The Texas Stars outshot the Admirals 18-10 in the 3rd period, and then scored on a controversial goal 17 seconds into overtime, giving them a 3-2 win at the Bradley Center Saturday night.

After making an initial save, Admirals goaltender Chet Pickard was bowled over by Greg Rallo.  With the puck just in front of the crease, Travis Morin had the easy tap-in to win the game for the Stars.

Pickard remained on the ice for a few minutes being treated by the athletic trainer, but was able to skate off on his own power.

There are two schools of thought on that play.  I’ll star with Coach Lambert’s take.

“You know what’s funny?  What’s funny is that we have a ref who misses that, and I’m the guy that’s going to get fined.  That’s frickin hilarious.  What a joke.  They should fine HIM.  He should be fined.

“Apparently they explained it to my captain, but what’s there to explain?  It’s clearly goalie interference.  There is no excuse for missing the call.”

What did referee Joe Sullivan explain to Brett Palin?  The explanation was that Rallo was engaged with Teemu Laakso, and Laakso helped bowl Rallo into Pickard.

Like it or not, right or wrong, that was the story on the overtime goal.  (We’ll solicit your thoughts at the end of the post….)

Unlike the last two games, the Admirals stayed out of the penalty box in the first two minutes, and they were actually the ones to score an early goal.  Grant Lewis, who was playing because the team elected to dress seven defensemen, was pinching down, and his bad-angle shot from the bottom of the far face-off dot beat Stars goalie Tyler Beskorowany.

The score remained that way until the 3rd period.  The Admirals found themselves in penalty trouble at the start of the frame, and the Stars were able to put a lot of shots on goal.  But the PK units were very strong, Chet was in position, and both were a bit lucky at times.  While the Stars didn’t score on the PP, their momentum kept the Admirals on their heels for most of the period.

The Stars’ first goal was scored by Colton Sceviour.  After Pickard made the initial save, the puck was bouncing by near post.  Sceviour was able to score before Chet could get back to that side of the net.

2:23 later, the Stars took the lead on an all-around poor play by Chet.  The puck came on net harmlessly, and Chet hesitated for a moment deciding whether to play it or freeze it.  He elected it to play it up the boards to his left.  Forward Sean Backman fired what seemed to be a harmless shot from just inside the Subway logo in front of the blue line.  That shot beat Pickard.  Don’t think he was screened.  This long-shot problem isn’t new, and hasn’t gone away since we last saw him.

Aside from that second goal, Chet played very well, and played with poise under fire.  He deserved a better fate.  (although, I think the 2nd goal he allowed should have taken him out of the 3 stars voting.  Dave Boehler and I didn’t vote for him….somehow he was the #1 star?  Odd.)

But the Admirals showed some character, and had the best chances over the last six and a half minutes of the game.  Gabriel Bourque converted on one of those chances, deflecting a Jon Blum shot past Beskorowany with 3:58 to play.

NOTES:

– Thuresson was better….but now 21 games in a row without a goal.

– Jamie Lundmark got hosed on a roughing minor in third period.  Basically, he went to the box for hanging out in front of the crease.  Blake Geoffrion did come to his defense, and that was nice to see.  I think Sullivan got the wrong guy for roughing.  It ended up being coincidental minors, and nothing came of the 4-on-4 time.

– Mark Santorelli scratched for a second straight game.  Ryan Flynn also scratched.

– Mike Barlett with two assists on the night.

– Lane was given a game misconduct, listed as 39.5 ii on the box score.

ITEM FOR DISCUSSION:

Quick turnaround for tomorrow…so we’ll be brief here.  Feel free to talk about any part of the game, but what I really want to know is what you thought of the bang-bang play surrounding the game winning goal.  Did Laakso force Rallo into Chet?  Did Rallo not really make much of an effort to avoid Chet?  Should the referee be fined?  Did the ref get the call right?

See you tomorrow.

So many angles I could take in this recap.  But I think we need to give the lead to Chet Pickard.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, pour yourself a glass of something.  Don’t care if it’s orange juice, tap water, Rogue Hazelnut Brown beer, whatever.  Pour it.  And now, let’s raise our glasses to Chet Pickard.  Chet earned his first AHL victory since February 5th, with a 4-3 shootout victory over the Rockford IceHogs Friday night.  Box score is here, Admirals recap is here, Rockford recap is here, and  the monkey recently removed from Chet Pickard’s back is here.

