(Editor’s Note:  We’ll have post-game audio tomorrow….We’re enjoying the Styx show tonight)

It’s good to get a laugher every now and then.

Jeremy Smith was solid in net, and the offense showed up in a big way, as the Admirals shutout the Chicago Wolves 6-0 on Saturday night.

Smitty was playing his first game after coming back from a tweeked-non-specific injury, and stopped all 27 shots he faced for his fifth straight win.

The Admirals outshot the Wolves 18-6 in the first period, picking up right where they left off last night in that category.  Only tonight, they converted some more of those shots.

37 seconds after coming out of the penalty box, Zack Stortini put the Ads on the board at 9:34.  He took a nice cross-ice pass from Mark Van Guilder that missed a couple of Wolves’ sticks on its way across the slot.  Stortini was near the bottom of the near circle, and he chipped it far-side past Matt Climie.

Later in the period, Matt Clackson was given a double-minor for high sticking, and then Nolan Baumgartner boarded Stortini, setting the Ads up for a 5-on-3 power play.

At 16:31, Victor Bartley fired a shot from the top of the far circle that beat Climie through a Stortini screen.  But what I’d like to highlight is what a good shift it was.  Bartley did a nice job playing goaltender at the blue line, blocking multiple clear attempts.

The second period started with the Wolves on an extended power play due to Teemu Laakso’s 2nd and 3rd penalties of the game…but the Ads PK did a nice job blocking shots and not allowing prime scoring chances.

The Wolves did dominate the play for a good chunk of the period, but Ben Ryan was the only person to score in the frame.  After he tipped a Victor Bartley shot on net, he poked the unsecured puck below Climie’s arm pit.

The Ads sailed away in the third period with three more goals.  Juuso Puustinen led a 2-on-1 rush with Kevin Henderson against former Admiral Mark Matheson.  Puustinen’s feed across the slot was deflected by Matheson, but it still made its way through to Henderson, who was able to control and fire past Climie for his first with the Admirals.

After a scuffle in front of Jeremy Smith netted the Ads a power play, Chris Mueller was able to ‘Fury The Fury’ on a play where he skated along the goal-line, and flipped the puck around and over Climie.

And then while Tyler Sloan was serving a tripping penalty, the Admirals cleared the zone just after the face-off, and Kevin Henderson won the race for the puck against Adam Polasek, who kind of lost his balance for a moment in front of the Milwaukee bench.  Henderson went in all alone and beat Climie five-hole.

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Notes:

– A very strong game for both Ben Ryan and Kevin Henderson — two guys that may or may not be on the clear day roster on Monday.  Ryan had some great chances, and it was great to see him convert on his goal.  And Henderson….man, he shifted into another gear on the shorthanded goal.

– Didn’t see it happen…but I’m told someone tossed something into the Wolves penalty box.  Not cool.  Ever.  Doesn’t matter who it is.  Not cool.

– Special teams:  Chicago went 0-6 on the power play.  Ads went 2-4.

– Playoff picture:  Ads sit in 9th place after tonight with 64 points.  Houston is in 8th with 64 points, having played one less game.  Peoria and Chicago have 65 points.  San Antonio and Abbotsford have 67 points.  4th place in the conference is just three points ahead of us.

– I hope this game quiets the people who like to say that the Admirals play bad in front of big crowds.

– Styx is opening with Blue Collar Man.

QUESTIONS:

– Was this as close as you’ve seen to the cliched “60 minute game”?

– This was the last audition for Henderson and Ryan before the clear day roster.  Do you think either of them make it?

– Should we consider re-naming Johnson’s Office something like Teemu’s Tent?  Or something along those lines? The amount of trips he’s taking lately, it may be time to pass the torch….

– Were the Admirals that good or were the Wolves that lackluster?  Do you think that Climie played a lot better than the score suggested?

– Do you miss Dennis DeYoung?

Five out of a six possible points?  That’s a good weekend.

