Author: Ryan

Game Recaps

Admirals End Regular Season With 4-1 Win

In a game that meant very little outside of counting stats, the Admirals scored three power play goals, en route to a 4-1 over the Grand Rapids Griffins.

In more meaningful games, both the Oklahoma City Barons and Texas Stars lost, which means that Texas will be Milwaukee’s first round opponent.

Game 1:  Thursday the 14th in MKE
Game 2:  Saturday the 16th in MKE
Game 3: Tuesday the 19th in Texas
Game 4: Wednesday the 20th in Texas
Game 5:  Friday the 22nd in Texas (if needed)
Game 6: Monday the 25th in MKE (if needed)
Game 7:  Tuesday the 26th in MKE (if needed)

“They are a team that went to the finals last year,” Coach Lambert said of the Stars.  “They’ve got a number of their players playing for them right now that played in the playoff run for them last year.  We know exactly how this series is going to be.  This is going to be a grind and it’s going to be a chess match of detail.  And I don’t think you can stress the five second rule enough in the game.  We’re going to have to be aware of every shift every second of the game.  It’s going to be a challenge, and we’re looking forward to it.”

Today’s game featured a lot of ice time from the ATO players who dressed, including lots of minutes from Cory Conacher, Michael Latta, Taylor Beck, and Ben Ryan.  Conacher had two power play goals, and Beck and Latta had an assist in the contest.

The Admirals were graced with four power plays in the first period, and were able to convert on two of them.  With three seconds left on a two-man-advantage, Ryan Thang scored again (he was the hero last night, if you recall).  While falling down just to left of the crease, his backhander beat Jordan Pearce.

On another power play, the Griffins went on a shorthanded breakaway thanks to some sloppy play by Admirals defencemen, and Grant Lewis took down Ilari Filppula to prevent the goal.  Referee Koharski signaled for the penalty shot right away, but Filppula whiffed on his attempt.

Conacher scored his first power play goal with 3:21 left in the first period.  There was a lot of passing and not a lot of shooting going on in this power play, but Conacher received a return pass at the top of the slot, and his shot beat beat Pearce, with a little help from a Ryan Flynn screen.

The Griffins got a power play goal of their own in the second period, as Chris Minard was in the right place to gobble up the rebound of a Logan Pyett shot.  The puck just slid right to where Minard was standing, and Atte Engren couldn’t get back into position to make that save.

5:41 into the 3rd period, Conacher got his second goal, but it was the vision of Taylor Beck that made the play.  Andreas Thuresson’s shot from the far boards was saved by Pearce.  Beck claimed the rebound next to the far post, and slid a quick pass to Conacher on the other side of the crease for the easy goal.

“He’s a guy that got handed to our affiliate in Cincinnati,” Coach Lambert said.  “(Head coach) Jarrod Skalde made a call, and recommended he come in and play here.    And that’s a very professional move.  He just felt he could play, and I think he’s getting better every game.  He’s got speed, he’s got smarts, he’s got skill, and he competes.  There are still things that he needs to learn, but I thought he played an outstanding game, and he’s got a lot of talent.  I hope we can continue to build on that.”

Brett Palin had a goal-line to goal-line empty netter with 6.6 seconds left in the game, off a defensive zone face-off win by Michael Latta.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS:

Lines started this way:

Thang – Mueller – Bourque
Thuresson – Van Guilder – Conacher
Flynn – Bartlett – Ryan
Santorelli – Latta – Beck

Laakso was a healthy scratch.  Van Guilder missed a good chunk of the game, and was limping around a bit afterwards.  Coach said he’ll be fine.

Grand Rapids had four power plays.  Jeff Foss was responsible for three of them.

Conacher has three goals and two assists in his five games with the Admirals so far.  He’s on an ATO, so if we do get some players back from the Preds, he’ll still be able to play, instead of just hanging out ‘in residence’.

Here’s a summation of the season from the Coach, explaining how we were able to get to this point:

“I just think our guys are resilient, and we have a good group of guys that work hard every day, whether it be in games or in practices.   We’re like everybody else, we make our mistakes and we have our peaks and valleys, but we have a really good leadership group and we have a really good group of young character players that come to the rink every day to work hard.”

Pretty good summary?

So we’re going to get to know the Texas Stars pretty quickly.  They had our number during the regular season…. does that change how optimistic or pessimistic you are about the upcoming series?

