The Admirals lost 6-2 against the Chicago Wolves Friday night. This is the Admirals sixth consecutive loss on home ice. The defeat to the Wolves sees the gap in the Midwest Division between the two grow to four points.

“We felt good about playing good on the road,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “Clearly we don’t feel good about playing at home which absolutely makes no sense. No sense at all.”

The Wolves scored the opening goal moments after the Admirals had a goal reviewed and called off.

A net front scramble for the Admirals led to netminder Jordan Binnington getting bowled over. Rich Clune appeared to push the puck across but, upon further review, the call on the ice went down as no goal.

Just moments after the goal review the Wolves found themselves on an odd-man rush. Pat Cannone and Shane Harper had a two on one with Jonathan Diaby choosing to attack the puck carrier Cannone. The pass flew over to Harper and he buried a wrist shot to the blocker side of Magnus Hellberg for his eleventh goal of the season.

In the second period the Wolves extended their lead to 2-0 off of their first power-play chance of the game. Jeremy Welsh was stationed low to the right wing side of Hellberg’s cage when he received a pass from Philip McRae. It appeared as though Welsh was looking to toss a no-look spinning backhand pass to his opposite wing but, as the puck was en route, Joe Piskula deflected it past his goaltender to gift Welsh his eighth goal of the season.

The Wolves added another goal only thirty-five seconds later. Brent Regner stepped up from the right point, caused Brendan Leipsic to blow a tire, skated in closer, eyed up Hellberg, and ripped a shot top shelf for his fourth goal of the season.

The spin-o-rama might be banned from the shootout but it can still be displayed in on-ice action. Ty Rattie had enough space on the puck, standing in front of Hellberg, to pull off a spinning backhander over the big Swede’s blocker to record his fifteenth goal of the season.

Miikka Salomaki marked his return to the Admirals lineup with a goal late in the second period. Joe Pendenza chucked a shot off of Binnington’s pads from a bad angle and the puck spilled kindly to the on-rushing Salomaki for his fifth goal of the season.

That was the high. Then came another low. With less than a minute remaining in the second period, on a four-on-four, Wolves defenseman McRae scored after skating himself off the left wing wall and into space at the middle of the point. His slap shot had Hellberg flailing his glove at thin air. It was McRae’s tenth goal of the season and the Wolves fourth of the period.

Hellberg’s night of horrors ended after that second period. He faced seventeen shots and allowed five goals. Marek Mazanec was given the net for the third period and was signaled that he was going in following the fifth goal allowed by Hellberg. The Swede entered the game with the best save percentage and goals against average. That was thumped down to Earth courtesy of tonight’s game.

“We’re professional hockey players and we have to be ready when the puck drops and it starts with me,” said Magnus Hellberg. “I have to be a lot better than I was today. I’m accountable for my actions out there. I have to make the saves to make the team able to get a chance to win and I didn’t do that today.”

The final kicker from the Wolves came from their second power-play goal of the night. Colin Fraser’s shot took a deflection off of Taylor Aronson’s stick as he got low to block the shot. The puck knuckled to goal and right to Cody Beach on the backdoor of Mazanec for his second goal of the season.

The Wolves would end the night 2/2 on the power-play. The Admirals finished the night 0/5 and have a run of 0/27 on the power-play on home ice in their last seven games.

With twelve seconds to go there was a small silver lining for the Admirals to take from this game. Jimmy Oligny was able to score his first professional goal. He skated from the left point and into space before letting a wrister fly through traffic. Binnington never picked it up.

“Felt good,” said Jimmy Oligny in regards to scoring his first professional goal. “It would have felt better in a win. I can’t really celebrate because it wasn’t a good game for us.”

Ramblings: Tonight’s scratches for the Admirals were Frederick Gaudreau (healthy), Garrett Noonan (healthy), and Johan Alm (upper body). After the game, Evason stated that Alm is not close to returning to the team as he has yet to participate in skating drills. Miikka Salomaki returned to the Ads lineup after missing the final two games of the recent road trip due to illness. Attendance for tonight’s game was 7,089.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? Where does the fault fall tonight? What do the Admirals need to do to ignite their power-play on home ice?

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The Admirals won 3-2 in overtime on the road against the Toronto Marlies Sunday afternoon. Taylor Aronson was the overtime hero today as his third goal of the season gave the Admirals their third win in four games. Not a bad road trip if I do say so myself.

It wasn’t a pretty start for the Admirals. After Viktor Arvidsson was called for holding Mike Liambas nearly was sent to the showers two-minutes into the game after a nasty boarding incident that put Stuart Percy down and out. The Marlies defenseman would not return to the game following the hit into the boards.

The two early penalties resulted in a lengthy 1:39 of five-on-three power-play for the Marlies and they were unable to cash in from it. However, they had a head of steam off of it and scored after a scramble in front of Magnus Hellberg. The initial shot by Carter Ashton was pushed aside but the puck spilled out and wasn’t found until Brandon Kozun cradled and fired into a near empty net for his second goal of the season.

The Admirals answered right back in the first period. Similar to the Marlies they were able to score after a rather lifeless power-play. Arvidsson was flattened by Matt Frattin to as the Swede got the puck out to Mark Van Guilder. It looked as if many were focused on the hit behind the play but, before the Marlies could react, Van Guilder passed over to Austin Watson on the opposite wing to score his twelfth goal of the season. Watson has scored a goal in four straight games for the Admirals.

In the second period the Admirals were able to take a 2-1 lead through Felix Girard’s third goal of the season. It was an innocent looking rush down the left wing by Girard who then decided to hit the brakes and fire on Antoine Bibeau in net. The shot was wired right into the roof.