Chet turned aside 29 of 32 shots in regulation and overtime, and assisted in foiling 5 of 7 shootout attempts.  I don’t feel comfortable saying he made 5 of 7 saves, because he didn’t….one shot hit iron, and a couple missed the net completely.  Still, he made a couple of big saves in the shootout, the biggest may be squeezing the legs shut on a chance by Ryan Potulny in the first sudden death round of the shootout.

The Admirals tried like crazy to lose it for him, though.  They found themselves having to try to kill off 5-on-3 power plays in the first two minutes of the game, and then again in overtime.

Similar to the Grand Rapids game on Wednesday, that early 5-on-3 penalty kill yielded a goal.  With Blake Geoffrion called for hooking at 1:23, and Scott Ford called for high-sticking at 1:42, it took Kyle Beach 16 seconds to cash in after taking a nice pass from Jeff Taffe.  Chet didn’t have much of a chance on that one.

The IceHogs made it a two goal lead later in the first period on an Igor Makarov rebound goal, after an Admiral turnover.  Ads were outshot 13-7 in the first.

In the second, Linus Klasen scored his team leading 13th goal of the season, lifting the puck over Hannu Toivonen’s shoulder from the goal line.

The IceHogs had some penalty issues at the start of the 3rd period, and the Ads were finally able to capitalize on the power play with a Jon Blum goal at 5:44.  With seven seconds left on the PP, Blum’s shot deflected off an IceHogs defender and into the net.

So the Admirals are feeling good….coming back from a two-goal deficit, it’s a new-puck game in the 3rd.  Three and a half minutes later, the IceHogs took the lead back.  Mathis Olimb deeked everyone out of their skates — ESPECIALLY Pickard.  With Chet way out of position, it was an easy goal for Olimb.

And then before the Admirals were able to pull Chet for the extra attacker, Jamie Lundmark tied the game, putting in a rebound of a Blake Geoffrion shot.  It was an NHL caliber goal.  The kind of stuff Mike Knuble makes a living scoring, and the kind that Dave Scatchard scored a bunch of last year.  Working hard in front of the net, fending off defenders, with reflexes and hands to put the rebound in, knowing full-well that you’re about to pay the price.  That’s something that Ads have been missing lately — the guy going to the net, prepared to do the dirty work.  Great goal from Lundmark.

Then, more penalties.

Kelsey Wilson – Two minutes for Yonking at 19:35.
Brett Palin – Two minutes for Yonking at 1:17 of OT.

Palin argued that it went off an Rockford player’s stick, but still.  Self-destruction late in the game.

But the Ads were able to send the game to the shootout.  Linus Klasen scored in the second round.  Blake Geoffrion scored in the 5th round to send it to sudden death.  And then after Rob Klinkhammer’s shot hit metal in the top of the 7th, Roman Josi was your hero in the bottom half, deeking right, and then coming back left to beat Toivonen.

NOTES:

– Did you catch the pre-game interview Aaron Sims did with Coach Lambert?  If you listen to the game on the radio, you should make it your business to start tuning in during the pre-game, because Lane at times will be very candid about players that aren’t showing him what they need to show him.  For example:

“Whenever you have any passengers…(and our team isn’t good enough to have passengers….we have to have 20 guys firing on all cylinders and that’s how we give ourselves a chance to win.)  And we’ve had some passengers here.  And they’ve been some of our best players.  Andreas Thuresson hasn’t scored in – I’m going to guess – around 20 games.  That isn’t good enough. And he’s a guy that we’re counting on here.  He’s got to get going, plain and simple.  Mark Santorelli hasn’t scored in about 15.  These are guys that are supposed to score goals for you and make impacts and contribute…..  We’ve talked about having a young team and young group of forwards and this and that, but come on.  At some point here, if you’re a fourth year guy like Thuresson, you better start stepping up to the plate and start playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played.”

Tonight WAS Thuresson’s 20th straight game without a goal.  Santorelli was a healthy scratch tonight (Dan Gendur got to play), so his streak remains at 14 games.