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West Division Seeding Scenarios Today
West Division seeding scenarios (ripped from theahl.com)
If TEX
(at SA)…		 and OKC
(at HOU)…		 then W3-W4-W5 would be:
Win Win
Win OTL/SOL
Win Reg loss
OTL/SOL Reg/OT win
OTL/SOL SO win
OTL/SOL OTL/SOL
OTL/SOL Reg loss
Reg loss Win
Reg loss OTL/SOL
Reg loss Reg loss

So while our game is ultimately meaningless….we should know by the end of our game who our opponent will be in the first round of the playoffs.

Do you have a preferance?

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More From Peoria

(Editors Note:  The Admirals Roundtable has signed Laura Liebl to an ATO contract for the rest of this season (Author Try-Out).  This is her first piece for the Roundtable, and it’s a great effort — and she even managed to throw in references to our made-up sponsors, so I think she’ll fit in around here.  She was there in Peoria and saw the game first hand, and she files this report.  Thanks Laura!   – RBM)

Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly present your 2010-2011 regular season Western Conference champs! It sure wasn’t easy, and the team and coaching staff deserve huge accolades for fighting hard all season long.

Coming into last night’s final road game of the season, the Admirals were riding an impressive streak of playing 15 road games without a regulation loss but also a three game losing streak from their latest home swing. The Admirals welcomed yet another new face to the team in Peoria in the form of Ben Ryan (#16), newly signed to an ATO from Notre Dame. With a showdown for the West threatening to go down to the final day of the season, the Admirals hoped to settle the West once and for all Saturday in Peoria…

Jeremy Smith got the start in net while his teammates finally got off to a good start in the first period. The Admirals got the first PP of the game when Peoria’s Akim Aliu went to the box for interference at 5:24. With 19 seconds left on the Mountain Fury Power Play, the Admirals struck first. Brett Pailn blasted a one-timer from the blue line off of a pass from the circle by Cory Conacher.  Jake Allen made the initial save but Chris Mueller was on the doorstep to poke the rebound through the 5 hole for his 23rd of the year. 1-0 Admirals.

The power play for both teams would prove to be the story of the game early on. With Conacher in the box for high sticking, the Rivermen wasted no time cashing in. T.J. Hensick sent a long back-handed pass from the half wall that somehow made it’s way through to the right face off dot, where Drazenovic rifled a rocket that beat Smith top shelf glove side. 1-1.

Most coaches will tell you the best way to respond to a goal scored against you is with a goal of your own. On the very next shift the Admirals gained the Rivermen zone. Another one timer from the point, this time by Foss, found it’s way to Allen who again made the save, but left a rebound that was picked up by Ryan Flynn, who backhanded it in for his 6th of the year. 2-1 Admirals. Foss grabbed an assist and kudos to Ben Ryan for earning his first point on that goal by Flynn.

The Mountain Fury Power Play had one last thing to say before the end of the period. Brennan Evans got to sit for boarding Austin Watson, and this time it was the Admirals cashing in quickly on a pretty play.  It started with a Ryan Thang pass from the left circle to Mueller on the goal line who then sent it across crease through a sliding defender to Conacher, who beat Allen trying to slide across. The Admirals had to feel pretty good about the first period but it wouldn’t last.

In the second, Peoria started to throw more pucks at Smith while the Admirals just couldn’t get any quality chances going. With Lewis in the box for tripping the Admirals couldn’t clear the zone from the get go and in a play similar to Conacher’s goal, Nicolas Drazenovic shot a cross-crease pass through sliding defenders to a waiting TJ Hensick, who one timed it passed Smith, who had no chance. 41 seconds later, a lost face off from Mueller found it’s way to the right point where Peoria’s Daryl Boyle fired a slap shot through traffic that found it’s way over Smiths glove hand for his first of the year. Smith didn’t seem to see it until the last second. Peoria heavily out shot the Admirals 18-5 in the second period.

Now tied 3-3 the third period saw much of the same from the second. The Admirals continued to be out shot and couldn’t muster much offense of their own. Smith came up with big and timely saves on several occasions, as did the PK who killed off two Peoria power plays to keep it tied.

In the final minute of the period the Admirals were stuck in their own zone. With disaster looming Smith made a huge blocker save to keep the Admirals alive, and then Thang then intercepted a pass from Aliu in the high slot and the Admirals were off to the races with a 2 on 1. Thang had Mueller on the right, but he didn’t need him.  Thang’s wrister from the left circle beat Allen through the pads with 6.5 second left.

