The Admirals got five out of a possible six points this weekend.  They forced overtime in the last minute this afternoon, but came up short in the shootout.  Another win in the season series for Rockford, this one was 3-2.

Jason Karnosky will be back a little later tonight with the full-gamer…  And if you were excited for the Trey Killian debut this weekend….it’s being pushed back to Wednesday.  We’ll make it worth your wait.

(No pressure, Trey…)

Remember that huge paddle save Jeremy Smith made last night against Ian Schultz?

Call it a momentum starter.

Jeremy Smith played VERY well and gave Jonathan Cheechoo nightmares all night long, as the Admirals handed the Peoria Rivermen their first shutout of the season.  2-0 was the final.

Aaron Sims tweeted that Cheechoo should have had five goals tonight.

Michael Latta recorded his first goal since coming back from his injury, and it turned out to be all the offense the Admirals needed.  His backhand of a rebound on the power play gave Milwaukee the lead they wouldn’t give up.

Something about the Admirals power play lately….they score quickly.  Took just 20 seconds last night.  They’ve had a few go in recently with shots from the point right off the faceoff.  Latta’s took just seven seconds tonight.

Joel Champagne had a wrister that went over Jake Allen’s glove with 8:03 left in the third period.  But Mark Van Guilder was the guy who made the play, as he pick-pocketed Mark Cundari.

Peoria’s power play has been good against the Admirals all season, but went 0-5 tonight.

Milwaukee wins the season series with a 7-5 record.  The Admirals won the first five, lost the next five, and then won the last two.

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Scoreboard watching….

Rochester won in a shootout, and Lake Erie lost in a shootout.

Hershey did us a favor and came from behind to beat Charlotte in regulation.

Rockford did us another favor…winning their second game against Houston in as many days.  Carter Hutton was in net for both games…..so he might not be the guy we see tomorrow.  Or he might be.  We’ll see.  Just like Jeremy Smith might not be the guy we see tomorrow.  Or he might be.  We’ll see.  (Wow, what great hard-hitting analysis there….)

See you tomorrow for the matinee.  Anyone bringing their dog?

The Admirals kicked off their 3-in-3 with a much needed two points, as they held on to beat the Hamilton Bulldogs 3-2 Friday night at the Bradley Center.

Ian Herbers Google Maps High Level Overview:

Leading by a pair after two periods, the Admirals gave up a shortie, and almost gave up the game-tying goal while the Bulldogs had an extra attacker out there in the final minute.  Ian Schultz had the puck in the slot, but couldn’t get the shot off on his forehand.  So he spun around to try a backhand, and Smith made the stick-save of the year.

We asked Smitty about it…because you know…he was there when it happened.

The Admirals were able to FURY THE FURY early, as it took them just 20 seconds of their first power play to convert.  From the goal line at the near boards, Kyle Wilson fed a pass to Ryan Thang at the top of the near circle.  Thang had a good shooting lane, and his shot beat Bulldog goaltender Robert Mayer.

After going goal-less in his last 12 games, it was good to see Thanger contribute again.  His last goal was February 17th against Oklahoma City.

Chris Mueller made it a 2-0 lead with his 27th goal of the season, but Brodie Dupont did all the work.  Dupont got position on the defender and made a strong move to the net…but he fanned on his shot..or pass…of whatever he was trying to do.  But the puck bounced right to Mueller, who was crashing the net.

Mark Van Guilder made it a 3-0 lead int he second period, as a Victor Bartley shot from the bounced off Kevin Henderson in front of the net, and kicked right to Van Guilder at the left doorstep.

Coach Herbers talks about how important it is for guys like Thang and Van Guilder to contribute offensively.

But the Bulldogs got on the board with just under a minute left in the second period.  Ian Schultz finished a bang-bang play after a quick feed from Alain Berger from behind the net, seconds after a Scott Valentine penalty expired.

Then came the shorty 14:08 into the third.  Former Admiral Alex Henry was in the box, but the Bulldogs went on a 3-on-2 rush.  Mark Mitera tangled up and took down Jon Blum, and Blum either made contact with Smith or made him flinch or stumble for a moment.  Before Smith knew it, Brian Willsie had an open look in the slot, and scored the shorty.

But Smitty did make the big save in the final minute, and the Admirals got two huge points.

NOTES:

– So…..do you think Goal Monkey got an earful from the blimp folks after getting the blimp stuck in the netting above the glass on the south end?

– Also, we need to take a moment to make fun of our friend Scott Dorman.  Great guy.  Big fan.  He’s the guy that updates the info at theahl.com .  And we received our box score during the intermission, and it looked like this.  Your job — find the goof. (We got his permission first….he’s pretty amused by the whole thing too)

Oops.  But hilarious.

– I thought Blum was very good tonight.  Yeah, he was involved in the shortie, and on the ice for the other goal too…but I think this was one of his best overall games of the season.  Good with the puck, good at the offensive blue line, and good on the power play.  Bartley and Ford were pretty solid too, I thought

– Really physical game…and I think the Admirals held their own pretty well in that style.