– So that’ll be our question for discussion — What’s with Thuresson?  From the games that you’ve seen so far, does it seem like he’s just snakebitten?  Is it about effort?  Lack of chemistry with the other guys?  What have you noticed?  Because he sure doesn’t look like the same player that earned NHL callups last year.

After their drubbing of the Admirals at the Bradley Center last Friday, the Grand Rapids Griffins didn’t exactly dominate the game tonight.  But they were able to capitalize on Admirals miscues and skate away with a 3-2 victory.

Call it one of the worst starts of the year.  Whistled for two penalties in the first two minutes of the game, the Griffins capitalized on the 5-on-3 power play.  Jamie Tardif deflected a shot from the point by Derek Meech.

While the Admirals were able to hold them off the scoreboard for the rest of the period, the Griffins were able to hold the Ads off the SHOT-CHART until there was 2:05 left in the first period.  The Admirals were able to cash in on that first shot, as Ryan Thang scored his first of the year, on a backhander from the bottom of the left faceoff circle that beat Griffins goalie Joey MacDonald five-hole.

In the second period, it was a combination of speed and a missed-assignment that led to the Griff’s second goal.  While Roman Josi was defending Jamie Johnson entering the offensize zone, nobody picked up Chris Minard.  Johnson found Minard streaking down the left wing, and he beat Jeremy Smith.

The third Griffins goal came off of a Linus Klasen turnover at the offensive blue line.  The Griffins’ speed in the transition game helped big-time as Jan Mursak picked up an outlet pass and got behind the Admirals’ defensemen.

Teemu Laakso scored his second in as many games, with a blast from the point that beat McDonald over his glove.  It was a power play marker with 4:54 left in the third period.
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NOTES:

– Multiple penalties called on the Admirals while they were in the offensive zone.  Don’t like to see that.

– Ads now 4-2 in games with two referees.

– 19 total shots on goal.  One shot more than their season low (18 vs Abbotsford 10/23)

– Is Andreas Thuresson still on the team?

– And here’s another cheap plug! (actually, it’s not cheap…it’s a legit plug).  Aaron Sims was recently a guest ont he 303:30, a podcast brought to you by the guys at the Section 303 blog.  Here’s the link!   Aaron’s bit starts around the 4:40 mark.

Skating with a 4-1 lead with 8 minutes left in the third period, things were looking pretty good for the Admirals.

But the Rivermen, who were playing their third game in three days, got their legs back, and were aided by some careless Admiral penalties.  The Rivermen scored three times in the last 8 minutes to send the game to overtime, before Teemu Laakso’s wrist shot from the left point beat Peoria goalie (and reigning AHL gaoltender of the month) Jake Allen to give the Admirals the OT win.  Laakso got the goal, but lots of credit goes to Jon Blum, who was pinching down all the way to front of the crease, taking away Allen’s eyes.

Where did things go wrong in the 3rd period?  Unnecessary penalties.

Mark Santorelli – Diving
Mike Bartlett – Yonking (puck over glass, if you don’t remember)
Blake Geoffrion – Slashing

There were two stretches of 5-on-3 time, with the Admirals killing off the first one.  No such luck on the second one.  And then with the Rivermen still having the bulk of Geoffrion’s penalty with the extra man, they needed just 13 seconds make it a one-goal game with 7:04 to go.

The Admirals scored the first four goals of the game, starting with a power play goal from Aaron Johnson in the 1st period.  It was a one-timer from the right faceoff circle that beat Allen over his glove.

Johnson got his second of the game finishing a 2-defensemen-on-1-defenseman breakaway with Jon Blum 8:52 into the second.  Blum’s shot was stopped by Allen’s pad, but the rebound went straight to Johnson.

Linus Klasen scored his team-leading 12th goal of the year, scoring a goal that Aaron Sims described as “dazzling”.  A great move got him around defenseman Derek Peltier, and Klasen was able to tuck the puck around Allen.

After the goal, Rivermen captain Dean Arsene was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.  And the PA announcer hadn’t even finished announcing the goal and penalty when the Ads converted the PP chance.  Klasen found Blake Geoffrion in the slot, and his quick wrister beat Allen.

Yes, the monkey is now off of Blake’s back.  First professional regular season goal.  Aaron had mentioned during the broadcast that Blake and Klasen spent some extra time working on offensive positioning at the end of the morning skate, and it’s great to see that it paid off.

