Most….creative….headline….ever.

Finding themselves a bit shorthanded after the recalls of Blake Geoffrion and Matt Halischuk, the road-weary Admirals had a difficult time solving Drew MacIntyre, as the Chicago Wolves defeated the home team 2-1 on Dropkick Murphys night.

Anders Lindback picked up his first AHL loss, and had a hand in giving up the game winning goal, misplaying the puck behind the net while the Admirals were on a power play.

Despite the goof, Coach Lane Lambert was complimentary of his goalie after the game.

“I thought he made a ton of great saves.  He kept us in the game at the start when we were on the penalty kill.  I thought he played an outstanding game.  Those kinds of things happen once in awhile.   I thought our team played hard, I thought we battled, I thought we had more than enough opportunities to win the hockey game, and it didn’t work out for us.”

After a scoreless first period, former Admiral Mark Matheson was first to beat Lindback.  On a rush up the right wing, Fredrik Pettersson left a touch pass for Andre Deveaux, who left a touch pass for Matheson, who fired a shot from the top of the near circle that was perfectly placed in the top left corner of the net.  It was a perfect shot, and you have to tip your hat to “Mad Dog”.

With Squirrel Face (see the glossary) serving a high sticking penalty, Tim Miller met Lindback behind the net.  Lindback misplayed the puck, and Miller’s wrap around  made it a 2-0 lead.

With 1:43 left in the game, Mark Van Guilder deflected an Aaron Johnson shot from the far face-off dot, to give the Admirals some late hope.  But they couldn’t beat MacIntyre again.

Andreas Thuresson had a shot that bounced off the bottom of the crossbar and then straight down on top of the goal-line.  Close play, but the no-goal call looked to be the correct one.

Coach recognizes the tough part of the schedule, but isn’t interested in making it an excuse.

“We knew this was going to be a tough stretch for us playing 11 games in 15 nights.  Not a lot of rest and on our off-days we’ve been traveling.  So welcome to the American Hockey League!  There’s your incentive to play in the National Hockey League. “

NOTES:

LINES

Here’s how they started….

Thang – Hunter – Thuresson
Bourque – Mueller – Santorelli
Wilson – Van Guilder – Flynn
Shields – McLean – Bartlett

Hunter had been playing well lately, but I would rather not have seen Bartlett drawing the short straw and having to start with the 4^th line of doom.

Admirals were awful early on winning face-offs, but got better towards the end of the game.  And I think they actually had a great game keeping pucks in at the offensive blue line, which we’re not really used to seeing.

See anything interesting about Shields or McLean tonight?

Klasen is still day-to-day with that upper-body injury.  But he’s very unlikely to play tomorrow in Rockford.

Which goalie do you want to see tomorrow in Rockford?  Lindback or Smith?  It would be Lindback’s fourth in five days.  But he’s here to get some work in.  What do you think?

Do you miss Jon Blum?

How long before Blake comes back from his promotional call-up to the big club?

It’s probably not the way he envisioned it happening, but Anders Lindback got the W in his AHL debut, stopping 31 of 35 shots in the Admirals 5-4 win over the Houston Aeros Tuesday night.

All four games against the Aeors this year have been decided by one goal, and all four have been tied after two periods.  The Admirals currently sport a record of 3-0-0-1 in the season series.

It was a game of runs, as the Admirals scored the first two, gave up the next four, and then scored the last three.

Andreas Thuresson reappeared and scored just 1:19 into the contest on a power play.  A Blake Geoffrion shot went off the skates of Justin Falk, and Thuresson was able to sweep the puck throw Anton Khudobin’s five-hole.

About halfway through the period, Chris Mueller scored his 17th of the season, after Matt Halischuk created a turnover with a check on Patrick O’Sullivan at the Aeros blue line.  The puck came to Mueller and his shot from the right faceoff circle was deflected by Jamie Fraser and over Khudobin’s left pad.

O’Sullivan responded with a power play goal on a slapshot 2:20 later, while Brett Palin was serving two minutes for yonking.

In the second period, the Admirals kept the penalty box seat warm with four minor penalties, but were able to kill all of them off.

The Aeros tied it up with 46 seconds left to go in the period, on a goal from Brandon Buck.

They scored two more times before the 3rd period was four minutes old, with an O’Sullivan breakaway goal, and a Warren Peters deflection of an O’Sullivan shot.  The score was 4-2, with 16:02 left to play.

Brett Palin answered back 21 seconds after Peters’ goal, with a snap shot from the top of the left circle.

With O’Sullivan serving one of his three (dumb) penalties, Matt Halischuk buried a shot after a great keep-in at the point from Aaron Johnson.

And then after a great shift by the Halischuk – Mueller – Bourque line, Halischuk got the game winner at the 9:43 mark of the third.  Bourque actually had a couple good chances including a wrap-around attempt, but Halischuk crashed the net, and lit the lamp.

We’re used to seeing some kind of a prevent defense late in the third period when nursing a lead, but the Admirals controlled much of the play down the stretch, with Geoffrion and Bourque among the players killing lots of time with some nice plays in the offensive zone, keeping Khudobin in the net, and the puck as far away from Lindback as possible.

