The Admirals won 4-0 on the road against the Iowa Wild Saturday night. It is only the third time in team history that the Milwaukee Admirals will have started the season off with four-consecutive wins. You’d have to go back to the 1988-89 and 1982-83 seasons to find the other two.

Tonight’s standout performers were highlighted with man in net shutting the door and another picking up a natural hat trick. Marek Mazanec earned his first career AHL shutout by stopping all twenty-nine shots he faced in net tonight. And rookie winger Viktor Arvidsson scored the Admirals first road hat trick since 3/29/09 when Mike Santorelli did so in Chicago.

The Admirals fourth line kept their solid start to the season going by scoring tonight’s opening goal. Zach Budish fired a low-wrister from the right wing that netminder Johan Gustafsson kicked back into the slot. Joe Pendenza’s center-lane drive saw him get to the rebound before Gustafsson could spot the puck. It was a tap in for Pendenza – his second goal of the season.

After a frantic night for the penalty box last night there was only one penalty called in the first period. The Wild’s captain Stephane Veilleux was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct as he was on the bench.

The resulting power-play saw Viktor Arvidsson score his second goal of the season. The Wild’s penalty kill was pressuring the puck carrier heavily and the Admirals cycled along the wall to escape the thick puck pursuit. Garrett Noonan jumped up on the play and stationed himself behind the net before laying a pass off to Arvidsson that was taken first-time. The shot would have missed the net completely if not for the unintentional assistance of ex-Admiral Jonathon Blum. The puck hit his leg and flew past his goaltender to give the Ads a 2-0 lead in the first period.

Arvidsson’s scoring would continue in the second period as he tallied two more timed to complete a natural hat trick. For his second goal of the night he was leading a two-on-one rush with Triston Grant on the left wing side of him. Rather than slip a pass, Arvidsson faked a slap shot and threw a change-up along the ice and past Gustafsson’s five hole to make it 3-0.

On the Admirals second power-play of the night – Arvidsson would complete his first North American hat trick with an absolute howitzer. His slap shot was borderline violent and resulted in his fourth goal of the season, third goal of the night, and third power-play goal of this young season.

The third period was really cruise mode for the Admirals. The defending stayed strong and allowed for a first career AHL shutout for Marek Mazanec. The 23-year old Czech never looked rattled for a moment in tonight’s game. He stopped all twenty-nine shots he faced tonight. It’s the fourth time in two seasons that Admirals have shutout the Wild.

Ramblings: The defensive shuffling continued tonight with Taylor Aronson being brought back into the lineup at the expense of Jimmy Oligny. Jonathan-Ismael Diaby kept his place in the team-sheet for his second appearance of the season. Scratches outside of Oligny included the injured pair of Patrick Cehlin and Mike Liambas. The hat trick by Viktor Arvidsson was the first by an Admiral since Austin Watson’s teddy bear toss night performance on 4/12/14 against the Chicago Wolves. Raphael Bussieres of the Iowa Wild was injured late in the second period and did not return to the contest. The Admirals have scored 17 goals in 4 games this season. The next closest in the AHL are the Bridgeport Sound Tigers with 15 goals.

Thoughts from tonight’s game? Is Marek Mazanec becoming a rock for a young Admirals defense? Is there something wrong with Colton Sissons and Miikka Salomaki offensively or are the rookies just looking that much better through four games? How long can this unbeaten run to start the season last for the Milwaukee Admirals?

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The Admirals won 4-3 on the road against the Iowa Wild on Friday night. Austin Watson’s hot start to the season continued as he became the first Admiral since Alexander Radulov (2006-07) to score a goal in each of the first three games of the season. The Admirals have won their opening three games for the first time since the 2011-12 season.

After the two team captains collided along the boards, the Admirals took the game’s first power-play and quieted the opening night crowd in Iowa with a goal. The wing-play of the Admirals on their power-play unit is strong enough to open up space right down the slot. That means setting up for rebounds or wing-to-wing passes such as Brendan Leipsic to Pontus Aberg. The young Swede picked up his second goal of the season off the power-play to make it 1-0 Admirals.

Then the first period seemed to tilt the way of the Wild. The first period ended with a hefty 14-5 shots advantage for the home team that stormed back after conceding with a goal of their own. Zach Mitchell managed to score his first professional goal. He did it by camping out in front of Marek Mazanec and backhanding a juicy rebound to make it a 1-1 game.

The Admirals answered back late in the first period following a successful penalty kill. It appeared as if Wild goaltender Johan Gustafsson overplayed a puck and Aberg caught him out of position. He managed to leap back from behind the net and backhand a shot past the scrambling goalie for his second goal of the game.

