The Admirals lost 4-3 in overtime against the Grand Rapids Griffins on the road Wednesday night. It was a matter of less than a second between the Admirals winning and the Griffins six game point streak coming to an end tonight. Instead, Any Miele scored in the last second and in overtime to steal the win in Grand Rapids tonight.

It took a little less than four minutes for the home side to get on the board. Andy Miele broke into the zone on the right wing and passed over to Mark Zengerle who passed over to Martin Frk. The Czech native gathered up the pass on the left wing and hammered a shot top shelf past Magnus Hellberg for his second goal of the season.

In the final minute of the first period the Admirals popped in a rebounder. Colton Sissons made the initial play in front of the net and his drive to the puck helped clear out Nick Jensen and Kevin Porter which lead to a loose puck chance for Rich Clune directly in front of Jared Coreau in net. Clune’s initial backhanded shot was stopped but his follow up came with Coreau down and out with no chance to save the follow up. The goal is Clune’s fifth of the season with the Admirals.

The second period started off with the Admirals taking a 2-1 lead. Garrett Noonan’s wrister from the left point seemed to go in from long range past the net front screen of Sissons. As it happens, the scorers decided that Sissons in fact got a piece of the puck as it traveled in. That makes it nineteen goals on the season for him and his fourth in his last five games.

Grand Rapids would respond off of a rather similarly worked play. Jakub Kindl managed to pound a slap shot from the blue line that found a lane through traffic to beat Hellberg in net and make it a 2-2 game. For Kindl it is his first goal scored in the AHL this season.

The Admirals followed that goal by the Griffins up with one of their own less than two minutes later. Kevin Fiala made a swooping play behind the net and snapped around with a wrister on the right wing that beat Coreau on the near post. The sneaky shot gave Fiala his fifth goal since joining the Admirals.

In the third period the Admirals attempted to park the bus and defend their 3-2 lead. It almost worked. As a matter of fact they were 0.4 seconds from winning at that scoreline. Unfortunately, following a late tripping call by Jonathan Diaby, Andy Miele caught a rebound off a Porter shot in front of the net to score on the power-play and send the game to overtime.

With three-on-three looming in the distance the Griffins secured the victory off of, guess who, Miele. Xavier Ouellet whirled a puck on net and Miele caught the shot to deflect it past Hellberg for his second goal of the night and seventeenth of the season. The Griffins point streak went to seven games. It was 0.4 seconds away from stopping cold on home ice at the hands of the Admirals.

That third period by the Admirals was the backbreaker. There were next to no offensive attacks established, created, or generated and it ended up with a period shot total of 15-3 in the Griffins favor. With the Admirals defense as depleted as it was coming in. To reply on it as heavily as they did in the third period was begging for the Griffins to attack and score the equalizer or more. They’re too good of a team to allow that much puck possession regardless of how well the Admirals blocked shots tonight. The defensive approach in that period on forward cost the Admirals the win and gave the Griffins two solid points when they should have finished the night with none.

Ramblings: Prior to the game the Admirals received Viktor Stålberg from the Nashville Predators. In addition, Frédérick Gaudreau was called up from the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. Also, defenseman Ian White missed tonight’s game due to the passing of his grandmother. For the first time in a long time it meant Mike Liambas slotting into defense. Tonight’s scratches were Miikka Salomaki (upper-body), Frédérick Gaudreau (healthy), Joe Piskula (lower-body), Ian White (family emergency), Jimmy Oligny (right knee), and Johan Alm (left wrist). In the first period, Griffins defenseman Brennan Evans suffered a groin injury and did not return to the contest.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? How frustrating was the third period effort by the Admirals? Where did the offense go? How did you feel Mike Liambas played on defense for the Admirals tonight?

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The Admirals lost 3-2 against the Lake Erie Monsters Tuesday night. The story of the night was an Admirals power-play that went 0/6 and allowed a shorthanded goal to boot. Even though the Admirals outshot Lake Erie 37-18 they lost for the fifteenth time in regulation this season.

“It’s frustrating,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “[Calvin Pickard] competed his butt off. He’s done that to us before. It looked early like he was fighting the puck and then as the period went on, first second and third, we went in thinking we’re not going to score on him. He was just on. We had some amazing looks. You throw that many pucks at the net you think you’re going to get rewarded in some way. He did a good job.”

Colton Sissons scored his eighteenth goal of the season to open up tonight’s game. Kevin Fiala hit Sissons with a feed in stride as he broke into the attacking zone. He was able to catch Calvin Pickard going low and beat him high glove side on the near post for the goal. Since the turn to the 2015 side of the calendar Sissons has scored ten goals.

After a hooking call against Jared Nightingale the Monsters managed to level things up through the first period. Joey Hishon was able to net his twelfth goal of the season but he paid a price to do it. He crashed into Jaynen Rissling’s elbow head behind the net after driving in on goal. Hishon stayed down on his stomach for a while before being assisted off the ice by Lake Erie’s athletic trainer Brent Woodside. He would return in the second period.

There was plenty of physical and post-whistle antics in the meeting between these two on Sunday. That was no exception tonight either. Triston Grant and Daniel Maggio locked horns after a spectacular save was made in net by Pickard to deny Mark Van Guilder a goal. Grant won the fight and ended up receiving an additional roughing minor for his troubles.

Whilst skating even at four-on-four – the Monsters took their first lead of the game in the second period. Michael Schumacher was able to secure a rebound off of Marek Mazanec and throw in his sixth goal of the season to make it a 2-1 game.