– Big win…Rockford did the Admirals a favor by beating Houston.  Rochester lost in overtime.  And the other main teams ahead of them in the standings were idle.  So this was one of those games-in-hand wins that the Admirals NEEDED to get.

So Roundtable… Thoughts on the game?  Who would your three stars have been?  Who stood out in a good way?  Anyone stand out in a bad way?  Would you rather have Smitty in net tomorrow in Peoria or Sunday against Rockford?  If you thought the Ads were obviously the better team….was it because they played really well or because Hamilton didn’t?  Are you bummed that you didn’t get to see Blake Geoffrion in a Bulldog uniform? (incidentally….Blake has one goal in eight games for the Habs, but has been a healthy scratch in their last four games.)

The last 8 minutes of the third period, and then all of the overtime period…..bottle it.

Late in the third period, the Admirals scored two special teams goals to force overtime, and Taylor Beck had the game-winner to give the Ads the extra point in the standings — a 5-4 OT victory over the Lake Erie Monsters Friday night in Cleveland.

Entering the third period tied with the Monsters, the Admirals gave up a pair of goals in the first eight and a half minutes.  Things looked bleak.

And then the leadership stepped up.

Scott Ford scored shorthanded, crashing the net after a strong shorthanded play by Kyle Wilson.  And then Victor Bartley scored his second of the game four seconds into a power play with a shot from the slot off of the face-off, to tie the game back up at 4.

The Admirals dominated play the rest of the way.  In the OT, after a friendly carum kept the puck in the offensive zone, Taylor Beck was all alone in front of Cedrick Desjardins, and scored on a backhander up high.

Also notable?  Brodie Dupont scored his first as an Admiral on the power play in the second period, banging in the rebound of a Beck shot.  Beck finished with three points on the night.

Season-saver?  We’ll see.  Would have been nice to avoid giving one point to Lake Erie, but we needed the two for sure.  Another two points tomorrow against Kelsey Wilson and the Toronto Marlies would help.  (Toronto shutout Grand Rapids 2-0 tonight in GR)

Here is a montage of Aaron Sims’ goal calls from the game, for your listening pleasure.

UPDATE:  Scoring change.  Sorry Victor Bartley.  They gave the game-tying goal to Dupont on a deflection.  So Dupont had the two-goal night tonight, after not scoring at any is his first 25 games.

UPDATE #2:  Here’s some video!

http://p.castfire.com/2zBDO/video/907657/monsters_2012-03-16-230157.1057.m4v

(Photo Credit:  Jeff Hanisch)

Let me be clear:  I’m not sour on the season.  You shouldn’t be either.  There’s lots of hockey still left.  And this team is able to play well.  We’ve seen it.  Resist the temptation to throw in whatever towel you have.  Five points out of the playoffs, with games in hand.

I am very sour about this game though.  The IceHogs continue to own the Admirals, and they took this one 4-1 in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 15,888 at the Bradley Center.

I’m tired of tipping my cap to IceHogs goaltender Carter Hutton.  This is the fifth straight game that the Admirals have scored just one goal against the IceHogs.  Some of that is Hutton.  Some is his defense.  Some of that is the Admirals have not been able to adjust.

In the season series so far, the Admirals have 5 of a possible 16 points so far.

Here’s coach Herbers with the High Level Overview, presented by Google Maps.

The IceHogs scored the only goal of the first period, seconds after Juuso Puustinen went down along the nearside boards near the top of the circle after blocking a shot.  The referee let play continue and was even talking to Juuso as the play was progressing.  Shifting into a power play mode, Brandon Svendsen had the puck at the goal line on the far side, and his pass to the slot went off of Kevin Henderson’s skate, and right to Chris DiDomenico right in front of Jeremy Smith.  DiDomenico’s stuff beat Smitty’s poke-check.

After a scoreless second period, the IceHogs doubled their lead courtesy of Svendsen.  Scott Valentine was caught snoozing, and Svendsen sped past him along the right wing, and he rifled a shot that beat Smitty up high.

Shortly after that goal, Wade Brookbank was called for interference (Ryan Thang did push him into Smith, but Brookbank took advantage of that real estate to go high up on Smith).  And seven seconds into that power play, a Jon Blum shot from the far point had eyes and made it past Hutton to make it a one-goal game.  Mueller won the face-off back to Victor Bartley, who had a nice hold-in at the point.  He fed Blum on the other side and his wrister was good.

But about three minutes later, Philippe Paradis put the IceHogs back up by two with a shot from the top of the near circle that made its way through a DiDomenico screen, and it looked as if it went off of Smith’s stick and up and in.

Here’s coach on the deflating goal.

Peter LeBlanc had an empty netter, although there are some whispers that we’ve heard that say that it may be changed to DiDomenico for his second of the night, and third of the year.  Linesman Roger Behling with the assist, as he got in the way of Jon Blum’s clear, and the puck went straight to LeBlanc/DiDomenico/whoever.

