Back at the end of September, Mark Dekanich was reassigned to the Milwaukee Admirals.  And he offered us this tweet:

“Disappointed on my way back to MKE. Will dominate there and be back soon.”

Very prophetic, that Dexshow.

Dex recorded his second straight shutout Friday night, as the Admirals defeated the Cleveland Lake Erie Monsters 4-0.  He made 21 saves, and his scoreless streak is up to 172:34 minutes.

Not to take anything away from Dekanich’s game, but the defense did its thing too.  Just four shots got through to Dekanich in each of the final two periods, even with two penalties to kill in the 3rd.

Chris Mueller opened the scoring with about 5 and a half minutes left in the first period while Mark Santorelli was serving a holding penalty.  He gained control of the puck, went around a Monster defender, and beat Jason Bacashihua through the five-hole.

Mueller (getting some ice time at center), also assisted on the Ads second goal.  He won an offensive zone faceoff back to Aaron Johnson who just put the puck on net.  And into the net.  Goalie was screened and the puck found its way behind him.

And check this out:  I’m going to say something nice about Aaron Johnson, and it’s not a backhanded compliment or anything like that.  He is not afraid to shoot the puck.  While the home crowds get restless sometimes when the defensemen just pass the puck back and forth across the point, waiting for an open shot, Johnson doesn’t seem to be as picky as the others.  And it creates chances for himself and everyone else.  He’s third on the team in shots on goal, behind Klasen and Thuresson.

Ok, back to the game.  Great way to avoid a 3rd period collapse?  Get Matt Halischuk to score 2 minutes into the period.  Well, it’s not that easy.  Get Jamie Lundmark to shoot on net, Bacashihua to kick a save to Halischuk, and then get Halischuk to score 2 minutes into the period.

And then Mueller got his 2nd goal of the game, scoring into an empty net.  That’s not a metaphor for scoring on a bad goalie.  No really, they pulled the goalie down 3-0.

The last time the Admirals won with shutouts in back-to-back games was October 26th and 27th in 2007.  First game was a 2-0 win over the Quad City Flames, with Maxime Daigneault making all 27 saves.  Cal O’Reilly and Mike Santorelli scored in the last 10 minutes to give the Admirals the win.  And then the next night back in Milwaukee, the Pekka Rinne closed the door on the Chicago Wolves, with the only goal of the game courtesy of Matt Ellison in overtime.

Chet Pickard watch — Cincy won 2-0 on Friday night.  Chet dressed as the backup.

Programming note — the Lake Erie rematch tomorrow is another matinee.  Faceoff is scheduled for noon.

QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION:

Just one question.  If Dekanich gets the start tomorrow, that’d be his third game in four days.  Should the team ride the hot goalie Saturday afternoon, or give Jeremy Smith his first start as an Admiral?

Don’t look now, but the Admirals have won two shootouts in a row.

After the Admirals and Grand Rapids Griffins played to a scoreless tie through regulation and OT, goals from Mark “The Proof” Santorelli and Jamie Lundmark in the shootout were enough to give the Ads the win.  Mark Dekanich turned aside all but one of the shots he faced.

The Admirals recap is here, the Griffins recap is here, the box score is here, and the AHL has a blurb about the game here.  The win puts the Ads in 3rd place in the division with 17 points, and just 2 points out of first place.  Milwaukee has played one less game than the 1st place Rampage, and 3 less games than 2nd place OK City.  And yes, we should all be more concerned about how the standings look at the beginning of April than the beginning of November….but the team has made up some ground nicely over the last week.

Scoreless tie.  Just four penalties the entire game.  I asked Aaron Sims if it was an exciting battle or if the teams were kind of sleepwalking through the game, and he said that it was played at a good pace and was a pretty good game.

With the Admirals being outshot by 11 for the game, Mark Dekanich was easily the #1 star.

Former Badger defenseman Brendan Smith was the fifth shooter for Grand Rapids and had the chance to extend the shootout.  And much like the 5th shooter in the Peoria game, he hit metal, giving the Admirals the win.

In the third period, Linus Klasen didn’t see as much ice time as some of the other skaters.  That’s a credit to the GR defense, who were not giving him any space to be creative.  Klasen was trying to be too cute, and kept turning the puck over.  So his minutes diminished late in the game.  A shrewd coaching move by Lane, for sure.  And one I can make the argument for and against.

