The Milwaukee Admirals have matched their franchise record for a winning streak that they set last season. With their 3-1 win against the San Diego Gulls Saturday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center the winning streak has hit nine-games.
Kevin Fiala finally picked up his first goal of the season and did so three and a half minutes into the game. Cody Bass raced forward and around the net from the left wing side. As he moved in the puck kicked out by Fiala on the doorstep of the cage on the right wing side. He banked a shot off of goaltender John Gibson’s glove arm and into the net.
The Admirals quick first period lead didn’t last long. Jimmy Oligny was tagged for a boarding minor after pasting Bryan Moore hard into the boards. Moore stayed down for a moment and would leave down the Gulls tunnel towards the locker room. He would return to the ice in the second period. On the resulting power-play former member of the Admirals Chris Mueller rifled a shot through Marek Mazanec to score his fourth goal of the season. It was also an AHL milestone moment for Mueller. That goal was his 300th career point in the AHL.
In the second period Nic Kerdiles finally got his wish of a dance partner to drop the gloves with. Earlier in the sandwich stanza he had tried to fight Trevor Murphy and received a roughing penalty following what I’d best describe as a tackle. Following a shot at Mazanec long after a whistle had sounded for an offsides call, Conor Allen raced over, dropped the gloves, and the two scrapped it out. The win in this tilt goes to Kerdiles who did more with his fists, causing a cut to open over the bridge of Allen’s nose, and had the take down to finish it.
With 2:23 remaining in the second period Frédérick Gaudreau continued his outstanding run of form by providing a highlight reel goal. Viktor Arvidsson, from the left wing wall, delivered a feed past Matt Bailey and into the center lane drive of Gaudreau who was now one-on-one with Gibson in goal. Gaudreau delivered a move that would make Peter Forsberg proud as he whipped his left arm out with the puck still on his tape to glide past Gibson for his fifth goal of the season. The primary assist from Arvidsson extended his AHL best points streak on the season to twelve-games. He has scored in every game since returning from the Nashville Predators.
The third period saw Mazanec and the Admirals survive extended periods on the penalty kill. In the space of seven-minutes they battled through a five-on-three and yet another minor penalty to maintain their 2-1 lead on the scoreboard. With the last of the minor penalty against Félix Girard completed the Gulls maintained offensive zone control and cycled their way into yet another power-play opportunity. Once more, the Admirals penalty kill survived.
With 1:15 remaining the Gulls brought Gibson to the bench for the extra attacker. Adam Payerl nearly made this pay immediately but his long range empty net bid missed wide left and icing was called. Fortunately he would get a second crack at the empty net following a zone clearance by Arvidsson that sent him free to skate the puck right into the open net. The goal for Payerl was his third of the season.
Ramblings: Prior to tonight’s game the Nashville Predators reassigned Colton Sissons to the Milwaukee Admirals and activated Eric Nystrom from injured reserve. Tonight’s line combinations were: Arvidsson-Sissons-Gaudreau, Fiala-Reinhart-Bass, Åberg-Kamenev-Payerl, Devane-Girard-Görtz, Allen-Oligny, Näkyvä-Aronson, Noonan-Murphy. Tonight’s scratches were: Eric Robinson (healthy), Stevie Moses (upper-body), and Johan Alm (lower-body). Both injured players have been skating and might be returning to the lineup soon. Former Admirals captain and current captain of the Gulls Joe Piskula missed his fourth consecutive game due to injury.
Thoughts on this game? Has Kevin Fiala settled down these first two games back since his suspension and injury? How impressed were you by the penalty killing in the third period?
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Fiala looked very good. The PK was excellent, especially considering that Milwaukee had 4 minors called against them in the third period to ZERO for San Diego.
The ref looked like a XXX. That was the worst officiated period of hockey that I have seen since 1990 and the Derek Martin game! Here is a partial list of what that BUM didn’t call in the period 3.
At 15:00, Aberg took a stick to the face and was down for 5 to 10 seconds. The SD goalie, Gibson, fell down (dove) when brushed by an Admiral in the low slot. Later, Gibson came out of his crease and threw a body check into an Admirals player. He also tried to bump into another Admiral. Gibson also waived (swung) his stick at Girard and Gaudreau. Gaudreau complained to the ref about what happened. On one of the power plays, SD controlled the puck. The Admirals finally got a stick on it by the faceoff dot in the northwest circle. The Admirals player was tripped by the Gulls player. The entire crowd saw it, but no call. That started a bunch of catcalls from the crowd.
