(Photo credit: Scott Paulus)

The Admirals won 6-5 against the Lake Erie Monsters Sunday night. This one ended up becoming far closer than it had to be. The Ads lead 6-2 in the third period before finding them holding on into the final seconds for a one-goal victory.

Filip Forsberg kicked off the scoring in this game with a power-play goal. The set up and goal was short and sweet. Charles-Olivier Roussel softly passed over to Forsberg who promptly one-timed it by Calvin Pickard in net for his fourth goal as an Admiral this season.

The next Admirals goals came in the late stages of the first period and took place almost one-minute apart. Kevin Henderson scored an even strength goal for his fourth of the season. Henderson was racing behind Pickard’s net and banked the puck into the net off of the netminder’s left skate. Just 1:08 after that goal the Ads secured another goal from the power-play. Roussel’s shot from the point was pinged in by Taylor Beck for his tenth goal of the season. After the horrors of playing in Lake Erie, the first period finished with the Ads leading 3-0 and outshooting their opponent by a hefty 17-7.

In the second period there were four goals scored between the Ads and Monsters – including both scoring shorthanded.

After the Ads saw Beck and Jarvinen go off to the box, the Monsters had a short opportunity to wheel out a 5-3 power-play chance. Almost the moment Beck left the box to get involved the Monsters scored on the power-play to draw the game back to 3-1. Joey Hishon scored a very crafty goal: played in-tight to Darling and still beat him top shelf. It was Hishon’s sixth goal of the season.

Then came a shorty for the Ads. The Monsters had a play set up perfectly for a one-timer on the left wing but the shot was fanned and the puck flew out of the zone. This set in motion a two-on-one for Simon Moser and Colton Sissons. The Olympian and the All Star skated into the offensive zone. Moser waited and delivered a stiff shot on Pickard that just squeaked behind him but stalled in the goal crease. Sissons was able to whack it in before Lake Erie could clear for his team-leading fourteenth goal of the season.

Fun Fact: All goals scored in North America by Filip Forsberg, to this point, were on the power-play. Well fun fact no longer! Forsberg, who was skating in towards the slot from the right wing, stopped on a dime and fired an absolute howitzer of a slap shot. It was his second goal of the night and fifth with the Admirals.

The Admirals woes when it comes to conceding shorthanded goals continued tonight when Guillaume Desbiens was on the receiving end of a great feed by Andrew Agozzino. It is the eight shorthanded goal allowed this season by the Ads and second in as many days.

In the third period the Ads buried their third power-play goal of the game. Beck tossed a cross ice pass from the left to right wing where Miikka Salomaki was stationed for a shot. He took it first time and scored his eighth goal of the season.

The game was at a now very comfortable 6-2 Admirals lead. So it felt at the time anyways.

The Monsters responded to the Ads sixth goal with a score of their own less than a minute later. A great feed from the left wing pocket by Mikael Tam to the backdoor of Darling’s net set up a tap in for Hishon and his second goal of the game. 6-3 Admirals.

Next we were given the game’s one and only fight: Mike Liambas versus Vincent Arseneau. Liambas pounded his opponent with some solid blows to the face before getting whipped down to the ice. It looked like Arseneau threw a late punch once they hit the ice and proceeded to shove Liambas into the ice long after the fact. Arseneau would not head to the box right away. He needed his face repaired.

Then some very odd penalty calls started to manifest themselves late in the game. There were lots of antics by Garrett Meurs of the Monsters in this game where he engaged players, set them up to fight, got roughed up, and skated off earning a power-play for his team. This happened late against Vinny Saponari – who gave Meurs a good couple of whacks to his face. Then a light tripping call along the boards also sent Scott Valentine to the box. It was a five-on-three chance that would be capitalized on for Lake Erie – and a hat trick for Joey Hishon. His eight goal of the season came when his shot deflected off of Joe Piskula’s skate and rolled up Darling’s arm and in. 6-4 Admirals.

Just when Pickard was waving at the Monsters bench to empty his net for an extra attacker: goal. The Monsters tallied for their third-straight goal of the third period to make it 6-5 Admirals with 1:20 remaining. Credit where credit is due: the shot and goal from Matt Hunwick was a beauty from an absurd angle. Probably one of many that Darling would want back, but a nasty shot that found the net.

The extra attacker was brought on. The anxiety was raised. The Ads missed two chances for an empty netter to provide an exhale before time expired. Then, exhale, game over. It certainly was made a whole lot more exciting than it had to be. But, at day’s end, the Admirals got their first win over the Lake Erie Monsters since March 16, 2012.

