The Admirals won 1-0 in a shootout against the Chicago Wolves Tuesday night. The game was deadlocked all the way through regulation and overtime – and eventually even went to the sudden death rounds of the five round shootout.

The game was given its conclusion courtesy of Patrick Cehlin’s game-winning shootout goal. And Scott Darling capped off a thirty-six save shutout in the win for his fifth shutout of the season.

“It was a pretty good hockey game,” said a modest Milwaukee Admirals assistant coach Stan Drulia after the game on 1250 Sports Radio WSSP. “A lot of guys played well. Chicago had their chances. Scott Darling was exceptional.”

This game was stunning for the goaltending and defensive efforts displayed from both sides. For the first time this season – the Chicago Wolves entered the third period scoreless. That scoreless trend lasted all the way to the shootout. Both Scott Darling and Jake Allen picked up shutouts for their regulation efforts.

The Wolves went first in the shootout and wheeled out their top scorer Ty Rattie – whose backhander missed wide. Mathieu Tousignant, the Admirals would-be leadoff hitter of late in these scenarios, did it again. Tousignant was the first man to put a puck in the net, first round of the shootout – second skater, and lifted a shot over Allen’s right shoulder.

Keith Aucoin answered right back in the second round of the shootout and give the Wolves their first taste of a goal in the game. He managed to beat Darling’s glove to make it 1-1. Taylor Beck followed but was stopped Allen’s paddle to keep things level out of two rounds of the shootout.

Not content with stress levels – the 1-1 scoreline in the shootout carried through five rounds and into sudden death. In the sixth round, after Derek Nesbitt was denied from a five hole attempt, Patrick Cehlin skated in from center – stayed center – fired between the circles – and beat Allen five hole to give the Admirals the 1-0 shootout victory.

Darling continued to display just how good he has been with the Admirals this season. His thirty-six save shutout tonight was his fifth shutout of the season and he has only made eighteen starts. He has been phenomenal when given the opportunity.

“When you keep [Scott Darling] hungry he always responds,” said Drulia. After he sat out a for lengthy periods of time with [Magnus Hellberg] playing and [Marek Mazanec] playing, then [Pekka Rinne] was down, then his injury, and all those types of things – his first game back, every time, he is exceptional. He does a lot of good things.”

Despite the lack of games played, which via minutes logged put him out of contention for many of the statistical categories such as goals against average or save percentage, Darling is now tied for second in the AHL in shutouts – trailing only his counterpart tonight, Allen, who earned his league leading sixth in a shootout defeat.

Ramblings: Prior to the game, the Milwaukee Admirals reassigned Josh Shalla to the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. Vinny Saponari returned to the lineup after an upper body injury he sustained against the Lake Erie Monsters last Friday. Scott Valentine moved into sole possession of the twentieth spot on the Admirals all-time AHL games played list with his one-hundred-and-eighty-seventh game with Milwaukee.

What are your reactions from this game? How brilliant has Scott Darling been for the Milwaukee Admirals this season? Shouldn’t Darling be the man in net heading towards the playoffs? Considering the playoff-like atmosphere, and potential that this could be a first round match up, what does this game say about the Admirals defense?

The Admirals lost 3-1 against the Grand Rapids Griffins Sunday night. It was a strong night for the visitors as they outshot the Milwaukee 36-27 and had yet another great performance from Petr Mrazek en route to a win that ended the Ads point-streak at four games.

“[Grand Rapids] played a smart game,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “They controlled the puck. They got pucks deep on us. And they worked. We anticipated that they would be a little bit more fatigue than they looked, but that’s why they won the league last year.”

In the first period the Griffins were on the receiving end of a quick whistle that cost Miikka Salomaki an opening goal. Patrick Cehlin’s shot from the left wing trickled through Petr Mrazek’s pads, was rolling towards goal, and then Salomaki pushed it in. Unfortunately, the whistle blew just as the Finn barreled in on goal for the puck.

“[The official] apologized,” said Evason. “He just said, he thought the goaltender had it, and he just said, sorry. It happens. Obviously, big goal too. For us, momentum. Just a bad break.”

Former-Admiral Jordin Tootoo clobbered Mathieu Tousignant into the boards in the second period – and it drew the ire of Mike Liambas. Tootoo was going to receive a penalty for boarding, but Liambas instigated and landed some decent blows. Once the dust settled, Liambas also received a ten minute misconduct to go along with an instigator and his fighting major.

Liambas now has 258 penalty minutes this season and is second only to Tootoo in team history in that respect. His combatant tonight holds the record with 266 penalty minutes from the 2004-05 season.

After leading the way in shots for the majority of the contest – the Griffins finally found the back of the net. Francis Wathier was called for kneeing to give the division leaders their second power-play of the game. Ryan Sproul’s shot from the right point was saved by Marek Mazanec with the pads. Yet, he kicked the save out to the left wing for an easy rebound goal for Teemu Pulkkinen – his twenty-ninth goal of the season.

With a power-play putting life back into the Admirals game – they found a breakthrough in the third period that leveled the score at 1-1. Filip Forsberg ripped a shot from the point that eluded four bodies in front of Mrazek and into the net. It was Forsberg’s eleventh goal of the season.

“We didn’t feel we got enough chances in the first two periods,” said Filip Forsberg. “We know that they have some pretty slow d-men there – pretty good size – so we have to use our feet. I think we did that pretty good in the third and created some chances. It was unlucky we couldn’t score more than one goal.”

