The Milwaukee Admirals earned a 4-1 victory in tonight’s home opener at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. This was a defensive style game against the Hershey Bears but the Admirals were up to the task and found timely offense to secure their fourth successive win to start the season.

Tyler Kelleher continues to absolutely impress. It’s not necessarily the goal scoring, going at a goal per game clip, but his pace and relentless work ethic is providing himself and his teammates with success. He’s smart defensively and has the wheels and vision to make himself a threat on the rush. Considering how well Emil Pettersson dishes a puck? It’s not actually all that odd that the two found chemistry so quickly.

This being such a defensively structured game – lots of chip and chase – it was always going to be important for the Admirals to remain out of the penalty box. They only had to work through -really- four penalty kills tonight. There was the late call for high sticking against Jimmy Oligny but there were eighteen seconds left in regulation. But, once again, the Admirals ran the gauntlet. The Admirals penalty killing group is now 19/20 on the season. That’s a trend that will undoubtedly change as the season progresses – but what a start.

Additionally, can’t ask for much more out of Anders Lindbäck. He was great tonight and especially when playing the puck. He stopped 15/16 shots on goal. He didn’t have to work too often thanks to his defense in front of him but came up big in key moments as well as helping limit those shots against himself by working that puck forward. He’s looked great to start this season.

Tomorrow focus shifts to the Rockford IceHogs. Tonight they defeated the Grand Rapids Griffins in a 3-2 shootout at the BMO Harris Bank Center. Before we get ahead of ourselves: here are tonight’s post-game interviews with Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason and many more.

What did you think about tonight’s game? How did the Milwaukee Admirals handle a more defensive game and were you impressed with the way they finished off the Hershey Bears?

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