Iowa took a roughing penalty with 0.3 seconds remaining in the first period. That meant the Ads effectively had a full power-play to work with from the second period puck drop. Just two minutes into the second period and the Admirals found themselves two goals richer.

On the opening second period power-play, Colton Sissons scored his first goal of the season after a poor turnover by the Wild behind their own net. A minute and eleven seconds following Sissons goal and Austin Watson scored – his third in three games this season. Leipsic hit Watson with a pass as he barreled down the slot. It was Leipsic’s third primary assist of the game. The Watson goal was enough for the Wild to swap goalies and bring in John Curry.

Watson would go to the box for a hooking call midway through the second period. His role on the PK was substituted with Aberg who seemed to get lost in the Wild’s puck shuffle. When the puck got to Zach Phillips it left Aberg and Anthony Bitetto scrambling to the right wing. Phillips’ pass across the penalty kill would result in a tap in for Curt Gogol to make it a 4-2 contest.

This game stayed at that two goal margin until the Wild scored with their net empty and the extra attacker on. With 46.6 seconds remaining, Danny Syvret’s point shot ricocheted through traffic and past Mazanec to make it a one-goal game. The goal was credited to Brett Sutter for his first goal as a member of the Wild.

Despite the late tally and a strong push against Mazanec and the Admirals late. The Wild ended up dropping their home opener and the Ads continue their hot start to the season with their third regulation win from three games.

Ramblings: The scratches tonight included Patrick Cehlin (hip), Mike Liambas (undisclosed injury), and Taylor Aronson (healthy scratch). It meant we saw the all left-handed defense for the Admirals this season – with an introduction to Jonathan-Ismael Diaby in place of Aronson. The Admirals and Wild combined for 15 total penalties tonight. The Ads PP went 2/7 while the Wild’s PP went 1/8.

Thoughts on tonight’s effort? Are you at all worried over the Admirals defense? Would you start Marek Mazanec again tomorrow night or give Magnus Hellberg his first start of the season? Which young forward has impressed you more, Brendan Leipsic or Pontus Aberg?

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The Admirals won 3-2 on the road against the Rockford IceHogs Saturday night. Marek Mazanec put in a first star performance with thirty-one saves. And Joe Pendenza’s first career goal as a professional hockey player ended up going down as tonight’s game-winner.

Being that this was the opening game of the season for the IceHogs you’d have expected their energy levels to be very high. They were by far the more lively team in the opening period and it seemed as if the Admirals were looking to head into the locker room at a 0-0 deadlock.

The IceHogs were finally rewarded for all their first period pressure after a quick back-and-forth of chances. Teuvo Teravainen ripped a two-on-one chance just wide of Marek Mazanec. Then, after a turnover by the IceHogs, Brendan Leipsic was in-behind the defense and missed on a breakaway chance.

The next rush back up the ice resulted in a shot by Matt Carey leaking through Mazanec and trickling closer and closer to the goal. Ryan Hartman won a race to insure that the puck went in and gave the IceHogs a 1-0 lead after the first twenty-minutes.

Austin Watson recorded his second goal of the season and did so twenty-one seconds into the second period. Mark Van Guilder won an in-zone faceoff and Watson was waiting for it as if he were a quarterback. He fired off the successful draw and beat IceHogs goaltender Michael Leighton. Watson scored twenty-two seconds into the third period last night.

Van Guilder would give the Admirals a one-goal lead after he crashed the net and put in a loose puck. The line that features Watson, Van Guilder, and Salomaki were buzzing around the net and the puck spilled to the Admiral veteran who has now scored a goal in five seasons for Milwaukee.

Mazanec was really looking solid during the course of the first two periods in this game. It looked like the IceHogs were really in need of an ugly goal and that is precisely what they got with four-minutes remaining in the second period. Zach Miskovic’s shot from the point went into traffic, took a deflection, and beat Mazanec. The goal was credited to Hartman – his second goal on the night.

The fourth line of the Admirals would come through with the game-winning goal in the third period. After a puck fooled Adam Clendening behind the IceHogs’ cage, Frederick Gaudreau pounced, collected, and threw a nearly blind backhanded pass out to the left wing side of the net. Joe Pendenza was the man on the spot for Gaudreau’s feed and earned his first career goal as a professional hockey player.

Rockford emptied their net after an icing call with 1:19 remaining in the third period. The man who stood out the most in this game, Mazanec, held his own yet again. He had thirty-one saves tonight – including a big time blocker save with only seconds remaining. For my money that was the best performance Mazanec has put together as an Admiral. He came up big multiple times.

The Admirals next games are in Iowa this coming Friday and Saturday. They should get some more time to comb over things from an opening weekend that saw them grab all four points. It’s possible, with nine defensemen on the roster, that we could also see a shake up as well. Still. When you’re winning games. It’s hard to change something that is working. And the defensive effort the Admirals had in the third period was outstanding.