Toronto’s twenty-seventh ranked power-play in the league then tied this game up at 2-2. Sam Carrick’s shot from the left point found the stick blade of Ryan Rupert en route to goal. The deflection beat Hellberg and Rupert scored his third goal of the season.

After a tennis match of a third period the game pushed on into overtime. The Marlies had the better of the chances made during the four-on-four portion of overtime but things were finished off in the three-on-three with just thirty seconds remaining in OT.

Colton Sissons faceoff win put himself in on goal. Bibeau disrupted Sissons bid but the puck fell back to Taylor Aronson at the top of the faceoff circles and his wrist shot flew in for his third goal of the season to cap off the Admirals four game road trip in style.

Hellberg’s start in net was his first taste of game action in eleven days. The rust didn’t show one bit. He made thirty-one saves against the Marlies and now has seven wins on the campaign with a stellar 1.50 goals against average and a 0.942 save percentage.

After losing seven straight games, dropping all five of a five game homestand, the Admirals went on a four game road trip and are coming home for Boxing Day with three wins. It would seem the ball is rolling the right way again.

Ramblings: Today’s scratches for the Admirals were exactly the same as last night against the Rochester Americans: Miikka Salomaki (illness), Garrett Noonan (healthy), and Johan Alm (upper body). Triston Grant played in his 600th game as a professional hockey player today. Marek Mazanec’s run of four consecutive starts in net finally came to an end today with Magnus Hellberg getting the back half of the two-in-two. Per Aaron Sims on Twitter: the Milwaukee Admirals players scheduled to get mumps booster shots today in Toronto.

Thoughts on today’s game? How were the Admirals able to bounce back with this four game road trip? What performances have been standing out from these road games and can the Admirals maintain this current momentum?

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The Admirals won 4-2 on the road against the Rochester Americans Saturday night. It wasn’t pretty. It was actually quite a hot mess. But, for how things have been going lately, who cares! The Admirals overcame a 2-0 deficit before winning this game in a period that saw them only record three shots on goal.

It was the Amerks that did the early damage. They scored two goals from their first three shots and scored them twenty-five seconds apart from one another.

Directly off of a faceoff the home-side picked up the opening goal after the faceoff was kicked behind Felix Girard. Ian White made a bad read on the faceoff and went left as the puck fell to Joel Armia to the right of him. Armia had the time and space to flip back on his backhand and beat Marek Mazanec to score his seventh goal of the season.

Only twenty-five seconds later the Admirals were tossing a puck out of their own net again. Zac Dalpe was racing along the right wing wall and drew the attention of four Admirals on the ice. Dalpe lost his balance and made an amazing pass while spinning on his back to find Tim Schaller breaking down the slot. The only man tracking Schaller was Brendan Leipsic but the damage was done before he could have any say. Schaller scored a wrister to make it 2-0 off of his eighth goal of the season.

In the second period a big check by Matt MacKenzie on Girard caught the eye of Mike Liambas. This was a quick scrap directly following the hit and Liambas got a few blows on before earning a take down. This is one of those instances where I feel like throwing a fight card out the window because, even though it wasn’t called on the ice, it was an instigator job from Liambas protecting his teammate. Like Girard on the check, I’m not sure MacKenzie knew what hit him.

The Admirals made a nice push following the bout by Liambas. Joe Pendenza, not a regular on the Admirals power-play, had a great chance to score from out in front of Andrey Makarov on an early power-play bid that was shot off the pads. He was put right back on the next power-play and scored off of a redirection with four seconds left in an Admirals power-play to score his fifth goal of the season.

With how the Admirals have been playing of late you might have thought a goal like this would have happened against them. Instead, another team in a miserable run had the bad bounce beat them. Leipsic appeared to be skating up to center ice to shoot the puck deep and finish his shift. Instead, the puck clipped the stick blade of Jake McCabe and managed to fool Makarov in net and go in. Fluke or not it goes down as Leipsic’s fourth goal of the season.

Just over a minute into the third period the Admirals took a 3-2 lead. Leipsic wired a stretch pass that sent Colton Sissons off on a breakaway. He stayed near post and beat Makarov to the glove-side to score his eighth goal of the season and give the Admirals their first lead of the night.

The Admirals managed to seal this game up with an empty net tally for Austin Watson. It’s his eleventh goal of the season, third goal in three games, and third empty netter. Another fun stat to think about. The Admirals scored twice in the third period to win tonight. They only registered three shots on goal in the frame.

A well-deserved shout out must be given to Mazanec for his efforts in net tonight. He may have allowed two goals in rapid succession in the first period but was lights out from that point forward – making twenty-eight saves when all was said and done. He’s been in net over Magnus Hellberg these last four games not necessarily as a knock on Hellberg but just because of how solid Mazanec has played recently. While plenty of poor performances have been happening on this spell for the Admirals it’s hard to point a finger at the performance in net.

If there was one moment in the game that the Amerks will be tearing their hair out over tonight it shouldn’t be the Leipsic long range howler. It should be their failed conversion of a full two-minute five-on-three power-play in the first period when they had scored two-goals so quickly. The Admirals were pressing. Mark Van Guilder even played the bulk of the penalty kill without a stick. And the Amerks couldn’t do anything. Game changer.

Ramblings: Tonight’s scratches included Miikka Salomaki (illness), Garrett Noonan (healthy), and Johan Alm (upper body). Marek Mazanec made his fourth consecutive start in net for the Admirals. The last time he did such a feat was at the start of this season when he made five straight starts in the Admirals first five games.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? Could the fluke goal for Brendan Leipsic symbolize that the bounces are going to start going the Admirals way? Where would the Admirals be right now without Marek Mazanec and Magnus Hellberg in net? Has quality goaltending bailed the Admirals out of massive struggles this season?

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