With both teams playing their third game in three days Sunday afternoon, the Admirals were able to capitalize on Rampage mistakes, and win the matinee 3-1.

Here’s the Coach Ian Herbers High Level Summary, sponsored by Google Maps.

After a scoreless first period, Kyle Wilson put the Admirals on the board.  Scott Valentine carried the puck from the goal-line to just about the offensive blue-line, and he fired a wrister on net.  Former Admiral Dov Grumet-Morris didn’t send it to the corner or cover it….it kicked right out to the left face-off circle, where Wilson was crashing.  Grumet-Morris was far out of his net challenging Valentine’s shot, so he had some distance to get back in the net, and Wilson had lots of room to shoot.

The Rampage tied it up later in the second period while on a 5-on-3 power play.  Recent acquisition Jon Matsumoto was the recipient of a nice pass from Bill Thomas in the slot, and he finished a bang-bang play for the goal.

In the third period, it was a bad play by Nolan Yonkman that sparked the game-winner.  (We’ve seen that movie before, haven’t we?)  Yonkman tried to feed Scott Timmons to start a rush, but Kyle Wilson was able to control the puck and send it towards the net.  Ryan Flynn was all alone in front of Grumet-Morris, and was able to deflect it past him.

Two home games in a row where we’re talking to Flynn after the game.

Another two point night for Kyle Wilson, who coach said has been playing very well for quite some time.

Chris Mueller added his team-leading 24th goal of the season into an empty net with 40.3 seconds left.  The Ads iced the puck, but Mueller won the race, and had an easy tap-in after a friendly bounce from the end boards sent the puck back in front of the crease.

NOTES:

Same lines we’ve seen for a bit.

Henderson – Lajunen – Puustinen
Dupont – Mueller – Beck
Flynn – Wilson – Thang
Champagne – Ryan – Stortini

– Great to see them finish a team off in the third period.  Coach saw a lot of things that he liked tonight.

– Smith very sharp again in net.  Good weekend for the goalies.  One goal against in regulation each night.  Still being out-shot though….

– That’ll be the last we see of Ellis for awhile.  Here’s coach on his status, along with Laakso, Latta, and Van Guilder.

– This was my favorite moment from the post-game chat with the Coach.  Sorry Dave Boehler, I have to play the whole exchange.

Discussion Questions:

– You got three games with Ellis this weekend.  It was nice to have him back.  Do you think he’s going back to Nashville to pack his bags again in the next 24 hours?  Do you think the Preds have the cahones to deal him?

– Yonkman.  Did his play give you flashbacks

– Surprised Sloan got five minutes for his hug?  I kid….but he actually had a pretty good game, we thought.

– What’s wrong with Ryan Thang?  Too many coulda-woulda-shoulda’s from him.  He’s not finishing, and he needs to be finishing.

– Do you feel better about the team after this strong weekend?

For the second straight night, the Admirals were able to keep their opponent scoreless after 40 minutes.  But after Rockford tied the game at 1 with 3:47 left to play, the IceHogs scored on three of their four shootout attempts, while the Admirals didn’t get any past Carter Hutton, and the IceHogs skated away with the 2-1 win.

Atte Engren stopped 35 of 36 shots and deserved a better fate.  Hutton stopped 23 of 24.

Jani Lajunen got the Admirals on the board first, after he intercepted a pass from Joe Lavin at the far circle in the offensive zone.  With his proceeding goal, it gave Lajunen a point in four straight games, as he continues his very strong play, especially in on the forecheck.

That 1-0 lead held up for most of the rest of the game, but Brandon Bollig put a rebound in off of Engren with 3:47 left in the third.

In overtime, Jon Blum took a tripping penalty just 53 seconds into the extra period after he failed to clear the zone.  But the PK was strong late in the game, as it was the whole game.  The Ads killed off all six IceHog power plays.

On the flip-side, the Ads were 0-6 on their own power plays, including some time on a 5-on-3, and a 4-minute power play in the start of the 3rd period that came up empty.