NOTES:

– Great to get Blake back.  Steve Begin and Ryan Flynn also returned from injuries.

– Jeremy Smith bounced back from his dreadful outing on Friday, stopping 31 of 35 shots.  He played better than those four goals against would suggest, but he wouldn’t be mistaken for Mark Dekanich.  He’s now 3-2 with a 4.02 GAA, and a .879 save percentage.

– Multi-point nights aplenty.  Johnson (2g, 1a), Blake (1g, 1a), Klasen (1g, 1a), Lundmark and Blum both with a pair of helpers.

– Andrew Lord has been forsaken….he has been released from his PTO.

QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION:

– Aaron Sims said that Santorelli’s dive was the worst acting job since Miriah Carey.  How would you finish that sentence?  “Mark Santorelli’s dive was the worst acting job since ________!”

Editors note:  Because Ryan was elsewhere….doing…other things….tonight’s recap is brought to you by our friend and gamenite twitter czar, Andrew “Sutty” Sutliff.   Brace yourself….

Riding high off the 6-goal performance on Wednesday night, the Ads faced a well-rested team Friday night at the BC, and the visitors took it to the home team.  5-2 was the final.

It started well, with the Admirals getting the first goal 4:06 into the game.  The puck was brought into the Admirals offensive zone where Gabriel Bourque corralled it and fed a lead pass to Mike Bartlett.  #20 got behind Filppula to put on a deek and went back hand past a sprawling Joey MacDonald.  Bartlett’s 3rd goal on the year and Bourque’s 5^th assist.

So things were looking better than a shamrock shake at Christmas.  Then we found out our shake was just vanilla ice cream with green food coloring.

Brett Palin was sent to the bin for interference and it took the Griffins 25 seconds to make the game even. The puck was put on net causing a rebound to come out of the crease.  Starting goaltender Jeremy Smith slid forward in an attempt to gather the loose puck but two of his own guys (Mueller and Ford) were there to help him out.. Sort of… they ended up fighting each other, unable clear the puck.  It was then pushed to Brendan Smith on the far side of the ice. With J-Smith still out of the crease the B-Smith shot the puck, and the shot deflected to Tomas Tatar between the circles.   His shot was not denied.  It was a bad defensive sequence for all Admirals involved.

About half way through the 1^st period, (Andrew) Lord skated on water towards the goal and found a sinner in Brandon Straub. Realizing the demons ran deep in Straub, Lord attempted to exorcise them with his fists.  Straub had answers for Lord’s fists of salvation and ended up taking Lord to the ground. The demons may have won this bout but Lord will be back and ready for the ultimate deliverance, that is if he isn’t betrayed by his own team first.

The Griffins were not moved by the sentiment and found their way on the score board for the second time in the period.  With control of the zone the Griffins were moving the puck quite well. Brendan Smith sent a puck to Tatar who was on the far side of the ice just below the circle. He quickly sent the puck to the slot and found a crashing Emmerton, who went stick side to light the lamp. Klasen had a great view of the goal for he was right behind Emmerton and the man responsible for him.

1:40 into the second period Tatar put what looked to be a harmless shot on net. The puck was deflected from the blue line and began a beautiful flight to the net. The players were so amazed in its beauty they actually stepped aside to admire the butterfly fluttering through the air. I swear I saw one the admirals hold out their hand with a finger extended in hopes that just maybe this beautiful object would land on his finger in something reminiscing a scene from a Nicholas Sparks novel. As the red light flashed the serenity of the ordeal came to a stop and the Admirals realized they now were down by 2 goals.

At around the six minute mark Aaron Johnson carved a path to the sin bin for a hooking infraction.  43 seconds later the Griffins were carving a path in front of their bench as they slap gloves celebrating the second power play goal of the night. Jamie Johnson was positioned fighting for the puck behind the net and was able to feed the puck to Ilari Filppula who was just inside the right circle. Filppula skated in tight to the post and went straight to the top shelf like a drunk at an open-bar wedding, stretching the Griffins lead to 4-1.  Jeremy Smith’s night was over as the Admirals called on the recently re-called Chet Pickard for the rest of the game.

The Admirals had a spark of life at 12:17 of the 2nd.  Brett Palin kept the puck in the o-zone, blasted a shot on net to which Chris Mueller stuck his club out knocked the puck down.  With the netminder in position for the shot it became an easy put away for Mueller.  The goal was Mueller’s 11^th on the year and brought the Admirals within a pair of goals.