Speaking of arguing…

Questions For Discussion:

– Do you agree with the coach’s decision to take away minutes from one of your most skilled forwards if he’s being ineffective?

– The last time you saw a scoreless tie through overtime, did you walk away from the arena feeling like you watched an exciting or boring game?

There was not going to be a 3rd period collapse.

The Admirals kept the pedal to the metal, outshooting the Wolves 30-13 over the final two periods, en route to a huge 4-1 victory over Chicago, closing out this three game homestand.

The Admirals finished the homestand with 5 out of a possible 6 points, and will take to the road for the next 10 games.  While 5 out of 6 sounds good, Coach Lane Lambert would have preferred all six.

More from Lane.

The Wolves were playing their third game in three nights, and didn’t seem to have the usual electricity in their play that we’re used to seeing from them.  After Edward Pasquale had won the first three games of the season series against the Admirals, the Wolves didn’t even dress him tonight, electing to go with Peter Mannino in net, and Drew MacIntyre opening the bench door.

Likewise, Mark Dekanich made his first start of the season against the Wolves, and turned aside 26 of the 27 shots he faced.  After the 14 shots he saw in the first period, he wasn’t particularly tested the rest of the way.

The Admirals scored the first goal on a shot from the point by Teemu Laakso.  The shot went off of a Wolf defender and changed direction enough to get by Mannino.

Darren Haydar answered for the Wolves 3:16 later.  He scores goals.  That’s what he does.

But in the second period, the Admirals did something that we haven’t seen them do in awhile — they shifted into a higher gear.

Kelsey Wilson scored his 3rd of the year, again with a little bit of puck luck.  Mark Van Guilder won the offensive zone faceoff back to Jon Blum at the near point.  His slapshot busted his stick, as the blade went farther than the puck did.  But the puck went right to Kelsey Wilson in the slot, who fired a shot that found the back of the net before Mannino could get back into position.

Mark “The Proof” Santorelli scored in his second straight game, this one a power play goal.  Again, it was a Jon Blum shot from the post that got it going.  Blum’s shot hit iron, but the rebound kicked to Santorelli on the right doorstep for the put-back.

Santorelli potted another power play goal at 13:29 of the 3rd.  Roman Josi had a shot from the point that was saved by Mannino, but there was a scrum in front of the crease for the loose puck.  Matt Halischuk got a stick on it, but couldn’t get a shot off.  Santorelli was able to chip it it.

Don’t look now, but The Proof is 2nd on the team in goals behind Klasen.

Frustration really set in during the 3rd period for the Wolves.  Darren Haydar was called for a retaliating slashing penalty after Gabriel Bourque went for a hard hit on him.  The slash happened behind the play, and on an average night, would probably go unnoticed.  But we had two referees tonight, and the trailing ref had the call.

Defenseman Boris Valabik let out some frustration on the backside of Jamie Lundmark’s head with about 6 minutes left in the game.

But the hit that stung the most was courtesy of Spencer Machacek.  He had a blindside hit on Blake Geoffrion in the second period that sent him tumbling to the ice.  Looked like he got his clock cleaned pretty good.  No penalty was called on the play.

Blake skated off the ice with the trainer, and came back out for one shift later in the period, before missing the rest of the game.  Here’s coach Lambert on the hit.

We can tell you that while we were waiting for Lane to come out, Blake came down the hallway in his suit and said hello on his way out to visit with folks.  He didn’t come out with crutches or an ice pack on his head.  But I’m not a doctor, and head shots are dangerous.   We’ll follow up again with them this week on what his story is.

NOTES:

– Roman Josi and Jon Blum were paired together for most if not all of the game.  And wow.  Wow wow wow wow wow.   Both played very well, especially on the power play.  They were both on the ice for the last three Admiral goals.  Josi had SEVEN shots.  Either one of them can jump into the play to create scoring chances.  They may end up being better than when Sulzer and Franson were paired together.

– This was the best I have seen them play all season with regards to putting pucks on net and then crashing the net.  And they were good at it for 60 minutes.  VERY high marks.

– Coach had one of his chalktalk sessions for the season ticket holders before the game, and I’d like to credit “D-La” for a great question in the Q&A session.  Paraphrasing….she asked if there is any danger or worry of former players (ie: Nolan Yonkman) spilling the beans to their new teams about the Admirals systems.  GREAT question.  And Lane’s answer was pretty good too.  They don’t worry about it so much.  Yonkman probably can’t tell them anything more than what the coaches already know.  The coaches spend a lot of time watching the film and they already have a good idea of what works and doesn’t work for opponents.  The thing that they have to watch out for is a little extra adreniline from players who are facing their former team for the first time.