My favorite, “the ref came from Madison”. Another poorly officiated (football) game.
Then there was Nic Kerdiles. If he graduated from UW, his degree should be revoked. He pulled so much garbage that he would get his own paragraph.
I have been to 7 Admirals games so far this season. The refs really stank in 5 of the them!
They need retraining or more time in the ECHL. They aren’t good enough for the AHL.
That Gaudreau goal really was a beauty. He has played really well this season. Very happy for him. It was also nice to see Fiala play without Jon Blum (the I deserve better than this) syndrome .
FITF: You sir… just came up with my new favorite syndrome.
adsfan: Small question on the officiating, weird one as well, but was it me or was that the loudest officiating crew you’ve ever heard? They sounded like howling dogs with so many of the offsides and icing calls. I just laughed.
Be honest here, the ref was letting things go on both sides of the ice. There were a few penalties the Ads got away with as well.
“The SD goalie, Gibson, fell down (dove) when brushed by an Admiral in the low slot”
That was an obvious goalie interference penalty. Our player (can’t remember who it was, maybe Reinhart?) coming from behind the net, tried to sneak behind the goalie as he was backing into his crease and they collided. We got away with that one, which is why I think he didn’t call Gibson for making a check on a player later that same period.
I hate when people focus solely on the ref’ing. :( With the one exception of the Derek Martin game years ago, I can’t recall an Admirals game where the referees have notoriously affected the outcome of the game. Every penalty the Admirals took tonight were legit penalties with the exception of the boarding call on Allen (in my opinion). Both teams have to deal with the refs and this ref decided to basically let the players play tonight. He only called the glaringly obvious ones.
@Steve: While I would agree with you in general, how do you explain that Milwaukee had 4 penalties in the third period to ZERO for SD when both sides were committing penalties?
Besides Aberg getting hit in the face with a stick, another Admiral took a high stick to the back of the helmet. I thought that the refs were compelled to protect against hits to the head? The Aberg one should have been called. The other one caused no real harm. The goalie contact caused no real harm either. Gibson was looking for penalties the whole game. He was using his size to try and intimidate the Ads forwards, hence the stick waiving garbage. I got to see him up close for 2 periods. He did a lot of unusual things for a goalie. They usually avoid contact rather than seeking it out. I think that he suffers from Jan Lasak syndrome. He did that when he played for the Ads.
You must have seen the Admiral puck carrier get tripped when he could have gone down the ice for a potential breakaway. That is a penalty every time. A scoring chance was denied in the third period by a bad ref. The crowd was booing loudly, they saw it live. That would be a “glaringly obvious penalty” that was not called against San Diego when the Admirals were shorthanded. Be honest, the ref let the Gulls get away with a lot of cheap garbage in the third period. I could have lived with the penalties being 3-2 Admirals instead of the 4-0 that is in the record. I don’t remember seeing this ref previously. He was a blank slate to me coming into this game. Now, he is just another stuffed shirt who shouldn’t be in his current position. See the Peter Principle.
You are correct that Kerdiles saw Allen (whom he fought in the second period after winding up for the slap shot on goal AFTER the off sides whistle, and getting no penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct) coming and turned to face the boards. I could see Kerdiles turn his head on the ice to look at the ref and smile at the call. Then he turned back and laid there for a long time. Please don’t tell me that the “players police themselves” for the second period snafu. That is what the paid referees are supposed to do. Protect the goalie on that kind of play! Fortunately, Maz was ready for that open, blistering slap shot that never should have been taken. Kerdiles is a piece of trash who was rewarded for his continuing bad behavior in the game by Referee Geno Binda.
@Daniel: Yes, the linesmen were very loud. Even though most of the sound is attenuated by the end glass in front of me, I could hear many of the “NOs” last night on off sides and icing rulings. Those guys were definitely not the usual linesmen, like #90, AKA Lurch, tall and quiet.
I used to sit in the neutral zone across the street and kind of miss the sounds of the game since the newer, taller glass with taller stanchions was installed in the BMOHBC a few years ago for the last NCAA men’s ice tourney games.
Lavender, feel free to use Jon Blum syndrome any time it is warranted! Maybe I should copyright it?