After a huge win in Chicago last night, the Admirals were not able to make the most of their chances Saturday night, losing to the Manitoba Moose 4-2 at the Bradley Center.

Here’s the coach:

Entering the third period down a pair of goals, Ryan Flynn got one back 2:59 into the third, re-directing a shot-off-goal from Aaron Johnson.  It took great hand-eye coordination, and goaltender Tyler Weiman didn’t stand a chance.

Mark Van Guilder took an ill-advised Yonking penalty late in the game (of course, all Yonking penalties are ill-advised), and that really stunted any kind of momentum that was up for grabs.

After killing off the penalty, they pulled Mark Dekanich for an extra attacker, and Gabriel Bourque almost tied it….if he could have elevated his shot from the bottom of the faceoff circle, the roof would have blown off the BC.  After that save, the Admirals couldn’t get anything going, and Aaron Volpatti scored an empty netter in the closing seconds to make it a 4-2 final.

The Moose struck first, as Sergei Shirokov deflected a shot from the point by defenseman Keith Seabrook past Mark Dekanich.   Dex didn’t look very comfortable over the first 10 minutes of the game, but seemed to settle down the rest of the period.

The Admirals answered back with a Mountain Fury power play goal from Grant Lewis.  He had a shot from just above the top of the near faceoff circle, and his shot may have been slightly deflected by a sliding Aaron Volpatti.  Deflection or no deflection, it beat Tyler Weiman.

It seemed on that power play, the Admirals were trying their best to make sure plays went through Lewis.  He seemed to be in a Jon Blum kind of role, pinching and retreating and fielding cross-ice passes.  Nice to see it worked on that first power play.

Yann Sauve scored for the Moose 8:34 into the second period on a power play.  His shot from the near circle beat Dex stick side.  Dex may have had one eye on the puck, and one eye on Bill Sweatt, who was in the process of crashing the net, and was sure to gobble up any rebound.

Guillaume Desbiens scored the game winning goal the second a Moose power play ended.  Another deflection goal after a shot from the point by Shirokov.

—–NOTES—-

These linesmen were trash.  And they blatantly missed an icing call in the final minute that would have saved some time and brought a faceoff back to the Moose end of the ice.

Dex was a rebound machine for stretches of this game, but he really shut the door in the third period, making a few spectacular saves, bailing out his defensemen, who were watching forwards go around them.

Belak watch – stop watching.  According to Paul Fenton, Belak is staying in Nashville “in residence”. (We’ll have more thoughts from Fenton later this week)

Injury update – here’s the coach.

Houston and San Antonio lost tonight.  Peoria, Texas and Oklahoma City won.

Questions:

Was it just a matter of bounces tonight?

Did anyone stand out as having a good game?  Lewis, maybe?  Bourque was pretty good, despite his fail at the end.  Anyone else?

Thoughts on the new guys?  Think any of them have the chance to be on the clear day roster?

Admirals are off until next Friday….in your opinion, do they usually perform better after a long break like that?

Despite being outshot 43-19 in the game, the Admirals were able to make the most of their chances, en route to a 3-1 win over the Chicago Wolves Friday night in Rosemont.

Connor Shields, Brock McBride, and Patrick Coulombe each scored their first points as Admirals, and Mark Dekanich played like an all-star, getting his 22^nd win of the year.

Connor Shields scored his first of the year, putting home a shot after a Grant Lewis attempt missed the mark, and a Brock McBride shot hit iron.

Coulombe was boarded by Andrew Kozek at the 16:03 mark of the first period, and Andreas Thuresson turned into the Incredible Hulk after that and dropped the gloves with Kozek.  Thuresson got two for instigating, five for fighting, and a ten minute misconduct.  I’m surprised he didn’t get a game misconduct for instigating, though.  Didn’t there used to be an automatic suspension?  And I’m also surprised that Kozek didn’t get shown the door too.

Anyway, Kozek got five for boarding and five for fighting.  So when Thuresson’s instigator penalty concluded, that put the Admirals on a power play, and Ryan Thang was able to score as it was winding down.  27 seconds into the second period, he received a pass that was behind him, and twirled the puck into the net.

Arturs Kulda scored the Wolves only goal with a shot that seemed to be deflected en route past Dekanich.

And then Coulombe, who showed some toughness coming back from the board, gave the Admirals an insurance goal 3:42 into the 3^rd.  After a neutral zone turnover, he brought the puck into the offensive zone, and his wrister from the top of the right circle went off the far post and in the net.

NOTES:

Steve Begin played his first game in awhile (since January 22^nd), and they played him on a line with McBride and Shields.  But he didn’t finish the game.  He left in the 3^rd period, and it’s tough to say what the outlook is for him.  We’ll ask Coach about it tomorrow.

The Admirals have points in 11 straight road games.  January 13^th at Manitoba was the last regulation loss on the road for Milwaukee.  Maybe it’s too bad there are only five road games left?

The Moose come to town tomorrow after a 4-3 shootout win in Peoria Friday night.  Dave Scatchard (remember him?) had tied it for the Rivermen with less than a minute left in the third, but the Moose went on to win in the bottom of the 7^th round of the shootout.

Former Admirals captain Alex Henry was the hero Wednesday night in Hamilton, as he scored with 3.5 seconds left in overtime, to give the Bulldogs the 5-4 win over the Admirals.

After the Bulldogs had killed off a penalty in overtime, they were able to make one more rush into the offensive zone.  After an Admiral backchecker knocked the puck free, it came right to Henry, who’s shot may or may not have crossed the goal line.

