The story coming into the game was that it was going to be Atte Engren’s North American debut.

The story after the game was how fantastic IceHog netminder Hannu Toivonen was.

Toivonen made 44 saves as the IceHogs defeated the Admirals 3-2 in overtime.

“He was unbelievable,” Coach Lambert said after the game.  “He made the difference in the game.  Unbelievable.  And he’s been playing that way for them here for quite a few games now.  So hats off to him.  He stole the game for them.”

As for Engren, we asked Coach Lambert what kind of marks he would give Engren’s performance tonight.  He elected to avoid specifics.

“Average.  Average marks.”

So we’ll give some observations.  His athleticism seems to be his biggest asset, as he channeled his inner Hasek on a few occasions.  Rebound control could still use some work, and he seemed to have trouble tracking rebounds after making the save.  He likes to challenge shooters, but it seems like it’s a long way for him to get back to the crease to get ready for the follow-up shot.  And on his first goal, he may have underestimated how fast things happen in North American hockey.

Brandon Pirri will have the distinction of scoring the first ever North American professional goal against Engren.  After Engren made a nice pad save on a shot from the low slot, the play continued behind the net, and Pirri’s shot from just to the side of the crease beat Engren before he could seal up the far post.

Andreas Thuresson answered back 1:13 later with a power play marker.  Roman Josi passed to Kelsey Wilson in the slot.  Wilson ended up knocking it down with his hand, and couldn’t quite get a shot on net.  Instead he dished to Thuresson at the bottom of the circle for his 11^th of the year.

Pirri scored his second of the game on a 3-on-2-and-half rush.  I’ll give the Admirals the extra half as Brock McBride had almost caught up with the play.  Pirri brought the puck into the zone, made a quick move to shake off a defender, and his shot from just to the left of the far dot flat out beat Engren.

The Admirals tied it up in the third period with Thuresson’s second of the game.  It was one of 19 shots that frame for the Admirals, which was a season high for a period (46 was also a season high for a game).  Wilson had a shot on goal, and then there were about 6 guys surrounding the crease.  Lots of sticks playing for the rebound, but Thuresson’s stick was the one that put it past Toivonen.

The game went to overtime, and the IceHogs capitalized on a 3-1 rush to get the win.  After Grant Lewis pinched into the offensive zone, he was tripped, and that eventually sprung the odd-man rush.  Brian Connelly brought it down the right wing, and shot from about the same spot Pirri did for his 2^nd goal, and it beat Engren to end the game.

NOTES

The Mueller – Bourque- Thang line was the best tonight, mostly because they were often able to get sustained pressure in the offensive zone.   It wasn’t just one shot and done.  They were able to get three to five chances on lots of their shifts.  And that spread to some other lines, especially in the 3^rd period. Multiple times the Admirals would get the initial shot on Toivonen and then a couple more off of a rebound.  A lot of opportunities came from within a couple feet of the crease and Toivonen was able to stop enough to help get a win for his team.

The Admirals continued their streak of obtaining at least a point in 15 straight road games.  It ties an AHL league record.  They’ll have one more chance in the regular season to break it, because there’s just one road game left.

Houston, Peoria, Texas, and Chicago won.  San Antonio was shutout, so they’ll be grumpy in Milwaukee tomorrow afternoon, playing their third game in three days.    The Aeros and the Admirals both have 92 points, but Houston has played three more games.

When the schedule comes out every year, teams skim through it and they can immediately recognize the bum dates that will be awful for travel.

The last 24 hours for the Admirals have been rough.  They did get the big win in San Antonio last night, followed by a pre-dawn wake-up call, delayed flights, and then capped it off with their fourth game in five days.  Every team goes through these things, and it was the Admirals’ turn.  That’s life in the AHL.

The day ended with a 3-2 loss to the Cleveland Lake Erie Monsters, in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the score suggests, as the Admirals didn’t get their two goals until the last minute of the game.

“I think we showed a lot of character at the end,” Coach Lambert said after the game.   “I know there was some fatigue involved.  You try not to make excuses, but it can factor in, there’s no question about it.  I’m proud of the guys and the way they battled.  But it was too little too late.  We needed to do more, on a more consistent basis.”

The Admirals came up dry on three power play chances in the first 12 minutes of the game, and then proceeded to give up two power play goals on five Monster chances.

The Monsters got on the board twice in the second period.  David Van der Gulik brought the puck in along the left wing, and his shot on Jeremy Smith was deflected by Greg Mauldin at the 14:49 mark of the period.  Roman Josi had Mauldin tied up, but not well enough to prevent him from getting a stick on the puck.

With 59 seconds left in the period, the Monsters tallied a power play goal.  Took them just 17 seconds of Dylan Hunter’s holding penalty to do it.  Justin Mercier tried to center a pass to a wide open Mauldin on the other side of the crease, but the pass was blocked by Scott Ford….right back to Mercier.  Smith had already committed to the pass, and was unable to get back in position to stop Mercier’s shot.

Julien Brouillette (who was in Admirals training camp this year) scored his first of the year, and it ended up being the game winner.  On a power play, Jeremy Smith made a great left skate save, and an Admiral defenseman (Laakso?) cleared the puck out of danger with a hand pass.  The puck went to Brouillette at the far point, and he put the puck right back on net, and it had eyes.  Or maybe Smith didn’t, as there were still a ton of bodies in front of him, and he hadn’t returned to his feet yet.

“The third goal they scored, I had a clear view of it from the bench, I still don’t know how it got through,” coach Lambert said.

It stayed 3-0 until the last minute of the game.  Brock McBride got his first goal as an Admiral with 49.9 seconds left, tipping a Jamie Bates shot past John Grahame.

The Ads got some puck-luck with 13.2 seconds left, as Chris Mueller had a shot go off of Cameron Gaunce and into the net, after a strong move from the left wing boards towards the net.