Lindback was a bit rusty, but we’ll see if Coach Lambert goes back to him Wednesday night in Oklahoma City.

And despite the team scoring five goals….Roman Josi didn’t figure into any of them on the scoresheet.  So his points streak is done at 13 games, which is tied for the longest in the league this season.  Here’s hoping he starts up a new one tomorrow night.

As for Jon Blum, he made his NHL debut in Columbus tonight.  The Blue Jackets won 4-0 behind four 3rd period goals, and Blum had 19 shifts with a time on ice of 16:02, paired with Alexander Sulzer for most of the night.  Blum was on the ice for the 3rd Columbus goal, and lost a battle in the corner that eventually led to the goal.

The Admirals and Texas Stars were both playing their third game in three days, and it was the Stars who were able to hold on in the game, defeating the Admirals 2-1 Sunday evening.

Still, it was a good weekend for the Admirals, obtaining four out of a possible six points.  And despite the loss, they’ll still spend the night in first place.

“I thought both teams battled and battled in hard areas, and kicked and scratched for everything they got,” Coach Lambert said after the game.   “And the difference in the game was I thought they had a little more puck luck than we did.

“We took enough shots at the net and we generated enough opportunities, and it just wasn’t our night.  They did a good job blocking shots. “

Fatigue seemed to be a factor in the first goal for the Stars.  Blake Geoffrion turned the puck over at the offensive blue line with a pass to nobody, Brandon Segal skated right around Roman Josi to fire a shot on net, and Mathieu Tousignant snuck up behind Scott Ford to take a whack at the rebound that Mark Dekanich  seemed to have covered.  Instead, the puck dribbled past Dex.  There were a lot of ways that goal could have been avoided, but it gave the Stars the 1-0 lead.

Josi was flat-out beat on that play.  And I’m not used to writing that.

The Admirals answered back 6:26 later with a power play goal.  Matt Halischuk had a shot from the near face-off dot, and the rebound kicked perfectly to Jon Blum at the other face-off dot.  Blum’s shot beat Stars goaltender Tyler Beskorowany before he could get back into position.

The game winning goal came in the 2^nd period, while Kelsey Wilson was serving a 4 minute high sticking penalty.  Sean Backman had a quick shot after coming out of the corner that changed direction.

“The second goal was scored off of our stick and through Dex’s arms, so it was a re-direction there that found the net.”

The Admirals had a late power play chance with 3:20 left in the game.  And while they weren’t able to get the equalizer, Coach has good things to say about the effort.

“I thought we had some decent looks and it was one of those situations where we took some shots and pucks didn’t go in the net.  On any other given night, one of those can find its way through.  I thought we controlled the puck pretty well, and I thought we showed good poise in that situation.”

LINES:

Halischuk – Mueller – Bourque
Thang – Geoffrion – Thuresson
Wilson – Van Guilder – Bartlett
Flynn – Hunter – Lewis

Yep.  A couple of things should stand out there.  Grant Lewis played the first two periods as a forward, while Mark Santorelli was scratched for the third straight game.  Lewis went back to the point in the 3^rd period.

And Linus Klasen is out with an upper-body injury.  The coach said he is considered day-to-day.  We’ll see if he makes the trip down south for the games this week.

That line takes on a whole new look with Thuresson instead of Klasen.

Roman Josi’s assist on the Admirals goal extended his point streak to 13 games.  It’s the longest active streak, and tied for the longest streak in the league all season.

Sutty’s tweet of the night:

adsroundtable Admirals Roundtable

That last goal was on the MOUNTAIN FURY POWER PLAY!!!!! the lucky fan sitting in section 441, row zz seat 22 just won a life time supply!!!

Keep an eye out for some actual Mountain Fury giveaways on twitter in the future.  Or at least until we get a letter from the Roundy’s company asking us to stop….

Questions for discussion:

Anyone seen Blake Geoffrion lately?  Anything since his four awesome games got him back-to-back player of the week honors?

Would you agree that Dex deserved a better fate?  Had some great saves in the 3^rd to keep the game a one-goal game.

Thoughts on the Grant Lewis experiment?  Do you like him in lieu of Santorelli, or is ‘The Proof’ kind of getting the shaft?

You never quite know what you’re going to get against the Peoria Rivermen this season.

Tonight, it was a 24 save shutout for Jeremy Smith, as the Admirals defeated the Rivermen 3-0 Saturday night.

Kelsey Wilson and Ryan Reaves got their token fight out of the way two seconds into the game, and Reaves did a little of the hotdogging that Kelsey has become a bit notorious for.  So fair play there.

The Admirals were able to score first for the eighth time in nine games, as Kelsey Wilson put it home after Jake Allen didn’t make a clean save.  A Teemu Laakso shot deflected off a Riverman, and the redirection went through Allen’s legs, but not past the goalline.  Wilson finished the job.

Blake Geoffrion had a power play goal 2:50 later, redirecting a shot from the point by Roman Josi — who with that assist, extended his point streak to 12 games.  That’s the longest active streak in the league, and a game away from the longest streak all season.