“(The referees) didn’t come over and talk at all, they just skated off the ice, and I don’t even know if they saw it or not.  Just believed the goal judge…the light’s on,” assistant coach Ian Herbers told Aaron Sims after the game.   “The officiating supervisor was down here today, and he wasn’t sure either.  And from our video you can’t tell.  The point of contention is they had five guys on the ice.  A pretty liberal change.  So that’s the sticky part for us on that goal.”

It was Henry’s first of the year, and it put the Bulldogs in first place in their division.

The score was Nigel Dawes 3, Admirals 0 before the game was 22 minutes old, as Dawes had the natural hat-trick, and scored in his eighth straight game.  Turnovers and failures to block passes helped contribute to those goals, and Mark Dekanich was relieved after the 3^rd one.

But the Admirals battled back and tied the game before the second period was over.  Teemu Laakso snuck in the back door and converted a Chris Mueller pass past trading-chip Drew MacIntyre.  1:55 later, Scott Ford had a blast from the right circle.  And then on the power play, Andreas  Thuresson crashed the net after a Chris Mueller shot, and scored his 9^th of the year.

The Bulldogs regained their lead 6:59 into the 3^rd when Dany Masse put back a shot after a Jeremy Smith pad save.

But another power play goal evened the score again, as Gabriel Bourque continued HIS hot streak, scoring on a backhander down low.  It was Bourque’s 3^rd goal since last Wednesday, and 6^th point since last Tuesday.

Tough to get a read on how the new guys are doing.  Brock McBride didn’t record any stats that showed up into the box score.  Connor Shields had a couple of shots on goal.  But Aaron was complimentary of our new #52, defenseman Patrick Coulombe.  And Coach Herbers liked his game tonight too.

“I thought he struggled a little bit with Toronto just handling weight down in our corners in the d zone…Hamilton is a little bit speedier team with smaller forwards, and I thought he did well against them, because he can skate and is a very smart player.  He moves the puck crisp, he was hard on pucks, got to loose pucks in a hurry, didn’t shy away from any battle. Got his nose in there, got dirty in the corners and along walls, and battled and won battles. And that’s what he needs to do.  I thought he was very good tonight, and was confident playing him out there tonight.”

With the OT loss and Houston’s 8-1 romp over Rockford, the Admirals are still in first place, with 79 points in 61 games.  Followed by Houston in second with 77 points in 64 games.

Travel day Thursday, and then they’ve got a game in Rosemont on Friday night.  With MacIntyre now in Hamilton and Peter Mannino in Atlanta, that leaves one goalie on the roster right now for the Wolves:  his name is Chris Carrozzi.  He made his AHL debut on Tuesday, stopping 21 of 27 shots in a 6-5 overtime loss to Peoria.

(Photo credits:  Eric W Kent)

Anders Lindback got the start for the fourth time in five days, and had some good moments and bad moments, as the Admirals lost to the Rockford IceHogs 4-3 in overtime Saturday night.

The Admirals never led in the game, coming back from three one-goal deficits, but still managed to get out of town with a point in the standings.

After putting his whistle away in the 3^rd period, Shaun Davis whistled Teemu Laakso for a cross-checking call 1:34 into the overtime period.  The IceHogs converted with a Ben Smith goal from down low, that popped over a down Lindback.

Here’s Coach Lambert on the overtime period.

“The first thing I saw was a bad call, from a guy driving to the net who gets pushed off balance.   And then I saw our guy get picked twice, on a set play that they run…that’s interference.  And then I don’t know how the puck went in the net.”

Here’s the penalty, and the goal…

Evan “Don’t Taze Me” Brophey opened the scoring just 42 seconds into the contest with a shot that Lindback had trouble tracking.

The Admirals answered back with a power play goal by Kelsey Wilson.  After Aaron Johnson’s shot from the point was saved but not covered, Wilson finished the job in the crease.

Rob Klinkhammer was the best player on the ice for both teams tonight, and he shifted into another gear past Admiral defenders on multiple occasions.  In the second period, one led to a shot wide of the net.  A couple minutes later, it was a goal.

Ryan Flynn answered back later in the period, skating with the puck from the near boards to the slot, and his backhander beat Alec Richards.  Richards had Dylan Hunter in front of the net to worry about, that may have helped open some space for the shot.

The 3^rd IceHogs goal is just unacceptable.  A shot from Jeff Taffe deflected off of Scott Ford’s skates and bounced softly right on net.  Easy glove and cover, right?  Wrong.  Lindback couldn’t cover it, and Klinkhammer was Johnny-on-the-spot for his second goal of the game.

“I didn’t like the third goal,” Coach said after the game.  “I don’t know if I necessarily like any of the goals.  I thought he struggled with his rebound control  and he struggled playing the puck.  I think it caught up with us in the end.”

The Admirals tied the game again with a Mike Bartlett goal at 10:53 of the third period.  Ryan Flynn had a shot, and the rebound went through the defenders skates at the left post.  Bartlett was there to bury it.

Lines were shuffled tonight, and that Bartlett – Hunter- Flynn line was OUTSTANDING.  And Coach agrees.

“Bartlett, I thought was his best game of the year by far. Flynn wasn’t far behind him, and Hunter is a solid and responsible guy.”

NOTES:

Asked after the game how much longer he expected to have Lindback on the roster, Coach Lambert said, “He’s going to be here for about 45 minutes and then he’s going back.”

Roman Josi left the game with an injury.  They’re calling it a lower body injury, and don’t know what the outlook is.

Houston won tonight, so the Aeros now sit one point back of the Admirals in the standings, and have played three more games.

DISCUSSION POINTS:

How would you grade Lindback?

With Blum in Nashville and Josi possibly hurt, that really puts a dent in the defensive corps.   Is it Scott Lehman time, or do you think the Admirals sign someone else to a PTO?