The Milwaukee Admirals were shutout 5-0 by the Cleveland Monsters at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena on Tuesday night.

This game started out well for the Admirals. A few bad bounces resulted in the Monsters scoring two quick goals, but the first period was by far the best of the night for the Admirals. The Monsters were aided by Terry Broadhurst, who registered the first hat trick of his AHL career. Not only that, but this was just his third career multi-goal game. This all happened in front of a twenty-seven save shutout in the Monsters debut for goaltender Jeff Zatkoff.

“Very frustrating,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “Because we thought we turned the corner. Now we’ve lost the last three in a row. We can’t continually shoot ourselves like we continue to do.”

The scoring kicked off midway through the first period on a heads-up play by Terry Broadhurst. The puck was poked away in front of the Admirals’ net and bounced right to Broadhurst, who then found the back of the net to give the Monsters the 1-0 lead.

Less than a full minute after Broadhurst’s goal, Brett Gallant gave the Monsters a two-goal lead. In an effort to dump in the puck, a bad bounce off the end boards went right to Gallant, who had an empty net after Anders Lindbäck went to play the puck.

An unlikely source of fighting, Justin Kirkland dropped his gloves and squared off with Garret Cockerill for a solid scrap. After the two threw some punches, both men headed to the locker room as a result of receiving five-minute fighting penalties 15:21 into the first period.

After Cameron Gaunce was whistled for boarding, the Admirals’ power-play was deployed with a chance to cut the lead to just one goal in the second period. Before the penalty was over, Justin Scott delivered a short-handed goal to extend the Monsters’ lead to three. Alex Carrier had fumbled the puck, resulting in a breakaway for Scott, who finished with a nice backhand over the glove of Lindbäck.

Shortly after the Monsters’ third tally of the game, Trevor Murphy was called for holding the stick and ended up getting an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty tacked on at the end. The Monsters went on the power-play and didn’t miss the opportunity. The Broadhurst brothers had a 2-on-1 advantage in front of the net, with Alex delivering a pass to Terry for the one-timer-his second goal of the game.

“The first period was really good. We gave two scoring chances. The second one was not even a scoring chance,” said Evason after the game. “Really good first period. And then we turn the puck over on the power-play. And then we’re undisciplined with our mouth in Trevor Murphy. And it goes in our net.”

To start things off in the third period, Admirals back-up goalie Jake Paterson entered the game in relief of Anders Lindbäck. This was the first time the Admirals made a goalie switch mid-game this season. In fact, the last time the Admirals made a switch at goalie came all the way back on 2/25/17 against the Grand Rapids Griffins at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena when Jonas Gunnarsson replaced Marek Mazanec.

“We took [Lindbäck] out of the hockey game because I’m sick and tired of watching us, breakaway on the power-play? Come on,” exclaimed Evason. “It can’t happen and it happens every night. So, that’s on us. As a coaching staff we have to make adjustments and if people aren’t getting it done in certain areas then there has to be some change.”

Terry Broadhurst was the star of the game, as he collected his third goal to complete the hat-trick in the third period. Carter Camper skated down the slot and took a shot that was initially stopped by Jake Paterson, but a follow-up by Broadhurst found the back of the net to put the Monsters up 5-0. The game would end at that scoreline.

“Not a good game, obviously,” stated Frédérick Gaudreau. “We just gotta be better. I feel like maybe we kind of gave up after a few goals. And that’s unacceptable. I think we really have a good team. Games like that? It’s just in our head. We have to be focused for sixty-minutes and that’s not what we did tonight. [Lindbäck] saved our back the whole year. We can’t play like that in front of him.”

The Milwaukee Admirals’ next game comes Saturday night. They will look to bounce back against the Ontario Reign at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. That will be the final game before the AHL All Star Break.

“There are still plenty of games this season,” said Jimmy Oligny. “We just gotta come together as a team and get rid of all the negativity. Just push forward and try to get the momentum all the time and not give it away all the time by doing some stupid mistakes. There is plenty of games left. We’re not pushing on the panic button just yet. It’s just a little rough patch. We can springboard off of it.”

Ramblings: Since the Milwaukee Admirals last played Saturday night, the only roster move made in the organization was Jake Paterson and Matt O’Connor once again being flipped between the Quad City Mallards (ECHL) and the Milwaukee Admirals. Tonight’s line combinations were Zolnierczyk-Smith-Butler, Richard-Zengerle-Gaudreau, Trenin-Pettersson-Kirkland, Mingoia-Bass-Moy, Murphy-Granberg, Oligny-Carrier, Allard-Dougherty. Tonight’s scratches were Derek Army (healthy), Tyler Kelleher (lower-body), Pierre-Cédric Labrie (undisclosed), Joonas Lyytinen (healthy), and Andrew O’Brien (healthy).

What were your thoughts on tonight’s game? Is this rock bottom on the 2017-18 season? Do you think the Milwaukee Admirals can use a negative result such as this to start stringing together positives?

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