– Looked like Klasen was going to be held off the scoresheet for the game, but they later credited him with an assist on Laakso’s first goal.

– Aaron Johnson…. same old Aaron Johnson.  Sigh.

– Cincy shutout Wheeling last night.  Chet Pickard did not play.  Drat.  Their schedule this week is Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun.

Questions for discussion:

– Agree or disagree about the Blum-Josi pairing?
–  Was this a “must win” game, heading into the long road trip against a team that had won three in a row against the Admirals?
–  Do you like the two-referee system?
– The team is 2-0 with Jason Bohn as the timekeeper.  Is Dean “The Dream” Zanoni’s job in jeopardy?

(Editor’s note:  A special treat for you tonight… Back in press row for an encore that nobody asked for, tonight’s recap was written with love, from the man, the myth, the legend, the still-technically-retired, the father of two, the former star of the Admirals Short Shifts blog…..Please welcome back to the keyboard, ERIC W KENT!)

(Also, just so you know….”RiverDogs”…..that’s a knock at Jsonline…..trust us…it’s funny)

The Milwaukee Admirals made sure they didn’t cough up a third period lead Friday night against Peoria. The best way to do that? Make sure you never have a third-period lead to begin with. The Admirals played from behind at the Bradley Center, ultimately tying the game late before earning a 3-2 shootout victory.

The Admirals, and most of the 4,744 fans in attendance, thought Milwaukee had taken the lead at 13:21 of the first period. Blake Geoffrion tried to stuff a wrap-around past Peoria netminder Ben Bishop. Bishop made the left pad save, but subsequent attempts by Gabriel Bourque appeared to have pushed the puck over the line. Bishop’s left pad, which presumably made the save, was clearly two feet deep in the net. Referee Joe Sullivan, however, thought the puck was covered before then and told Coach Lane Lambert the whistle should have been blown.

Peoria would succeed where Milwaukee failed and tallied twice in the period – and made sure Sullivan saw it. I’m going to call out Scott Ford a bit for the first one. He let Ryan Reaves get behind him in transition, and Reaves was able to flip a shot in off Mark Dekanich. The second goal sort of gets blamed on Andreas Thuresson for taking a dumb tripping penalty. The Rivermen scored on the power play with just 27 seconds left in the period.

Coach Lambert came out early during the intermission, and had a two minute conversation with Sullivan. They talked about Life, The Universe, and Everything. They talked about Ben Bishop, and they talked about why the Admirals hadn’t been credited with that goal.

I’m not sure if that conversation had a direct correlation or not, but the Admirals got to play most of the second period with a man advantage. Over the period’s first 13+ minutes, the Admirals had a man advantage for NINE of them. Five Power Plays gave the Ads plenty of opportunities to cut into the Rivermen’s 2 goal advantage. To say they had mixed results would be…um…kind.

Power Play #1 – 1 SOG; 0 Goals

Power Play #2 – 0 SOG; 0 Goals

Power Play #3 – 4 SOG; 1 Goal

Power Play #4 – 1 SOG; 0 Goals

Power Play #5 – 0 SOG; 0 Goals

Sure, they got a goal on the third PP there – but I don’t think they’re too happy with the other four: a combined 0-4 with just 2 shots on goal. Of course, Lane is just happy they got on the board. He doesn’t want to think about how he would feel if they went through the entire game with just the one power play goal.

The Admirals tied the game with 6:53 left in the third due to a spot of well-timed luck. Jon Blum tried to initiate a dump-and-chase and fed the puck into the right corner. While Ben Bishop moved behind the net to intercept the puck, it hit a seam in the glass and kicked out into the slot – where Mark Santorelli was chasing the play. He popped the puck into the empty net to tie the game at 2.

The game would procede through overtime without any goals…and thus go to a shootout. Both teams scored on four of their first five attempts. Milwaukee’s Matt Halischuk scored to open round 6, putting the pressure on Peoria’s Phil McRae. The Rivermen center had Dekanich down on the ice, but his shot hit the crossbar and clanged away to safety – securing a hard-fought victory for the good guys.