“I’m not going to freak out over this game whatsoever,” said the Coach.  “Because I knew there would be some fatigue involved, and we didn’t get much puck luck tonight either.”  (the 2nd Admirals goal, notwithstanding….)

NOTES:

I don’t think any of lines played particularly well tonight, but I thought Brock McBride had a pretty solid game, even before he scored his goal.  I thought Shields’ speed helped create some chances, and he shifted into another gear on a chance in the 2nd period.  Too bad his shot missed the mark.

Thuresson and Wilson didn’t play like 4th year players tonight.

In other news…..Goaltender Atte Engren arrived in Milwaukee tonight.  He watched the game from press row.  Now, it’s not unusual for young goalies to hang around the club on ATO contracts, after their seasons are done.  Dekanich was around and didn’t play, Chet Pickard was around but didn’t play when his junior season concluded.  So there’s no guarantee that we’ll ever see Engren in action this season.

But it sure might be nice.  And we asked Coach Lambert if there was a chance.  Here was his answer:

“There is a chance yeah, definitely.”

So we’ll see.  He didn’t rule it out, and he certainly had the opportunity to, or at the very least downplay the chance.  I think he’s excited to see what the kid can do.  Or I may just be projecting that.

Anyway….Engren is here.  That’s the news.  We’ll do a profile piece on him this week to let you know how his season was in Europe.

Dex is out for awhile.  He has a boot on his foot.  Van Guilder is day to day with an injury of some kind….couldn’t even get the usual upper-or-lower body description from anyone.

Scoreboard watching:  Houston and Oklahoma City won tonight.  Chicago, Peoria, and San Antonio lost (the Rampage had just 15 shots against Houston…)  The Admirals retain first place, now with a one point lead over the Aeros.  The Lake Erie win puts them in 2nd place in the North, two points out of 1st.

Questions:

Did you like Huey Lewis & The News?

Are you with the Coach, and not going to freak out about this game?

Was the power play working better than their oh-fer would suggest?

Did anybody stand out to you as being particularly good or particularly awful tonight?

In a 2:02 span of the second period, the Admirals scored thrice, and 66 minutes of penalties were dealt out by referee Koharski-du-jour.

The rest of the game?  Not nearly as exciting, but the bottom line is that it was a 4-1 Admiral victory over the San Antonio Rampage Friday night.

With the win, the Admirals extend their lead on the Houston Aeros in the standings to three points, with two extra games to play.

After the scoreless first period, former Admiral Bracken Kearns scored his second goal in as many games against the Admirals, tipping in a pass from Matt Watkins 3:12 into the second period.

The Admirals answered back later in the period with three goals in 98 seconds.

The power play got the first one on the tail end of an Alexandre Picard roughing penalty.  An Aaron Johnson shot went off the stick of Matt Watkins and past Joe Fallon — who wasn’t originally supposed to play here today.  Matt Climie was a last-minute scratch.

The Admirals dominated play after the ensuing faceoff, and were rewarded with a goal after Randy Robitaille couldn’t clear the puck out of the zone.  Mueller played the puck back to Teemu Laakso, and his blast from the slot went over Fallon’s glove.

24 seconds after Laakso’s goal, Andreas Thuresson scored his tenth of the year from the near circle over the shoulder of Fallon.  Mark Santorelli deserves a lot of credit for his play with the puck and his vision, finding Thuresson going to the net.

And then 24 seconds after THAT goal, we got a slew of penalty minutes.

It started with Scott Ford and Dane Byers.  Lots of the other players on the ice started chirping at each other.  There was dancing.  And eventually Nolan Yonkman and Kelsey Wilson dropped the gloves.  Yonkman had a lot of swings and misses.  Wilson did a lot of clutching.  They both connected for one shot, pretty much at the same time, but Wilson’s may have been the better one.

Wilson and Yonkman were given game misconducts.

With all the gloves and sticks scattered everywhere, Aaron Sims said it looked like a 9-year-old’s bedroom on the ice.

I’m not going to go through all the penalties…you can check the box score if you want to see the damage.  But when you do check it out, note the people who were involved — the new guys.  New guys making a statement.  Think Coach Lambert liked seeing that?  I’d wager.

Chris Mueller added an empty net goal with 7.7 seconds to play — his third point of the night.

The Admirals benefited from some quick whistles towards the end of the game, as scrambles were blown dead before pucks were actually covered by Smith.

It’s now 14 straight road games with at least a point for the Admirals.

NOTES:

Chris Mueller has turned into an assist machine this month, with nine helpers in nine March games, and he had a part in six of the seven Admirals goals scored on this three game road trip.

Jeremy Smith was solid in net, stopping 29 of 30 shots.  He didn’t get any of the 3 stars of the game, but I think he should have been in the conversation.

Mark Dekanich joined Aaron Sims on his broadcast during the second intermission.  And he said the following:

“We’re not quite sure yet exactly what it is, or how long it’s going to take.  But I’m looking forward to getting back out there soon and I’ll try and rehab it as fast as I can.”

We are men of action.  Lies do not become us.  You don’t have to tell us what it is.  But don’t give us that weak sauce.

I’d like to apologize now, for using the phrase “weak sauce”.

Mark Van Guilder missed the game with an undisclosed injury.  He seemed to go out of his way to be unspecific too, when on the air with Aaron in the 1st intermission.

So the Admirals will wake up early to catch their flight back to Milwaukee, to play the Cleveland Lake Erie Monsters Saturday night.  The Monsters were terrible guests in Grand Rapids Friday night, scoring five goals in the 2nd period, on their way to a 7-2 win.  Let’s hope they got everything out of their system in that game.

Is everyone ready for Huey Lewis & The News?