Call it puck luck, call it a game of inches, and call it a loss tonight.

Five Admiral shots hit metal behind Grand Rapids goaltender Tom McCollum, as the Griffins defeated the Admirals 3-2 on Saturday night.

After a Zack Stortini goal tied the game early in the 2nd period, a Griffins power play goal with 15 seconds left in the frame gave Grand Rapids the lead they would not give up.

The Admirals had just killed off a stretch of 5-on-3 power play time, but couldn’t finish off the second penalty, as defenseman Brian Lashoff’s shot beat Jeremy Smith.

Eight minutes into the 3rd period, the Griffins extended their lead to two goals, as former Badger Brendan Smith’s shot trickled through Smitty’s legs.

With Jeremy Smith pulled for the extra attacker late in the 3rd period, Chris Mueller scored a milestone goal to bring the Admirals back within one.  Working down low in front of goaltender Tom McCollum, Mueller’s shot went high over the goaltender’s glove.  It was his 50th goal as an Admiral and 100th point as an Admiral.

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– Robert Slaney got his first point as an Admiral, assisting on Stortini’s goal by intercepting a pass McCollum tried to make behind the net.  Slaney’s pass to Stortini in the slot led to the goal.

– Mark Van Guilder was whistled for hooking….only his second penalty of the season.  It snapped a 25 infractionless game streak.

– Ads were 0-4 on the power play, and killed off 3 of 4 Griffins chances.

– That’s all for the season series.  Ads finish 2-2.  Griffins officially win the series, going 2-1-0-1, getting five points.

– Milwaukee finishes 2011 with a 44-24-5 record.  Pretty good.

– 5pm game on New Years Day against the Rivermen at the Bradley Center.

After a less than stellar effort against Rockford last night, the Admirals were able to hit the holiday break on a high note, after a 3-1 victory over the Peoria Rivermen Sunday evening.

Kyle Wilson and Chris Mueller both had a goal and an assist, and Atte Engren was solid in net for the Ads, stopping 29 of 30 shots.

This moves the Ads record to an unprecedented 5-0 against Peoria this season.  We asked Coach Herbers what he attributes the success to.

The Admirals hit the holiday break with a 17-8-0-1 record, putting them in second place in the division, one point behind the Charlotte Checkers…who have played four more games.

With 3:02 remaining in the game, Tyler Sloan went to the box for a cross-checking penalty, and the Rivermen pulled goaltender Jake Allen for the extra attacker, setting up a 6-on-4 power play.  1:17 later, Teemu Laakso went to the box for a holding penalty, so Peoria had some time to skate 6-on-3.  But the penalty killers did a great job getting into passing lanes, and were able to kill everything off.

The penalty kill had been a weakness for the Ads of late…Coach Herbers talks about their effort tonight at the end of the game.

The Rivermen scored first, and it was courtesy of Admirals nemesis/pest Brett Sterling. TJ Hensick had a shot from the top of the far circle that was saved.  After drawing a delayed penalty, Sterling won the battle in front of the crease, and put it in past Atte Engren.

The Admirals tied the game about midway though the game while on a delayed penalty of their own.  It had to have been about 40 seconds with the extra man when Kyle Wilson scored from a sharp angle at the bottom of the near faceoff circle.  Chris Mueller had the pass from behind the net before Wilson scored his 5th of the year, and first one since being returned from Nashville.

The Admirals were awarded a power play after Jonathan Cheechoo boarded Chris Mueller along the far boards in the Ads defensive end.  Mueller skated off on his own power, and took his next shift on the power play.  Mueller said after the game that he didn’t see the train coming (sorry….too easy), but chalked it up to a hockey play instead of a dirty play.

Exactly two minutes after the penalty was assessed, Mike Latta scored what would eventually be the game winner.  Taylor Beck had a shot from the top of the circle that deflected off of Ryan Thang in the slot…..right to Latta low in the near face-off circle.  Allen didn’t make it over in time before Latta scored his 9th of the season.

With 4:55 left in the third period, Chris Mueller scored an insurance goal after a give-and-give-and-go play with Kyle Wilson.  I was afraid they were going to get burned for making one pass too many, but Mueller was able to finish for his 10th goal of the season.

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Lines:

Bourque – Van Guilder – Flynn
Wilson – Mueller – Puustinen
Geoffrion – Latta – Thang
Beck – Lajunen – Stortini

Blum-Laakso, Sloan-Ellis, Ford-Bartley

In the second period, Herbie shook up his lines a bit…dropping swapping Geoffrion and Beck.  Here’s what he said about it after the game.

I don’t know.  My thought is that it was a promotion for Beck — and it worked, as he assisted on Latta’s goal.  I didn’t like Blake’s weekend.  If he was making these kinds of mistakes in Nashville, he would have been sent down to Milwaukee.  Sloppy passes in his own end and in the offensive zone too…dumb stick infraction penalties… He wasn’t anywhere close to being the best player on the ice.  If he was supposed to come here and dominate at this level, he failed.  Maybe my expectations are too high on that… But if he’s on his way back to Nashville tomorrow, it certainly isn’t because he played his way back.

I asked Coach Herbers which of the guys that were sent down (Blum, Geoffrion, and Wilson) had the best weekend.  He kind of punted.

Blum I thought was better tonight….(although he was the victim of a bum holding penalty when he lifted Sterling’s stick and Sterling tumbled to the ice.  Good to see Sterling get the dive call on that.)  I thought Wilson showed up for the first time this weekend when he scored in that second period, and pretty good the rest of the game.

– Blum tweeted that he’s on his way back to Nashville.  Don’t know if he’s just going to be “in residence” or when he’ll officially be recalled and paid as an NHL guy.  Roster freeze starts tonight, Admirals don’t play again until the 26th.  Whatever happens will be.