That folks was the end of the offense for the Ads on this night. The Griffins added an empty netter to make the final 5-2.

Items for discussion:

– Was it me or was Bourque the only player, well, PLAYING tonight? Every time he was on the ice he was hustling, finishing checks, and making plays happen.

–  So.  Chet Pickard.  He’s back.  How do you think he looked in relief of Smith? For that matter, what did you think of Smith’s outing? Choosing between very, and so very, how much did you miss Dex in net tonight?

– Do you like the sponsored last minutes of the 1st and 2nd period?  Buffalo Wild Wings with some love there.  Like it?  Love it?  Want some more of it?

– Speaking of your newest Nashville Predator, Mark Dekanich….he’s in Music City while Pekka Rinne recovers from an injury, and the time table that the Tennessean is reporting is 2-4 weeks.  Yowzah.

– What goalie do you want to see on the ice on Sunday? (need not be in organization nor need he/she be alive).  (Chuck Norris is disqualified….can’t go with him for this question)

– Anyone catch the Village People when they played after a game in the late 90’s?  How did tonight compare?

– Finally, Ryan…….you looked good.  As for how you sounded….let’s just say Matt Moore’s job isn’t in jeopardy!  Unless they ask me to do it….in that case, something has gone terribly wrong…  J/K….nice job tonight, Buddy.

Game nine of the ten game road trip found the Admirals playing the Houston Aeros for the first time this season.  Battling some bad puck luck, the Ads were able to salvage a point in a 2-1 shoot-out loss.  The box score is here.  The Admirals recap is here.  The Aeros recap is here (although the intern author isn’t quite sure who went first in the shootout, and the sequence of events is out of order… Pesky details…).  The Third Intermission blog recap is here .

Through the first 40 minutes, things looked similar to last night’s game against the Texas Stars.  Some good chances, with both goaltenders standing tall to deny every shot.

But different than last night, it was the home team that was awarded the first goal.  I say “awarded” because the Aeros got credit for a goal that looked like it hit the crossbar and kicked back out.  A Jared Spurgeon shot from the near face-off dot hit metal, and the goal lamp went on after Spurgeon started celebrating (insert Derek Jeter joke here).  Referee Koharski-du-jour was trailing the play and called it a goal.  He spoke with the goal judge, and then pointed to center ice.  Meanwhile, the arena kept showing the replay over and over again, and it looks like they may have missed that call.  In the end, it doesn’t matter where it hit — it was a goal, and the Admirals found themselves trailing 5:12 into the 3rd.

The Ads did answer back with an Aaron Johnson goal at the 13:15 mark of the 3rd.  The Aeros failed to clear the zone, and after Johnson was able to fully control the puck, he sent a backhand shot from the near circle that beat Anton Khudobin five-hole.

So the game went to overtime and a shootout.  Casey Wellman went first in the shootout and deked Dex out of his pads.  There was some question from Koharski whether it was a goal or not, as he appeared to waive it off and also point to the back of the net.  But the goal stood.  Chris Mueller scored for Milwaukee, but then in the sudden death section of the shootout, Spurgeon slipped the puck just under Dex’s left pad.  Jon Blum had the chance to send it to the next round, but he was not able to beat Khudobin.

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Can’t blame the loss on the questionable goal.  This was the second straight game that the Admirals could only muster one goal in regulation, and as great as Dekanich has been, we can’t expect him to win every game 1-0.  Yes, it was their 6th game in 9 days.  Yes, they are banged up a bit.  But the offense needs to reappear.

– Linus Klasen was not scratched for a second straight game — instead Dan Gendur was a healthy scratch while Coach Lambert dressed seven defensemen.  Aaron Johnson spent some time on the left wing, and did a nice job.

– The Admirals are still zero-for-the-road-trip on the power play.

– Do you prefer your hockey games with lots of goals?  You should have been in Rosemont tonight.  Check out this box score (and the happy ending too)!

Ok Roundtable….regardless of what happens tomorrow afternoon in San Antonio, the Admirals will be coming home with at least 10 of the 20 possible points on this road trip.  Can we call it a success?  An okay trip?  A failure?