NOTES

-Mark Santorelli, Linus Klassen, Jamie Lundmark, Mark Van Guilder, and Matt Halischuk all scored on their shootout attempts. Roman Josi was denied.

-The second period featured 42 penalty minutes, including 5 for Blake Geoffrion’s first professional fight. At least, it’s in the books as a fight. It was more like 5 minutes for “getting your face punched in until Kelsey Wilson decked Ben Bishop and we had to stop”. The refs don’t have a signal for that, though, so they gave him fighting.

-Also in that period, Jamie Lundmark got swept up in a Peoria line change and shoved onto the Peoria bench; Halishuk was denied by Bishops’ right pad on a great breakaway chance; Roman Josi fired a shot from the point that hit Dean Arsene in the gut and he went down like a sack of potatoes;  dogs and cats started living together; tractors stopped working; and planes started falling from the sky. It was mass hysteria.

-The Lines were a bit jumbled tonight – as Blake Geoffrion was demoted. He played between Mark Santorelli and Gabriel Bourque, while Steve Begin centered Andreas Thuresson and Linus Klassen.

-Mark Dekanich has now surrendered 2 goals or less in 7 of his 8 games this season.

-Chet Pickard got another chance to put his woes behind him for Cincinnati…and failed. He gave up three goals in the first 8 minutes against Trenton before being replaced.

-Some Coffee Talk for all y’all. Mark Dekanich’s numbers are the best of his career. Granted, it’s only been 8 games. But my question to you is this: Are we witnessing Mark Dekanich altering his NHL prospects?

-Another question: Where was your confidence level as the Admirals headed to a shootout? We all know their struggles are well documented.

-Finally: Does anyone even really miss me anymore? Reading this drivel can’t be good for your brain cells. And in case there are any doubts, or anyone out that that doesn’t want me to crawl right back into retirement, let me ask this:

Does anyone know what’s going on with James Sixsmith?

After losing the first three games of the season series, the Abbotsford Heat made sure there wasn’t going to be a sweep.

The Heat scored three times in the 3rd period, including two shorthanded goals, as Abbotsford embarassed the Admirals 4-2 Saturday night.

Actually, the Admirals embarassed themselves.

It was just a 1-0 lead for the Heat entering the 3rd period, but in a 2:58 span, they stretched it a four goal lead, capitalizing on Admiral turnovers.

Matt Keith scored unassisted after a Blum turnover right in front of Mark Dekanich.  Then while Gord Baldwin was serving an interference penalty, the Heat got shorthanded markers from Carter Bancks and Gaelan Patterson, the latter a gift from Andreas Thuresson.

The Admirals did get on the board with a pair of late goals — Matt Halischuk was able to come up with the puck after a scramble in the slot, and his shot beat Heat goaltender JP Lamoureux over his shoulder.  And then with Dekanich pulled for an extra attacker, Steve Begin was credited with his first of the year, after deflecting an Aaron Johnson shot from the point.

So who is this Lamoureux guy?   He was just called up on Thursday as Leland Irving has been fighting an injury.  He played for North Dakota for four years, played 31 games for the Portland Pirates last year, and started this season with the Utah Grizzlies of the ECHL.  His stat line in four games in Utah:  2-1-1, 3.49 GAA, .880 S%.  He played much better tonight.

His best save came on a Jamie Lundmark penalty shot.  Lundmark was awarded the shot after a Heat defensemen played a broken stick towards Lundmark while the Admirals were on a power play towards the end of the first period.   The goalie bit on Lundmark’s move, and Lundmark did a good job elevating the puck, but Lamoureux’s glove went back the opposite way of his body to rob Jamie, and preserve what was a 1-0 Heat lead.

The Ads were outshot 16-5 in the second period, but finally started to show some life in the last four minutes of the frame.  An Andreas Thuresson shot hit metal.  Chris Mueller quasi-breakaway chance was thwarted by Lamoureux.

And it all just fell apart in the first five minutes of the 3rd period.

Dekanich can’t be faulted really for any of the goals he allowed, as they were all either deflections, or plays where he was kind of hung out to dry.  This was his first loss of the season.

Want something positive about the game?  The Admirals killed off all 5 Heat power plays, including two stretches of 5×3 time.

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NOTES:

– Lines started the same as last night, but lines and defensive pairings all got shuffled as the game went on.

– Blum shoots a lot from the point…but it seems like the majority of them go wide of the net…especially on the power play.