The Griffins struck back with 3:32 remaining in regulation in eerily similar fashion. They had just capped off a power-play, maintained pressure in attack, and then Sproul’s blast from the right point beat a net front screen and Mazanec for the eventual game-winning goal. It was Sproul’s tenth goal of the season.

The Admirals emptied their net with 1:14 remaining. Pulkkinen’s try on the empty net, post. Mitch Callahan’s chance on the empty net, up and over. Yet Callahan followed in and set up Pulkkinen for the empty netter for his second goal of the game and thirtieth of the season.

Mrazaek has had his way against the Admirals this season and he continued his dominance tonight. He stopped twenty-six of twenty-seven chances – only beaten by a puck that cruised through a wall of traffic. In six meetings against the Admirals he has now won five games in net for the Griffins.

“He had some great saves,” said Forsberg. “We had a couple of good shots and he was there. It’s hard. We have to get in front of him. That goal that we scored we had a lot of people in front so that’s what we need to do and we didn’t do that enough until the third.”

Ramblings: Prior to the game, Mark Van Guilder was officially recalled to the Nashville Predators under emergency conditions. He made his NHL debut in Nashville against the Washington Capitals wearing his #29. Patrick Cehlin played in his one-hundredth game as an Admiral today. Meanwhile, Braden Pimm was playing in his first career AHL game after joining the Admirals in recent days from Northeastern on an ATO.

The Admirals won 4-3 against the Lake Erie Monsters Friday night. The line combination of Taylor Beck, Francis Wathier, and Austin Watson helped the team get two of the team’s four goals in their second straight win.

“We’re sound,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason of the team’s recent performances. “We’re playing the right way. Everyone is buying in. Our line combinations work. The group doesn’t care who is out of the lineup – who is up in Nashville – they just play the game. It’s a good mix.”

The Monsters came out as the better looking of the two teams in the first period. They had their reward at 4:18 of the frame when Markus Lauridsen scored his third goal of the season. Andrew Agozzino threw a pass from the left wing faceoff circle that picked out the open Lauridsen. The shot whipped past Marek Mazanec to make it 1-0 Monsters.

Vinny Saponari tied the game back up later in the period from a bizarre series. It appeared as though the puck was offsides – and the Monsters sort of reacted with a panic when they realized it wasn’t. Miikka Salomaki cradled it, passed to the left wing side of the cage for Mark Van Guilder, and Van’s pass to Saponari saw him patiently wait for the roof of the net to open for him. It did, and he beat Sami Aittokallio for his fifteenth goal of the season.

Then came an incredibly poor goal that allowed the Monsters to take a 2-1 lead into the locker room with fifty-seven seconds remaining in the first period. Mazanec was run over from an initial scoring chance by David van der Gulik. In the melee, Mazanec lost his goaltending stick and really didn’t have his bearings set as the play continued. Mazanec kicked his stick into the net as he tried gathering himself, set back in net, but Mark Olver’s shot beat him to the stick side – where Mazenec lacked the paddle to make a save. It was Olver’s fourteenth goal of the season. I still have troubles understanding why the play wasn’t blown dead for a goaltender interference call.

The Hockey Gods were there for the Admirals in the second period. They were able to score two goals in the period – both of which were down right spectacular.

Austin Watson scored his fifteenth goal of the season after a massive redirection from the end boards. Scott Valentine was rimming the puck around the boards from the right point and it hit a seam right at the trapezoid line. Aittokallio was looking around the other side of the net waiting for it to reappear. Watson had a tap in to make it 2-2.

“I guess I was just looking the right way,” said Austin Watson. “At the last second I saw it come out. If I don’t put that one away I’d be kicking myself.”

The Monsters took a too many men on the ice penalty in the dying minutes of the second period. Having looked great all night without the goal to show for it – the power-play unit delivered with Patrick Cehlin’s sixth goal of the season. Cehlin’s initial shot caused his stick to explode in half. He raced to the bench, grabbed a fresh twig, skated down the right wing wall, and fired a wrister that whistled into the net with 0.7 seconds remaining in the second period. I wonder if he scored that goal with someone else’s stick for as quick as that play happened.

Taylor Beck hit plenty of iron tonight: power-play, even strength, shorthanded, he pinged pipe a lot. Fortunately for him, Austin Watson set him up perfectly with a wing to wing pass that gave Beck a clean look on net for his fourteenth goal of the season – and first goal since the opening game of the Ads four-game road trip.

Goals of the bizarre continued with an Andrew Agozzino shot from the far left wing corner. The puck seemed to beat Mazanec right along the skate and near post and squeak in for Agozzino’s thirteenth goal of the season.

With the game tightened up at 4-3, and an empty net, the Admirals were able to survive a late push from the Monsters to extend their current point streak to four games. In the month of March, ten games, they are now 7-2-0-1 (15 points).

Ramblings: The team wore throwback uniforms tonight in honor of the 2004 Calder Cup Champions. They’ll be wearing them again for Sunday’s game against the Grand Rapids Griffins. Joonas Jarvinen and Simon Moser remained out with injury. Josh Shalla was a healthy scratch tonight. In the first period, following his goal, Vinny Saponari was injured and did not return from the game. He is probable for Sunday.