The Admirals could have clinched tonight with a win over the Wolves, coupled with a Charlotte or Houston loss in their games.

Charlotte and Houston didn’t hold up their end of the donkey.

But the Admirals did.  Jon Blum created a turnover and led a 2-on-0 rush in overtime that Chris Mueller finished, to propel the Admirals to a 2-1 win over the Wolves.

Blummer describes the goal — and deserves a ton of credit for making a really smart play.

He knew exactly what Haydar was going to do, and was able to capitalize.

Coach Herbers says that yeah, it was a huge game, but really, they’ll all been pretty huge for awhile now.

After a scoreless first period, Ryan Thang was credited with a goal at 15:27 of the second.  I couldn’t tell if it was meant to be a shot or a pass towards the crease…but the puck was re-directed by Wolf defenseman Jordan Henry, and it went past Eddie Lack.

Anton Rodin tied it up with 6:33 left in the third period with a shot from just inside the far face-off circle that beat Smitty.  He may have been screened a bit on that shot.

The Ads outshot the Wolves 2-0 in the OT period, with Blum and Mueller being the heroes.  Blum actually figured in both Admiral goals, assisting on Thang’s tally, but wasn’t named one of the three stars.  (1. Lack, 2. Rodin, 3. Smith).

——-

Notes:

Here’s how the lines started out…

Henderson – Van Guilder – Flynn
Dupont – Mueller – Beck
Thang – Wilson – Latta
Ryan – Lajunen – Stortini

In the second period, coach flip-flopped Ben Ryan and Taylor Beck.  Here was the rationale behind the switch.

It seemed light a bit of a fire under Beck, as his play was noticeably better after the change. And Ryan more than held his own on the Mueller line too.

The Ads outshot the Wolves 14-5 in the second period, and really did seem to dominate much of the play, getting some extended time in the offensive zone.

The Wolves did decide to rest some of their regular players for tonight’s game.  Some of them are a bit banged up, and why put them out there in a game that meant very little to the home team?  Scratched were Nolan Baumgartner, Kevin Connauton, Andrew Gordon, Dustin Friesen, Mike Duco, Mark Mancari, Mark Matheson, Steve Reinprecht, Victor Oreskovich, and Matt Climie.  So they were a bit short of their usual firepower.

Meanwhile in Rockford, the IceHogs decided to start Kent Simpson.  Who?  Exactly.  Thanks guys.  And the Charlotte Checkers were able to skate out of the land of Roo with a 4-3 shootout win.

The Houston Aeros put up a 4-spot in the first half of the 2nd period of their game against the San Antonio Rampage, and they kept their post-season hopes alive with a 5-3 victory.

So going into tomorrow, here’s how it looks…

5.  Rochester 86 points
6.  Milwaukee 85 points
7.  San Antonio 85 points
8.  Charlotte 85 points
9.  Houston 84 points

Lake Erie and Peoria are mathematically eliminated.

Tomorrow it’ll be…..

Charlotte @ Milwaukee
Rochester @ Lake Erie
Texas @ Houston
Oklahoma City @ San Antonio

– We get a point, we clinch.
– If Houston loses, we clinch.
-If San Antonio loses in regulation, we clinch.

It’s nice being able to control your own destiny.  Hope to see you at the Bradley Center tomorrow.

I think most people probably would have said that if the Admirals could finish the NC and TX portion of the 7-game road trip with a 4-1 record, it’d be viewed as a success.

That’s exactly what they did, but that one loss was tonight against the San Antonio Rampage.  It was a 4-1 decision that jumpstarted the Rampage’s playoff hopes.

The Rampage moved up to 5th place in the conference with the win, moving one point ahead of Milwaukee, Houston, Peoria, Lake Erie, and Rochester, who all have 82 points.

Nuts and bolts are here, and the Admirals recap is here.

The Rampage jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period with goals 58 seconds apart late in the frame.  Chris Mueller made it a 2-1 game with a power play goal off of the leg of Nolan Yonkman 7:17 into the second period, but Bill Thomas got that one back 1:36 later after Atte Engren didn’t make a clean save.

The Admirals didn’t have any success on any other power plays, and gave up a 5-on-3 power play goal 4:52 into the third period to really take the wind out of the sails.

Engren was not as sharp has he had been recently.  But again, he can’t be expected to win all that often when the Admirals can’t get more than one goal of support for him.  The Admirals didn’t get an even strength goal in his last two starts.  They got away from their gameplan, spent too much time in the box, and tried to be a little too cute on some bad ice.

This game wrapped up the regular season schedule against the West Division, and it’s too bad.  The Ads finish 14-5-0-1 against the West.