– One guy who is sad to see the season series end is Matt Halischuk.  All four of his goals have come against the Heat.

– Chet Pickard?  Didn’t play tonight, and it’s just as well…Cincy loses 7-3 to Wheeling.

– And finally, we’ll end with a report on Linus Klasen’s debut with the Predators tonight.  I’m going to phone in the discussion part of the recap, and turn it over to Seth Lake, who writes for ontheforecheck.com .

As expected after seeing quotes from Coach Trotz following the morning skate that indicated Klasen (and all other callups) would be viewed as a 20th skater, Linus saw limited ice time tonight, finishing with 6:22 TOI and a minus-1 rating.

After looking tenative in the opening period, Klasen saw just one shift in the second period as the Predators started to dominate even-strength play and Trotz rolled the 11 skaters he was more familiar with. Klasen saw more ice in the third period and showed off his skill on a rush up the left wing boards toe dragging around a defender to the middle of the ice and snapping off a shot that was deflected in front.

On the downside, Klasen overpersued on the backcheck and didn’t recover back to his point before Patrick Eaves fired a slap shot past Rinne from just above the left faceoff circle. But beyond that I thought Klasen showed improvement throughout the night learning on the fly.

Regardless of the status of Tootoo’s upper body injury, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Klasen stay with the Predators the next few days as they prepare for the start of their West Coast swing.

And that’s what’s important, right?

After Chris Mueller’s first goal of the season 4:16 into the second period gave the Admirals a 3-0 lead, the Heat controlled most of the play the rest of the way.

The Heat scored twice in the second period to make it a one goal game, but came up empty in the third, failing on three power plays in the final frame.

But the Admirals owned the first period, and they gained the lead just 42 seconds into the game.  Aaron Johnson fired a shot from the point that was deflected by Matt Halischuk past Matt Keetley for Halischuk’s third goal of the year — all against Abbotsford.

Kelsey Wilson deflected a Blake Geoffrion shot on their second (and final) power play of the game.  Blake also assisted on Mueller’s goal, and now has two assists in three of his last four games.

Mark Dekanich made 26 saves on 28 shots for his 4th win of the year.  The two that got by him…a backhand off of a rebound after a good save.  The other goal was a power play marker that came on a broken play after Greg Nemisz fanned on a shot.  The puck slid towards the goal, and nobody is really sure who actually scored it.  Officially they gave it to center Lance Bouma.  But it was as good rush in transition, after Andreas Thuresson had a good shorthanded scoring chance.

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NOTES:

Here’s how the forward lines looked, sans Linus Klasen for the first time.

Bourque – Begin – Halischuk
Wilson – Lundmark – Santorelli
Thuresson – Geoffrion – Mueller
Thang – Van Guilder – Flynn

– Roman Josi made his season debut tonight after recovering from a hand injury suffered during training camp.  I had a chance to talk to Aaron Sims after the game, and he gave Josi some high marks.

“It didn’t take him long to get accustumed to game speed here.  He looked natural out there.  Josi is a guy who’s going to rush the puck and he did that tonight.  This was a pretty good jumping off point for him.”

He was paired with Scott Ford for this game, and I think we might get some good work out of that pairing.  All three defensive pairings compliment each other pretty well with offensive and defensive minded skillsets….the other pairings were Blum & Laakso, and Johnson and Palin.

– I think we underappreciate how versitile Chris Mueller is.  One game he’s playing on an energy line, the next on a checking line, and tonight back on a scoring line….and he scores the game winner.

– Ryan Flynn played his first game since October 10th (which was the team’s second game of the season)

– Jamie Koharski was tonight’s referee….  I’m interested to know what the relationship between Heat coach Jim Playfair and Koharski is like these days, after Playfair’s meltdown last season.  Can they laugh about it?  He’s a Koharski, so I’m guessing not.

– Chet Pickard lost in his Cincy debut tonight.  Again, only two goals of offensive support, but he gave up 3 goals on 25 shots.  So now, his streak is up to 14 straight decisions.  Cincy plays again on Saturday night, so we’ll see if they go right back to him.

So for quick discussion before the rematch in Abbotsford Saturday night…

– Geoffrion had a delay of game penalty in the 3rd period…do you think we can get away with calling it two minutes for Yonking?

– The next Admirals 3-in-3 is November 19-21.  With Dekanich playing extraordinarily well….do you think Jeremy Smith will see a minute of ice time while he’s here?