In the third period the Admirals allowed their sixth shorthanded goal of the season. Pontus Aberg was unable to hold the puck on the blue line and Kenny Ryan stabbed it loose and was off to the races down the right wing. He finished off the shorthanded breakaway for his eighth goal of the season.

“I don’t know,” smirked Evason when questioned on the recent record of shorthanded goals allowed by the Admirals. “It was a tough puck tonight but clearly our awareness has to be better.”

With 3:50 remaining in regulation the team went empty net to bring on the extra attacker extra early to push. They burned their timeout with 2:12 remaining and, only seven seconds later, Van Guilder buried his seventh goal of the season off a rebound to make it 3-2.

The net emptied yet again with 2:01 remaining and, despite a solid push with the extra attacker on, it resulted in nothing. Pickard shut the door to hold the Admirals at the final score of 3-2.

“Clearly you have to learn from not getting the results here tonight,” said Evason. “But we have to take a lot of positives out of tonight’s hockey game. The way we put pucks to the net these last two hockey games we’ve had tremendous opportunities to score. We just didn’t tonight.”

Ramblings: Prior to the game there were a pair of roster moves made. Joe Pendenza was recalled from the Cincinnati Cyclones while Anthony Bitetto was recalled to the Nashville Predators. Tonight’s scratches for the Admirals were Miikka Salomaki (upper-body), Joe Piskula (lower-body), Jimmy Oligny (right knee), and Johan Alm (left wrist). In the first period, Jonathan Diaby took a puck to the mouth after a shot rolled up his stick and into his face. He did return in the second period.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? What is the issue with the Admirals power-play? Was this a matter of tipping your cap to Calvin Pickard and getting on with things tomorrow night?

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The Admirals won 5-2 against the Lake Erie Monsters Sunday evening. Kevin Fiala produced his second multi-goal game of the season while Triston Grant made it five straight games with a goal.

“I think we played really well tonight both offensively and defensively,” said Magnus Hellberg. “Everybody played hard and we scored a couple of really nice goals. It was a good win for sure.”

Kevin Fiala put the Admirals on the board in the first period with his third goal of the season. Triston Grant passed over to him and Fiala held off a defenseman, waited, and waited some more before beating Sami Aittokallio high blocker side with a wrister.

Grant continued the first period scoring by tallying his tenth goal of the season. He skated in from neutral ice, received a feed back by Zach Budish, and fired on goal past a net front screen. Grant has now scored a goal in five straight games and scored six goals from his last seven contests

It took only 2:05 into the second period for the Admirals to put another puck past Aittokallio. Colton Sissons was on the receiving end of some outstanding passing put together by Viktor Arvidsson and Fiala. The 18-year old from Switzerland started the play by swooping all the way around the net looking for a wrap-around. That didn’t work but the following tic-tac-toe to Sissons at the front of the net to score five hole did. It’s his seventeenth goal of the season.

There was a really spirited fight that came in the late going of the second period. Rich Clune and Mitchell Heard chucked their gloves and helmets off a draw and proceeded to unload. They actually swung each other down to the ice, officials tried to skate in to stop them, and they popped up and went at it some more. After the bout, Clune wanted to get the crowd to make some noise and grabbed the Admirals “Shooting for a Cure” crest on the purple jersey and he left the ice.

The game wasn’t going too kindly for Aittokallio in net for the Monsters and it didn’t get better when Fiala scored his second of the night. There were plenty of bodies crushing into the Lake Erie netminder as a loose puck scramble started. Fiala was able to pop in the puck for his fourth goal of the season but Aittokallio was livid about the lack of response by the officials as he was unable to make any attempt of stopping Fiala’s chance.

“Arvidsson went to the net and he went in the goalie,” said Kevin Fiala. “The puck was just laying there in front of the net. I just had to put it in. I don’t know if it was interference or not but it was a goal. So it’s a goal now.”

The second period ended with Magnus Hellberg’s shutout bid coming up short. A puck kicked around the left wing side of goal and fell over to a slap shot awaiting Karl Stollery. His blast found a hole through Hellberg on the glove side for his fifth goal of the season.

In the third period the Monsters were able to make it a two-goal game again courtesy of Gabriel Beaupre. Lake Erie was buzzing on the shift and when the puck fell back to the point the puck was wristed in from the right point. The puck glanced off a post before going in as Beaupre’s first goal of the season.

With time running out the Monsters emptied their net early as they trailed by two. Arvidsson managed to defend at one end, skated up towards neutral, and bag his sixteenth goal of the season on the empty net marker to make it 5-2.

To set the stage for Tuesday night’s rematch there was one last fight. Heard engaged his earlier combatant Clune after the game was over and that would prove to be a really bad idea. Clune clobbered him in the post-game tilt. Both received fighting majors and game misconducts after the completion of the game.

Ramblings: The pre-game news was headlined by the Nashville Predators making a trade that sent Admirals winger Brendan Leipsic to the Toronto Maple Leafs. He will be reporting to the Marlies. Anthony Bitetto was reassigned to the Admirals ahead of the game, as well. He was a game-time decision but played through flu-like symptoms. Today’s scratches for the Admirals were Joe Piskula (lower-body), Jimmy Oligny (right knee), Johan Alm (left wrist), and Jaynen Rissling (healthy). Piskula is expected to be out for a good while. Both Oligny and Alm have returned to skating with the Swede now sans-cast on his left wrist.

Thoughts on the win? Is simplicity to the Admirals offensive approach the key to their success? Which players will need to pick up the offensive pace with Leipsic leaving via trade today and what will his loss in Milwaukee mean moving forward?

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