So the team will fly back tomorrow, and then have a couple of days to get ready for the final stretch — Rockford on Friday, the Wolves on Saturday, and then Charlotte on Sunday.

Be advised that there will be a viewing party at Major Goolsby’s on Friday the 13th if you can’t make it to the land of Beef-A-Roo for the game against the IceHogs.

The Admirals are going to sleep tonight in the 5th spot in the conference standings.

Seems pretty improbable, doesn’t it?

The Admirals remained perfect on their road trip by winning their fourth straight, this time a 2-1 shootout win over the Houston Aeros.

While it’s nice to sit INSIDE the top 8 for the first time in a long time, it should be noted that 5th place through 8th place all sit with 82 points.  And then 9th and 10th are just a point behind that.  But the Admirals have done it in less games and have a better winning percentage, so they jump to the top.

After a scoreless first period and a mostly scoreless second period, Chris Mueller knocked Aero defenseman Kris Fredheim off the puck while killing a penalty, and Mueller went in on Matt Hackett for a shorthanded breakaway chance.  He scored his 30th goal of the season — the first Admiral to reach that milestone since Rich Peverley.

The Aeros tied it up at 7:14 of the third period, after a Jon Blum clear went off a skate, and a shot from Brett Bulmer went off the post and in.

The posts…..The Admirals hit metal three times over regulation and overtime.  But the posts, not wanting to be partial, returned the favor in the shootout, as a pair of Aeros shots went “ping” and bounced out.

Jeff Taffe scored in the shootout for the Aeros.  Jon Blum and Ryan Thang scored for the Admirals and this was Atte Engren’s first shootout win of the year.

Engren, again, was solid in net despite a lack of offense in front of him, and he picked up his second straight win.  He stopped 22 of 23 shots.

Notes:

– While Jeremy Smith got the call-up before the game, the Aeros got some reinforcements as the Minnesota Wild season ended yesterday.  Three out of those four defensemen suited up tonight.

– The Admirals end the season series with a perfect 4-0 record against Houston.  Which is nice, but it doesn’t take the sting out of Game 7 last May.

– Michael Latta’s suspension is over, but he didn’t dress.  (Insert joke about how he was jersey-less during “Flick-gate” last week…)

– Off-day tomorrow for the Admirals (for the entire league, actually) and then a rematch against the Rampage on Tuesday to either create some separation or muddy the playoff picture even more.

This trip to Charlotte was a whole lot more pleasant than the last one.

Back at the end of November, the Admirals lost a pair of games and had their head coach poached.

This time, it was two solid wins against a very good Charlotte Checkers team.

Atte Engren recorded his first victory since February 29th, and the Admirals finally gave him some offensive support, as they dropped the Checkers 4-2 Thursday night.

Coming into tonight’s game, Engren had made 12 starts in calendar year 2012 (and relieved Smitty in Flickgate last week).  The Admirals had scored more than two goals in just two of those games.  So this was a nice change of pace for him.

Even with the offensive support, Engren needed to be sharp, and he turned aside 33 of 35 shots.

Brodie Dupont opened the scoring with a power play goal.  A Victor Bartley shot went off the glove of goaltender Justin Peters, and when the puck hit the ice, Dupont was there to put it home.

The Checkers answered back with a power play goal of their own, breaking the Ads’ streak of 31 straight successful penalty kills (they hadn’t allowed one since March 17th against Toronto!).  A Joe Sova shot was tipped by Zach Boychuk past Engren.

In the second period, Teemu Laakso scored his third of the year, and first since the day after Christmas.  After some good puck movement, Laakso’s shot from the top of the right circle beat Peters.

The Admirals extended their lead about five minutes later, when Chris Mueller finished a great offensive rush that featured some more good passing.  Jon Blum passed to Ryan Thang in the right circle, who fed Chris Mueller in the slot for his 29th of the season.

52 seconds later, the Checkers halved the lead, as Engren couldn’t cover a loose puck and Drayson Bowman buried it.

Taylor Beck scored an insurance goal at 17:14 of the second, jamming the puck under the left pad of Peters.

In the scoreless third period, the Checkers outshot the Ads 13-3, but Engren was good when he needed to be, the skaters did their best to minimize the chances on each Checkers rush.  As Aaron Sims said on the broadcast…there were “a lot of ones-and-dones”.

——————

– Jeremy Smith served his suspension tonight, and Chet Pickard got to open an AHL bench door watch the game from the corner because there isn’t room for the backup on the bench.

– So at press time….we’re waiting for the Texas Stars-Peoria Rivermen game to end.  If the Rivermen lose in regulation, the Admirals will go to sleep tonight in 8th place in the Western Conference.  The Rivermen scored a pair in the third period to break a 1-1 tie and ultimately win 3-2, and with the win they jump up to 6th place in the conference, and leave the Admirals in 9th.  If it had been the Stars that won, the Admirals would have been in 8th, and the Rivermen in 9th.  What a crazy finish this is going to be…

So a nice few days in Charlotte.  On to Texas now.