Notes & Questions
 
Here were your lines to start the game
Flynn-Bartlett-Ryan
Watson-Van Guilder-Thuresson
Conacher-Mueller-Thang
Beck-Latta-Santorelli
 
Defense
Palin-Foss
Jost-Laakso
Ford-Lewis
 
Lederer was a healthy scratch.   Gabriel Bourque  joined the Admirals M*A*S*H unit with a lower body injury that is considered day-to-day.

Do you think Admirals might be able to loosen up a bit now for Sunday’s finale without the elusive point looming over their heads, or do you think they’ll just go through the motions in game 80?
 
How far do you think the Admirals can ride Jeremy Smith in the playoffs?

Game Recaps

Thang Scores In Final Seconds, Admirals Finally Clinch 1st

Playing their final road game of the regular season, the Admirals finally were able to clinch 1st place in the division, after a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Peoria Rivermen Saturday night.

After blowing a 3-1 lead in 41 seconds late in the 2nd period, and after only getting two shots on Jake Allen in the 3rd period, Ryan Thang scored on the third shot of the period — finishing a two-on-one rush with a shot that beat Allen five-hole with 6.5 seconds left in the game.

Gabriel Bourque was scratched, and Ben Ryan made his pro debut.

We’ll have more on the game Sunday morning….. but feel free to leave your celebration of choice in the comments section.

Huzzah!

Game Recaps

Stars Top Ads After Smith Error

Third time clinching the division wasn’t the charm for the Admirals, as they fell to the Texas Stars 3-2 at the Bradley Center Friday night.

The magic number remains at one, to be the #1 seed in the conference, but Coach Lambert says he isn’t even thinking about that.

“I’m not worried about the magic number.  At all.  We’ve got to get some breaks, and we’ve got to find a way to get back on track.  And when we do that, the magic number will take care of itself.”

It’s been three one-goal losses in a row at home for the Admirals, and of course Coach doesn’t care for the results, but he’s not as upset about the way the team has played.

“I thought we played well last game, and I thought we played well tonight, and I think our goaltender should have had their third goal.  You can’t let a goal in like that in a game like this.”

That third goal came after Jeremy Smith’s failed attempt at gloving a centering pass from the corner, and Travis Morin was able to finish the play for his second goal of the game.  Don’t know if Jeremy blinked, or the puck knuckled, or the sun was in his eyes, or he had a momentary loss of depth perception, but the official scorer gave him an E-2 on that play.

We asked Coach if he thought the Stars’ goalie stole the game, and here was his reply:

“I guess maybe at the end of the day, if he lets in a bad one and ours doesn’t, it’s a different story.”

Think we’ll see Engren in Peoria tomorrow?  Perhaps?

Grant Lewis made his return to action, and provided a goal and a primary assist in the third period, but Richard Bachman was solid in net for Texas, stopping 31 of the Admirals’ 33 shots.

Ray Sawada opened the scoring 3:05 into the game, deflecting a Jordie Benn shot over and around Smith.

Travis Morin scored the first of his two goals 7:09 into the second period, channeling his inner-Tony-Plush, slapping the puck out of mid-air past three Admirals skaters and Smith.  Was it played with a high stick?

“I think so yeah, but whatever, it comes down to video reply.  Human error.”  These sorts of goals are happening every game….we’ve got to ask about it, and we can tell he’s tired of answering it.

Lewis got one back for the Admirals after a poor penalty kill clearing attempt  fell into his lap.  His shot from the slot beat Bachman.

But then, Smitty let in what may have been his worst goal of the year.  That goal gave the Stars a 3-1 lead with 3:19 to play.

Morin took a tripping penalty with two minutes to play, and the Admirals scored on that power play, with Smith pulled for an extra attacker.  Grant Lewis’ shot from two feet in front of the blue line on the near side made its way through to Bachman, and while he made the save, he couldn’t control the rebound.  The puck bounced behind him, and Mike Bartlett was there to tap it the rest of the way with 27.2 seconds left in the game.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

Coach’s thoughts on the new guys:  “I thought Conacher played pretty good.  I thought Watson tapered off a little bit.  That’s a big strong team they have over there and they grind you down pretty good.  Foss was fairly steady.  And Latta and Beck, their minutes were fairly limited, but when they got out there, they did the best they could.”

I agree on Conacher.  The speed has been great to see.  What do you think about the new guys tonight?

So is this three game skid much ado about nothing?  Just some bad breaks, some good goalie performances on the other end, and some chemistry-building in process?