Ramblings: Filip Forsberg had a four-point night (two goals, two assists) and lead the game in shots on goal with six. Taylor Beck had a three-point night (one goal, two assists).Charles-Olivier Roussel nearly picked up as many assists as he has stitches on his face *ba dum tss* with two primary assists coming on the power-play. Bryan Rodney was a healthy scratch tonight with the team electing to go with Scott Valentine in his place. Valentine picked up an assist and four-penalty minutes tonight.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? Did it really have to be this close? What happened in the third period? Does Scott Darling’s last two games in net get you worried at all about his game? When can we expect to lose Filip Forsberg again to Nashville? Do you believe Valentine will start over Rodney when the Ads take to the road?

(Photo credit to Scott Paulus)

The Admirals lost 2-1 against the Chicago Wolves Saturday night. The undoing to this game came in the opening minute of the second period when the Wolves scored two goals from two Bryan Rodney turnovers. Credit where credit is due, the defensive game the Wolves played tonight was tough for the Ads to crack – and AHL All Star netminder Jake Allen’s twenty-five save performance only backed that up.

It was a rather slow start for both teams – the Ads in particular. After ten minutes the shots were four to one in the Wolves favor and the lone Ads shot was a long range dump in the forced Jake Allen to paddle the puck aside.

Where the Ads period appeared to pick up was after a Mike Liambas hit at center ice which set loose his linemates Mathieu Tousignant and Joonas Rask. The hit freed the puck. Tousignant raced it in and fed to Rask who almost marked his return to the ice with a crafty sliding backhand shot. He tried working Allen to the five-hole but received nothing but pad.

The Ads responded just after that shift with a power-play goal from Vinny Saponari. This goal was really created once the puck settled on the tape of Anthony Bitetto’s stick. He was on the right wing door step of Allen’s net and held it long enough that the All Star goalie became impatient. The shot from Bitetto came after Allen was way out of position. The eventual puck scramble went to Saponari who floated the puck into an open net for his fourth goal of the season.

Bryan Rodney’s start to the second period was one to forget. He turned the puck over twice to tee up two goals by the Wolves in the space of fifty-seconds to turn a first period lead into a second period deficit fast.

Dmitrij Jaskin was able to pick Rodney’s pocket and pop a backhander past Magnus Hellberg to level the game at 1-1 twenty-one seconds into the second period. After the Ads picked up a power-play it was again Rodney who set up a Wolves goal. The Ads like setting up their power-play unit with a defenseman atop the middle of the blue line, forwards on the wall, and one on the goal mouth. The puck alluded Rodney who then awkwardly swatted at it to turn Keith Aucoin on a shorthanded breakaway. The veteran Aucoin buried the shorty and, in a blink, give the Wolves a 2-1 lead.

Despite a late rush with an extra attacker on, featuring multiple offensive zone face offs, the scoreline would stay 2-1 to the Amtrak Rivals. The Wolves are now 4-0-0-1 against the Ads this season with Aucoin scoring the game-winning goal in the last two meetings. Every single Amtrak Rivalry game has been decided by one-goal. Of the two games in the rivalry that didn’t spill into overtime: both have been Admirals home defeats. This one more than most is a tale of what could have been. Two goals in fifty-seconds. That was the sucker punch that cost the Ads tonight.

Ramblings:

Joonas Rask returned to the lineup for his first game since injuring his right shoulder 12/20/13 vs. San Antonio. Tonight the healthy scratches included Zach Budish and Scott Valentine. Still out injured is Patrick Cehlin who missed his 26th straight game with an undisclosed injury. Magnus Hellberg made his first consecutive starts in net since 11/27/13 @ Rockford and 11/30/13 @ Charlotte. Ads d-man Charles-Olivier Roussel was caught with a high stick tonight and required eight stitches to his left eyebrow – after the game he told me you could see bone. Naturally he played the rest of the game.

(Photo credit to Scott “The Polar Bear” Paulus)

The Admirals won 4-3 in a shootout against the Iowa Wild Monday night. Goals from Austin Watson, Colton Sissons, and Taylor Beck set the background on a shootout game winner for Vinny Saponari – breaking the Ads losing run of two games. Magnus Hellberg returned to the net tonight and picked up his first win since 12/12 vs. Oklahoma City. Hellberg stopped twenty-one of twenty-four shots – including all four in the shootout.

Despite looking sluggish to start the game – it was the Iowa Wild who netted the opener off of a solo effort from Brett Bulmer. The Ads were on attack when Bulmer stormed from the right wing, in front of the player benches, and skated all the way in on Magnus Hellberg. As soon as he closed in the goal, Bulmer pulled up and gave a backhanded spin-o-rama that found a way through Hellberg. The play was initially given no goal signal and went to review before declaring the obvious: Bulmer has scored his tenth goal of the season to give the Wild an early 1-0 lead.

The rest of the opening period really favored the Ads. It felt like the Wild were standing around compared to the Ads work rate in the first: outshooting the Wild 12-7 in the period. Of the chances, Mike Liambas and Mathieu Tousignant seemed to generate some quality offensive chances. Liambas actually led the team with three shots in the period. Those two grinder-style players really have been buzzing with confidence in the offensive zone these last few weeks.

