milwaukee.

“We’ve had a lot of success, as of late, against them on the power-play,” said Taylor Beck. “So, whether they learned from it a little bit and did some things different, we had good looks. I don’t think we can be too upset with the looks that we had it is just cashing in a bit more.”

Ramblings: Zach Budish was called up just prior to tonight’s game. He played on a line with Francis Wathier centered by Mark Van Guilder. Tonight’s scratches were all due to injury: Patrick Cehlin (upper body), Simon Moser (upper body), Joonas Jarvinen (upper body), and Magnus Hellberg (lower body).

Thoughts from tonight’s game? Where was the energy in the first period for the Admirals? Is the lack of Colton Sissons something that heavily detracts from what this team did during the four-game winning streak?