Rematch tomorrow in the land of Beef-A-Roo.  Here’s Coach on what’ll need to be different.

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– Michael Latta is back! Could do without the penalties though…

– Man, what a loss Puustinen is.  It always seems to be early in the game that the Ads lose a guy, and then have to shuffle the rest of the night. We didn’t expect specifics from Coach when we asked him afterwards, and from this soundbyte, it sounds like he knew it was coming.  Next question please.

Scott Ford missed some time in the second period after getting his lip cut.

– The Ads had a 5-on-3 in the second period cut short with a Zack Stortini penalty in the offensive zone.

– The officiating was awful.  Worst of the year in my opinion, at least from the home games I’ve seen.  Marcus Vinnerborg was the man in the stripes tonight, and he was Jeff Smith in the first period, Shaun Davis in the second period, and then Ian Croft in the third.  It’s not a reason for the loss, and he was pretty awful for both teams, but it’s still frustrating to watch.

– Scoring by committee?  The players who scored for the IceHogs tonight….DiDomenico had his 2nd or 3rd goal of the season.  Paradis had his 3rd.  Svendsen had his 2nd.  It wasn’t their offensive stars that beat the Admirals tonight.

And then on the other side….Chris Mueller won the face-off that led to Blum’s goal, and doubled his scoring output in the season series to two points, with a -7 defensive rating. Victor Bartley also had an assist, and leads the team with six points against the IceHogs.  Kyle Wilson still only has one assist, and is -5 defensively.  Thang has a goal and an assist.  Brandon Pirri, who didn’t play tonight, has 11 points in the series….which is more than Mueller, Wilson, Puustinen, and Beck combined in the series.

QUESTIONS:

– When will stick-tossing become an Olympics event, and who has the early edge, Mueller or Hutton?

– Give me some numbers….  The success of the IceHogs against the Admirals….what percentage do you think we should attribute to Hutton, the D, and the lack of offense for the Admirals?  Here is Sutty’s breakdown as an example:

Hutton:  40%
Rockford D: 20%
MKE lack of O: 40%

– You have to think we’ll see Hutton again tomorrow?  Who do you throw in there for the Admirals?

– Will the return of Latta be enough to offset the loss of Puustinen?

– Would you rather see Jeff Foss or Tyler Sloan on the blue line?

– Think the Boy Scouts are going to come back next year and sell 9,000 tickets for a game?

As great as it felt at the Bradley Center Saturday night when the Admirals shutout Chicago 6-0, the Wolves got their revenge Wednesday night, dropping the Admirals 5-2 in Rosemont.

This also clinched the Amtrak Rivalry trophy for the Wolves again.

Turning point of the game?  Probably the third Chicago goal.  Trailing 2-1 entering the third period, the Admirals started the final frame with 1:35 of power play time, but could not “Fury The Fury”.  And then 8 seconds after the penalty expired, Anton Rodin scored his second goal of the game to extend the Chicago lead — a goal that went off of Jeremy Smith’s glove and into the net.

Still trailing by two in the waning minutes of the game, two empty net goals sandwiched a Kevin Henderson jam into the net with 1:55 left.

Taylor Beck opened the scoring with a power play goal 9:48 into the game that went off the right arm of Chicago goalie Eddie Lack, bounced down to the ice and then over the line.  Jordan Schroeder tied it around 6 minutes later.  But then the Wolves scored with less than a minute left in the period, as a pass from Roden bounced off of a back-checking Kevin Henderson, and past Smitty.

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NOTES:

– Kevin Henderson, Ben Ryan, and Jeff Foss all suited up tonight…meaning that Michael Latta, Brodie Dupont, and Scott Valentine were all banged up.  Ryan, who played very well against Chicago on Saturday night, was involved in the play that Henderson scored on late in the game, but also took stick infraction penalties at 11:28 and 14:02 of the second period.  Fortunately, the PK for Milwaukee was strong, as they killed off all three Wolf power plays.

– Peoria also won….they came from behind to top 1st place Oklahoma City 4-3 in overtime. Down 3-0 with two minutes left to go in the second period, the Rivermen scored three power play goals, including a power play marker from new-guy Patrick O’Sullivan in overtime.  So both the Rivermen and Wolves extend their lead in the division standings.  Not ideal.

– So now it’s back to the drawing board to try and figure out how to beat the IceHogs in a home-and-home series this weekend.  2-4-0-1 is Milwaukee’s current record against Rockford.  We sweep, then that record looks better.  They sweep, they’re a point behind us in the standings.  Yikes.

So Roundtable……are these “must win” games this weekend?  Are all games “must win” at this point?  Is “must win” an overused sports cliche?  Why do you think the Admirals have such a hard time with Rockford?  Milwaukee is one of only three teams the IceHogs have a winning record against (5-1-0-1)….the others being Grand Rapids (3-0-0-1), and Houston (1-0).