– Sterling is such a pain.  Can I just reiterate that?

– Didn’t like Fordo’s game either.  Engren bailed him out a couple of times.  Tough to scratch the captain though.  Sorry, Scott Valentine.

– This is an awfully negative recap after a big 3-1 win.  Let’s get back to Engren.  I’ve figured out his deal.  He’s the Admirals version of Rex Grossman.  The Redskins have Good Rex and Bad Rex.  The Admirals have Good Atte and Bad Atte.  Great to see him rebound after being pulled in his last start.  Here’s more from the Coach.

– So we’re at the break now.  Coach says he’ll get some time to relax, but they’ve got a game to prepare for…

So Roundtable….here are your discussion questions….

– Am I being too hard on Boomer?
– What did you think of Blummer’s game?
– Would you have liked to have seen Valentine out there?
– Thoughts on the penalty scramble at the end of the game?
– Why do the Ads have the Rivermen’s number?
– Anything else you’d like to comment on about the game?

After a great effort on Friday night against Toronto, the Admirals played like a different team Saturday night in Rockford, losing to the IceHogs 4-2.

The Admirals gave up three power play goals, and gave up a season high 44 shots to the last place IceHogs.

Rockford scored first 10:35 into the first period while Tyler Sloan was serving a cross checking penalty.   Peter LeBlanc was working in front of the net, and tipped the puck past Jeremy Smith.

Jon Blum got one back on a power play for the Admirals, with a shot that was deflected over IceHog goaltender Carter Hutton’s glove.

The IceHogs outshot the Admirals 19-11 in the first period, but the second period is really where the pulled away from the Admirals, taking advantage of Admiral penalties and sloppy play in the neutral zone.

Brandon Pirri had a power play goal, just under five minutes into the second period after some great puck movement from the power play unit.

Brandon Bollig scored his first of the year with a little less than five minutes left in the second period, as a shot from the top of the left circle went over Smitty’s right shoulder.

Brandon Pirri scored another power play goal in the 3rd, but it was more like an empty net goal, as Smitty vacated the net to play a puck that he thought was going to go around the boards.  Of course, it hit a seam in the glass, bounced back in front of the net, and Pirri had the cupcake.

Jon Blum scored his second goal with less than a minute remaining in the game while Chris Mueller was working down low.

Looking at the box score, people may say, hey, Blummer scored two goals, he had a pretty good game.  But this was a team loss.  They got away from the formula that had been successful lately, and the IceHogs got to dictate the style of the game.

So the 3-in-3 will conclude tomorrow against a Peoria team that will also be playing their 3rd.  The Rivermen shutout the Toronto Marlies tonight, and are riding a three-game winning streak.

If the Admirals can play their type of game tomorrow, they may be able to continue their success against Peoria this season.  If it turns into a run-and-gun game, there may be some trouble.  Since Smitty played tonight, I expect Atte Engren will play tomorrow, and hopefully he’ll rebound after being pulled in his last game.

 

That first-game-of-the-weekend sluggishness?  Mysteriously absent on Friday night.

Mark Van Guilder scored another pair of goals, and Jeremy Smith was perfect in net, as the Admirals shutout the Toronto Marlies 2-0 at the Bradley Center.

It was the second straight 2-goal performance for MVG, and Coach is not surprised to see it.

Van Guilder’s first goal came 15:11 into the first period, off another nice pass from Ryan Flynn.  After skating with the puck behind the goal, Flynn came out the other side, and fed Van Guilder crashing towards the net for another bang-bang goal.

With Tyler Sloan serving a tripping penalty in the 3rd period, Van Guilder intercepted a pass from Mike Zigomanis at the Admiral blue line.  And then it was off to the races.  Van Guilder beat Toronto goaltender Ben Scrivens five-hole for the shorthanded tally.

Here’s Mark on his night.

And Smitty was solid all night.  But he doesn’t think it was his best game of the year.

NOTES:

New lines:

Geoffrion – Latta – Thang
Wilson – Mueller – Puustinen
Bourque – Van Guilder – Flynn
Beck – Lajunen – Stortini

We asked coach which of the new lines he liked best….but he liked them all.

The most interesting part about that quote is how he didn’t have to worry about match-ups all night.  Kadri is an elite player, and to not have to worry about a 4th line being stuck out there against him is a luxury.

– So does Coach send Smitty right back out there tomorrow night against Rockford?  He said he didn’t know yet.  But he could report that Smitty had a pretty good week at practice, and it showed.

– Kelsey Wilson made his first return to the Bradley Center as the opposition.  Here are some quotes from him about coming back to town, and whether or not he would have dropped the gloves with Fordo.

– Geoffrion and Blum played their first games of the season for Milwaukee tonight.

First, some thoughts from Blake.

He also said his shoulder felt pretty good.  There was one time where he kind of got stung, but he said it held up fine.

And Blummer — first on whether he was surprised to be sent down, and then how long he thinks he’ll be with us.

A lot can happen.  Also worth noting is that the NHL holiday roster freeze is coming up.  December 19th-27th, players on the NHL roster cannot be sent down.  They can be called up from the AHL if needed, but if they’re on the NHL roster on Monday, they’ll be there until the freeze thaws out, whether they’re getting playing time or not.  So while they may have been told to play the 3 games this weekend, and we’ll see what happens Monday….I certainly won’t be surprised if the freeze starts and they’re still here.

The 3-in-3 continues in Rockford tomorrow night.  I won’t be making the trip….but if you’re going, stop by Beef-A-Roo for me!  They’re known for their beef, I hear….