Word is that Preds’ 2007 draft pick Ben Ryan will be joining the team in Peoria.  Ryan is a center, who just finished his senior season at Notre Dame, 6g, 19a, in 44 games.  Think he’ll play?

Anything else on your mind?

Going on the Admirals Crew bus tomorrow?  Have a fun trip!  Hope you get to see them clinch!

By the way – OUCH & Company…I thoroughly enjoy your in-game chants.  I know you guys have been doing lots of them for awhile….but I was moved to say something tonight.  Thanks for keeping stuff interesting and fun on our side of the arena.

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Lines: Some Assembly Required

So, you?  You’re Coach Lambert.

You’ve done a pretty good  job getting this team to where they are right now, so, um, thanks!

But now you’ve got lots of new guys on the roster, and you may have a couple more guys coming back down from Nashville once Sully and Cal are in good shape.

You’ve got quite the schoolyard lot of forwards.

So you’ve got to assemble four forward lines.  GO!

Blake Geoffrion, Ryan Thang, Ryan Flynn, Mark Santorelli, Andreas Thuresson
Cory Conacher, Chris Mueller, Gabriel Bourque, Mike Bartlett, Taylor Beck,
Steve Begin, Michael Latta, Mark Van Guilder, Austin Watson, Matt Halischuk

(I left Hunter, Shields, Wilson, and Klasen off the list…but feel free to throw them in your lines if you want.  While suggesting this exercise, I remain, not the boss of you.)

Would you slide Halischuk back in on the Bourque-Mueller line?  Or play him with Geoffrion and someone else?  Would you like to see the two Guelph ATO’s together, or is there more to gain from them playing with some more veteran players?  Do you keep the lines we’ve been having for awhile now and just make minor changes?  If you want to see the young guys, who gets scratched?

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Juniors Update: Beck And Latta On Their Way

Get ready for some more new faces on the roster.

While the Admirals were entertaining Peoria last night, Saginaw was clinching their playoff series against Guelph in the OHL.  So Taylor Beck and Michael Latta’s junior seasons are complete, and they are on their way to Milwaukee.  They may be able to make their debuts on Wednesday, but they need to officially be released by Guelph first.  We think that’ll happen on Tuesday, but it’ll happen when it happens.

It was one of those series’ where it shows how momentum can just turn on a dime, and the series can take a whole new path.  Leading the series 2 games to 1, Guelph had a 2-0 lead in game 4 before the game was five minutes old.  And then a Saginaw shorthanded goal early in the second period sparked a four goal explosion in the middle frame that eventually led to a 4-3 Saginaw win.  Saginaw took game 5, and then had a 6-2 lead in game 6 with 16 minutes to play.  Guelph scored three times the rest of the way, thanks in part to some time on the power play, but Saginaw hung on to take the series.

Latta had five goals and five assists in the six games.  Beck had three goals and five assists.

Meanwhile, Ryan Ellis’ Windsor Spitfire team will play game 7 of their series tomorrow night against Erie.  Windsor was up 3 games to 1, but Erie took the next two games in overtime to force game 7.

Ellis has three goals and four assists in six games so far.

TUESDAY NIGHT UPDATE:

Windsor won game seven, scoring the game winning goal with 2:48 left in the game.  Ellis had a power play goal and an assist in the game.

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Sunday Primer

Scheduling quirks can be annoying.  But the Admirals find themselves as the beneficiaries this weekend.

After playing the Chicago Wolves in Houston on Thursday, the Aeros travelled to Milwaukee on Friday in time for their game.

And after playing the San Antonio Rampage in Texas last night, the Peoria Rivermen are travelling to Milwaukee today to finish their three games in three days set.

The Admirals did sign another player to an ATO contract, as reported by Creed Feed yesterday.  Cory Conacher is your newest Admiral.  A 5’8 forward who just finished his senior season at Canisius College, where he was their leading scorer for the past two seasons.  Conacher played two games with the Rochester Americans last week, was then assigned to the Cyclones.  He then proceeded to score five goals and two assists in three games in Cincy.  Actually, all of his points came in the first two games.

That’s one way to get noticed.

Conacher will wear #13 for Milwaukee.

The Admirals can clinch the West Division title today, with a win and a Texas loss (any variety) to Rockford.  Or with one point against Peoria, and a Texas regulation loss to Rockford.

If the season ended today, the Admirals would play Oklahoma City in the first round, Peoria would crossover to the North Division, and Chicago would crossover to the driving range.