In the grand scheme of things, the news is the Admirals lost in a shootout to the Rockford IceHogs for the second straight Sunday.  The Admirals got a point in the standings, which is certainly better than none…but certainly is stunting their playoff run.

What the 5,838 in attendance today will all remember will be what happened at 10:08 of the 2nd period.

2 – RFD Served By , 10:08 – Game misconduct – Coach, (75.5(iii)) 10 min

2 – RFD Flick, 10:08 – Unsportsmanlike conduct, 2 min (PP)

2 – RFD Flick, 10:08 – Fighting, 5 min

2 – RFD Flick, 10:08 – Game misconduct, 10 min

2 – RFD Hutton, 10:08 – Fighting, 5 min

2 – RFD Hutton, 10:08 – Game misconduct, 10 min

2 – RFD Lalonde, 10:08 – Fighting, 5 min

2 – RFD Lalonde, 10:08 – Game misconduct – Leaving penalty bench, (70.4) 10 min

2 – RFD Stanton, 10:08 – Fighting, 5 min

2 – RFD Stanton, 10:08 – Game misconduct, 10 min

2 – MIL Served By , 10:08 – Game misconduct – Coach, (75.5(iii)) 10 min

2 – MIL Foss, 10:08 – Fighting, 5 min

2 – MIL Foss, 10:08 – Game misconduct, 10 min

2 – MIL Latta, 10:08 – Fighting, 5 min

2 – MIL Latta, 10:08 – Game misconduct – Leaving penalty bench, (70.4) 10 min

2 – MIL Smith, 10:08 – Fighting, 5 min

2 – MIL Smith, 10:08 – Game misconduct, 10 min

2 – MIL Stortini, 10:08 – Fighting, 5 min

2 – MIL Stortini, 10:08 – Game misconduct, 10 min

(Video courtesy of Ted Gruber.  Many thanks to you, sir!)

Maybe everyone had been watching the Pens/Flyers game earlier?

Michael Latta and Shawn Lalonde had a bout and went to the box.  Then there was a TV timeout (where it was Mark Van Guilder who was at Toner Sales and Service with Roscoe), and the faceoff was going to be at the Rockford blue line.  And all four officials somehow didn’t notice that Rob Flick was skating towards the Admiral goaltender.

What was Rob Flick doing there?  Great question.

But Flick engaged Smitty and then the benches cleared.  Even Latta and Lalonde left the penalty boxes to join the fray.

Here’s Coach Herbers on the incident.  We’ll string a few of his quotes together here…

The coaches even yelled at each other from the edge of their benches.  Rockford Coach Ted Dent may talk a tough game, but I’m pretty sure he’d regret it if he actually confronted Herbie face to face.  5’11 Dent vs 6’4 Herbers. That might not end well for him….

So the officials elected to send everyone off to their locker rooms to cool their heads, and so they could decide what on earth they were going to do.  Players joining altercations from all different directions…from the bench, from the crease, from the penalty box…

So after our mid-period break, the teams returned to hear what the penalties were going to be.  The net effect was that the Admirals got a two minute power play, as the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Flick was the only thing that wasn’t evened up on both sides.

Teams played nice….and tired the rest of the way.  The IceHogs were playing their third game in three days, and in the third period, it started to show.  After some sustained offensive pressure, Mark Van Guilder got the home team on the board with a nice shot after a nice pass from Ryan Flynn.  We’ve seen this goal a couple of times before, with Flynn passing the puck from behind the goal-line to Van Guilder in the slot for the bang-bang goal.

The one the Smith did allow earlier in the game before doing his best (insert your favorite Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out character here) impression seemed like a harmless shot from near the right wing boards by Kyle Beach.  That’s a save that Smitty needs to make.

Smith did speak with reporters after the game.  Truth be told, I’m a big Smitty fan.  He usually gives honest, thoughtful, and candid answers when he talks to the media.  But I kind of get the feeling he may have been ‘prepped’ a bit before this one.  Listen for yourself.

Suspensions?  I think Latta may get one for leaving the penalty box to join the fray.  Smith?  Tough to say.  Depends on how badly the league wants to make an example out of the incident.  From a roster management standpoint, suspensions would kind of be a big deal.  If Kyle Wilson is not ready to go, they may have to sign someone to a PTO….or maybe the Preds can loan us Bourque for a game or two.

But it’s road trip time now.  Two huge games in Charlotte during the week.  Would be great to sweep them both.  Here’s the coach once more.