Considering the events of the Lake Erie series and the amount of penalty minutes gathered – it was pretty great to see this game have no calls after twenty-minutes.

That didn’t last long.

Thirty-three seconds into the second period Iowa took a slashing call and the Ads equalized on the strength of Austin Watson… and an assist to Wild d-man Corbin Baldwin. The play for the Ads started from the point with Charles-Olivier Roussel, worked to the left wing wall out to Taylor Beck, and then on to Watson. The amount of patience Watson showed moving into goal forced Johan Gustafsson to sprawl out and make a play from goal. Watson powered around him, tossed the puck toward net, and Wild defenseman Baldwin dove across and carried the puck in. The goal is Watson’s ninth of the season.

The Ads power-play continued its success against Iowa on its second chance of the evening. The second power-play unit was able to bury a chance from in-tight before the man-advantage expired. Bryan Rodney zipped on to Anthony Bitetto on the right wing wall. Bitetto picked out Colton Sissons sitting in the slot. Sissons turned around to goal and roofed the puck under the crossbar. Gustafsson didn’t have a chance stopping that shot. It’s now a team best thirteen goals and twenty-three points for Sissons.

Early in the third period the Wild were able to tie the game at 2-2. A bad exchange between Sissons and Salomaki in their defensive half lead to a turnover and a goal from Kyle Medvec from the point. It was a rising shot that, with a screen, Hellberg didn’t see until the last moment. By then it was into the roof for Medvec’s second goal of the campaign.

A storyline that repeated itself was the Ads ability to respond after Wild goals. The follow up shifts from Milwaukee were always blistering while the opposition remained flatfooted to the point of attack.

After 2:20 time on the ice from the Medvec goal – Taylor Beck banged home his ninth goal of the season to restore the Ads one-goal advantage. The shift that was ushered by Moser, Van Guilder, Beck, Roussel, and Jarvinen was relentless. They were wiring together chance after chance and kept the puck in-zone repeatedly. Beck was finally on the receiving end of a beautiful cross-ice pass from Moser for a one-timer that burned Gustafsson on the left wing.

There was some bad news in this game regarding the Iowa Wild. The game’s opening goal scorer, Brett Bulmer, went down hard in the third period and clutched his knee instantly. He was in major distress and was helped off the ice by teammate Chad Rau and the team’s trainer. He put zero weight on his left leg on his way off the ice. After the game, I just so happened to be walking out by the arena exit with the Wild team – who were carting Bulmer in a full leg brace on a flatbed dolly. My guess for him is that is a long term knee injury. Certainly wish him a speedy recovery.

Right after the injury delay was the ying and yang effects only the game of hockey can deliver so quickly. A hot shot on Hellberg fell behind him in goal and was dancing its way from the crease and in. Just as the puck appeared to be going in – a whistle blew. Just as the whistle blew – a Wild forward put that puck in. It was borderline robbery that the whistle blew that quickly – especially if it was a matter of someone losing sight of the puck (a linesman was right on the end-redline looking at the net). So, saved by the whistle. The very next faceoff – Iowa Wild goal. Brian Connelly’s shot from the blueline was perfectly redirected with a stick by Chad Rau and in to make it 3-3.

The game lasted through regulation and then went to overtime. There wasn’t much going in the way of Ads chances. If anything, it was the Wild that blew a quick opportunity on the power-play after a Joe Piskula high-sticking call thirty-two seconds into OT. That penalty kill, and Hellberg, stood tall when they had to. Great effort on the kill particularly to the Olympian Simon Moser – whose closing rate on skaters disrupted plenty of time on the man-advantage.

Next came the shootout where the Ads elected to shoot first. Beck stepped up and delivered with the first shot: skated out to the left wing and wired in a low wrister. After four saves by Hellberg and three saves by Gustafsson – it was Vinny Saponari time. The twenty-three year old Georgia native skated in calmly, waited, waited, flinched, went to the backhand, Gustafsson dived flat, and Saponari tossed it into the twine for the shootout winner.

Some Ramblings: Mike Liambas finished this game with the most shots on goal, five. The pair of Liambas and Tousignant was so effective Dean Evason decided to put Beck on line with them towards the end of the first period. Injury updates: Joonas Rask and Patrick Cehlin both participated in practice today. Rask is ahead of Cehlin and has the chance to return this weekend if he stays on course. The assist by Beck on Watson’s goal was his 100th point as a member of the Milwaukee Admirals. Beck in his last nine games has four goals and five assists. The Ads have still yet to be defeated by the Iowa Wild in four meetings. Despite the cold – the Monday night crowd was near the 2500 mark. For those wondering, that is around half of what the team typically draws – but about 2000 more than I expected to turn up against the nasty weather. You rock, Milwaukee.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? Did you brave the cold to attend? Is this a turnaround for Hellberg and the Ads as a team? If Beck continues playing this good – can we expect an NHL call up soon?