Ads were out-shot 37-24 tonight.  They were out-shot by 9 last night.  Out-shot by 19 in their two games in Oklahoma City last weekend.  Quite the burden being put on their goaltenders, and Smitty and Engren have done a nice job.  But the offense needs to pick it up and make the most of their shots.  One goal isn’t going to cut it most nights.

Still, good to get a point, and if they take down the San Antonio Rampage tomorrow, it’d make for a successful weekend.  5 out of 6 points would be nice.  Teemu Laakso will likely still be out tomorrow, and we’ll see how Scott Ford is feeling in the morning….he didn’t make the trip tonight as he’s fighting a flu-bug.

So the Rampage tomorrow.  It’ll be their 10th game of an 11 game road trip.  They’ll also be playing their third game in three days, after two 2-1 wins over Peoria tonight and last night.  Former Admiral Dov Grumet-Morris was in net on Friday, Jacob Markstrom was in net tonight….so we’ll see who gets the green light tomorrow afternoon.  We may also see former Admirals Nolan Yonkman, Bracken Kearns, and Wacey Rabbit.

I know a lot of you made the trip to Rockford tonight….how did it look?  Was Engren as sharp as Aaron Sims’ cell phone made it sound? (if you didn’t know, there were some technical issues in the press box).  How dumb was the Blum penalty in OT?  Do you feel confident saying that the penalty kill is now off of life-support?

Something about the West Division right now…

Milwaukee moved to 9-2-0-1 this season against the West Division, after the Admirals came from behind to defeat the conference leading Oklahoma City Barons 5-3 Friday night.  (Video highlights here)

The Barons scored the first two of the game…Linus Omark was left all alone on the power play, and he took a pass from Ryan Keller and put a nice deke on Jeremy Smith before scoring.  About three minutes later, Tyler Pitnick took a feed from behind the goal-line, and his one-timer beat Smith.

The Admirals then proceeded to score the next four goals.

Joel Champagne forced a turnover behind the Baron net, and the puck bounced to Kyle Wilson in the slot.  Wilson moved the puck to his forehand and beat Yann Danis at the 17:59 mark of the first period.

Thirty seconds later, an odd goal for Ryan Thang.  Thanger tripped one of the Barons and the ref’s arm went up.  While on the delayed call, the Barons knocked the puck into their own net.  The puck kind of pinballed off a couple of skaters, and then bounced by Danis, who hadn’t vacated the net yet.  So Thang got the goal and then the gate.

In the second period, Tyler Sloan scored his first AHL goal since February 6th, 2009.  Chris Mueller fed Sloan, who was pinching down the slot, and his shot beat Danis.  (Incidentally, Kyle Wilson was Sloan’s teammate with the Hershey Bears at his last goal, and also scored in that game…another 5-3 victory).

Ben Ryan made it a 4-2 lead with his second of the year, capitalizing right above the crease, after Kevin Henderson knocked down a clearing attempt at the left circle.  It was Henderson’s first point as an Admiral.

Teemu Hartikainen made it a one-goal game putting in a rebound after a Taylor Chorney shot was saved by Smith.

After a couple of Admiral penalties in the latter half of the third period, the penalty kill came up huge, and then Jani Lajunen scored into an empty net with 9.8 left to play, for his second goal of the year.

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This one was a team effort….which is great, because Paul Fenton was in the house to see it.  Ryan Thang had a (fluke) goal and an (empty net) assist, and nine other guys had one point.   Saw guys on the scoresheet that we haven’t seen a lot lately….Ben Ryan, Jani Lajunen, Tyler Sloan….  And listening to Aaron Sims’ call of the game, it sounded like Joel Champagne had his best game of the season overall.

A strong forecheck turned into a lot of scoring chances, and their ability to capitalize on some of them reminds me of this team from early in the season.

It’s a rematch tomorrow night in OKC.  We’ll see if they go back to Smitty again, or if Atte Engren gets the start.