Ramblings: The Admirals dressed the exact same roster as they did in yesterday’s opener. That meant healthy scratches for Jonathan-Ismael Diaby, Mikko Vainonen, Jaynen Rissling, and Josh Shalla. Patrick Cehlin (hip) and Mike Liambas (undisclosed) remain out with injury.

Thoughts on tonight’s performance? Would you have expected the Admirals to win both games here on opening weekend? What is your long term outlook for the Ads season? Would you change anyone on defense? Would you consider Magnus Hellberg for either of next weekend’s games in Iowa?

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The Admirals won 6-3 against the Charlotte Checkers in Friday night’s season opener. The new faces for the Admirals made some serious dents tonight as Viktor Arvidsson, Pontus Aberg, Frederick Gaudreau, and Felix Girard all scored goals in their AHL debuts. Yet, the familiar face of Austin Watson was the difference when he scored twenty-two seconds into the third period to give the Ads a lead they’d hold onto until the final horn.

“The Nashville Predators organization has talked for a few years about getting more skill and more offense,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “I think clearly it’s a credit to the scouts and or Paul Fenton and David Poile for signing these guys. There’s been a shift for sure I think to have that skill.”

The Admirals opened tonight’s scoring on the power-play. It seemed as if whoever was operating within the faceoff circles for the Admirals was getting good looks with the man-advantage. The beneficiary of this was Viktor Arvidsson who bashed in a rebound after a one-timer by Brendan Leipsic fell right into his lap.

Only minutes later the Checkers returned the favor. Phil DiGiueppe’s one-timed effort spanked off the crossbar, down, and in. Even if Marek Mazanec tracked the pass from defenseman Dennis Robertson to DiGiueppe he’d have had a hard time stopping that shot where it was placed.

Pontus Aberg was the next new Admiral to get on the scoresheet and he did it in spectacular style. After Johan Alm tossed a puck over to him in the Admirals defensive half, Aberg proceeded to race up ice, into neutral, deked past Robertson, and finished off his coast-to-coast run by scoring on Drew MacIntyre.

The Admirals extended their lead to 3-1 in the second period from a third different goal scorer. This go-round it was Frederick Gaudreau who tallied with a crafty bit of work from his hands. He managed to move around Keegan Lowe and pull back on MacIntyre to the near post for his first career professional goal.

Next came a series of fights and road goals.

Kyle Hagel appeared to jump Anthony Bitetto in the first bout. Hagel was given an instigator and a misconduct for his actions that left Bitetto with a cut above his left eye. Justin Shugg followed up with a goal for the Checkers after running past Taylor Aronson and beating Mazanec with a wrister. The second fight was initiated on the Admirals end this time. Jimmy Oligny shoved Brendan Woods hard into the Checkers net and the two engaged quickly. Give the decisive win there to Oligny on the take down.

Right after an Admirals power-play the Checkers were able to cap off the second period with an equalizer to make it 3-3. Trevor Carrick fired a low shot that Zach Boychuk expertly redirected. The deflection came only a few feet in front of Mazanec and left the Czech no time to react.

With the Admirals losing a two goal lead in the second period they had an immediate response for the Checkers to start the third period. A mere twenty-two seconds into the frame and Miikka Salomaki’s wing to wing pass was flicked up and over MacIntyre by Austin Watson. It was a tough fight for Watson to get body position and a piece of Salomaki’s pass but, when he did, the puck took a weird flight pattern that almost got a piece of Mark Van Guilder in front of the net. It goes down as a goal for Watson. It’s his 43rd career goal with the Admirals.

Another familiar face to the Admirals lit the lamp next. After a stretch pass by the Checkers was intercepted by Gaudreau, his rush into the zone and subsequent layoff put Zach Budish into sniper mode. He hammered the puck past MacIntyre for his 5th career goal as an Admiral.

To close this one off, Felix Girard tallied an empty netter to give the Admirals a 6-3 scoreline for their season opener. The goal for him is as simple as it gets but Aberg’s effort to push the puck his way summed up the Ads performance rather nicely tonight: smart with speed.

“We have a lot of young guys that have a lot of skill,” said Anthony Bitetto. “It’s going to be fun to watch this year. I think we tighten up the little things: neutral zone, [defensive] zone. I think we’re going to have a good start and a good run.”

Ramblings: The scratches tonight included Joshua Shalla, Mike Liambas (undisclosed injury), Patrick Cehlin (hip), Jonathan-Ismael Diaby, Mikko Vainonen, and Jaynen Rissling.

Thoughts from the opener? What do you make of your new look Milwaukee Admirals? Can this team be special with the skill that they have? What are some of the negatives you might have seen from the opening contest? And can the team carry this offense into Rockford tomorrow night?

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