No scoring in the second period, and the Admirals entered the third period with another multi-goal lead.  So how were they going to come out in the third?  They didn’t allow a shot on goal until there was 7:44 left in the game.

But the Rivermen compensated by getting 10 shots the rest of the way, and Smith stopped them all.  They even withstood a late penalty, killing off an Aaron Johnson cross-checking infraction.

2:10 after Johnson returned to the ice, Gabriel Bourque put the icing on the cake.  He scored on a snap shot from the bottom of the circle, after accepting a great pass from Chris Mueller that went between the legs of the defender.

The Rivermen didn’t even bother pulling Allen for the extra attacker in the waning moments of the game.

NOTES:

Mark ‘The Proof’ Santorelli and Grant Lewis were healthy scratches again.

The Ads haven’t given up a power play goal in the last four games.

Jeremy Smith is 7-1-0-1 in his last 9 decisions for the Admirals, including a pair of shutouts.  That run goes back to December 12th…so that says a couple of things.  A) He doesn’t play very much, and 2) He has been able to be focused and sharp when called upon.

I guess the question of the night is…..with two solid wins this weekend including shutout tonight, do you run Smith out there again tomorrow against Texas?

Not exactly the exciting thrill-a-minute game that you might have expected between the top two teams in the division.  But sans Mark Dekanich, the Admirals rode the shoulders of Jeremy Smith en route to a 2-1 victory in a shootout over the Houston Aeros.

“He played great,” Coach Lambert said after the game.  “He found some pucks through traffic.  The difference to me was on some of those traffic shots, he was able to smother the rebounds.  He had good net presence in good traffic.  I thought for the most part he was excellent tonight.”

Picking up where they left off in the last game, the Admirals were outshot 16-3 in the first period, but weren’t particularly outplayed.  The Aeros had lots of low percentage shots, and the Admirals were able to kill off three penalties, including 1:35 of being down two men.  Smith had a couple of nice saves, but for the most part, he wasn’t tested too often in the period.

The only regulation goals came within 25 seconds of each other early in the 2^nd period.  Mark Van Guilder was the beneficiary of a loose puck in front of Matt Hackett after a Roman Josi shot :29 into the frame.  Patrick O’Sullivan got the goal back on a play that found Jeremy Smith out-of-position.  He was probably expecting a Jon DiSalvatori shot from the slot, but DiSalvatori made a nice pass back to O’Sullivan.  (The scorer thought it was Cody Almond instead of DiSalvatori…..it might have been…meh)

The Aeros had the better overall play for the rest of the game.  And then the theme of the 3^rd period seemed to be Admiral turnovers in their half of the ice.  It was all of the defensemen, and it was some of the forwards.  Not going to name names tonight….they know who they are.  And again, their goaltender bailed them out.

With Mark Santorelli out of the lineup, Blake Geoffrion got the nod to be the opening shooter in the shootout, and he delivered one of the best non-Klasen shootout shots so far this year.  (Too bad he was invisible the rest of the game).

The Aeros scored the next two, and Jeremy Smith learned from the ones he let in.

“I feel that no matter what happens on the other end I just got to stay the same goalie no matter what.  I felt like on the first goal, I wasn’t patient.  I felt like I maybe bit too early.  I learned from that, I was like, ‘I gotta be more patient on these next two.  I know they can’t beat me laterally if I just out-wait them’, so that’s what I tried to do.”

Roman Josi was the last shooter for the Admirals, and was able to beat Hackett.  Smith then proceeded to make his best save of the game, squeezing the pads on a Cody Almond attempt.

Gabriel Bourque scored in the 6^th round on a pretty goal, and Brandokn Buck hit the pipe in the bottom of the inning, to give the Admirals the win.

“We were overdue, weren’t we?” Coach asked after the game, forgetting that it’s US that ask the questions, tough guy.  “It’s funny how it goes because you’re down to your last shot and you score.  And then you still have to make a save, and it turned around for us.”

NOTES

LINES:

Klasen – Blake – Thang
Halischuk – Mueller – Bourque
Wilson – Van Guilder – Thuresson
Flynn – Bartlett – Hunter

Zero flow to this game.  Major overdose on offsides and icing.

Bourque and Jed Ortmeyer dropped the gloves after Maxim Noreau tripped Mueller on a rush… Bourque obviously was trying to show management that they did indeed make the right decision not re-signing Ortmeyer.  Actually no.  But it was a statement fight.  Not a heavyweight bout by any means, but a nice try to get some momentum standing up for your linemate.

Sutty’s Twitter predictions were 0-for-2.  Probably because he’s not very smart. (His guesses were a Wilson fight with hotdogging, and lots of shots)

Great crowd tonight….9,529 strong, and they were in to the game.

QUESTIONS:

Do you chalk this up as another game that we didn’t really deserve to win?

Was there any semblance of a playoff atmosphere in this game?

Your thoughts on the maturation of Jeremy Smith?

3-in-3 this weekend….do you want Chet Pickard to play tomorrow in Peoria, Sunday against the Stars, or not at all?

Did you like your Mr. Baseball bobbleheads?  What’s your best Harry Doyle quote…..the more  obscure, the better….