The Milwaukee Admirals have been trending in the wrong direction for a long time now. Last night’s 5-2 loss to the San Diego Gulls pretty much sums things up. They were flat. They looked outnumbered at every puck battle. They were outshot through the opening two periods 29-14. It was just sloppy and lifeless – until the third period where the Admirals threw 20 shots on Reto Berra, scored twice, and played with desperation. That energy by them was way too late to have mattered.
The Milwaukee Admirals returned to home ice this morning following a three-game road trip. Today was a skills day with Nashville Predators Director of Player Development Scott Nichol at the helm. Lots of work was done on the basics as well as getting pucks through the neutral zone and battling on defense. It all sets the stage for tomorrow night’s game at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena against the San Diego Gulls.
It is performances such as last night’s game where I really force myself to take a step back and evaluate what it was that the Milwaukee Admirals did and didn’t do. The knee jerk reaction would be the obvious: they didn’t score. The not so obvious would be to suggest that, for all that happened, the Admirals really didn’t play that poorly of a game. Yes, the power-play was rough. Yes, the Manitoba Moose earned a 3-0 shutout win on the night. But the Admirals showed a lot more right than wrong and just irritatingly had a few hiccups in the narrative that cast aside what could have been a sweep for the three-game homestand.
The Milwaukee Admirals didn’t play a single overtime game until Wednesday night. That night they lead 2-0, saw their lead disappear, and ended up going to a shootout where they won 3-2. Tonight it was the opposite story. The Admirals were down 2-0, looked miserable in the second period, and fought back from the start of the third period all the way through to overtime to earn a 3-2 win against the Chicago Wolves at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. This game had a little bit of everything. But these last two results are starting to see steps taken in the right direction.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I suppose we can all be thankful that the Milwaukee Admirals are back to winning ways after last night’s 3-2 shootout win over the Cleveland Monsters. It was a challenging game but one that appeared to really sharpen up the Admirals by night’s end. What’s important is to see the Admirals two game skid come to an end. Now what will be important is finding ways to build off of it moving forward this weekend.
The Milwaukee Admirals returned to practice this morning at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. They will start the first of a three-game homestand by finishing off a mini-series against the Cleveland Monsters tomorrow night. The Monsters won Thursday and Saturday night in Cleveland.
The Milwaukee Admirals and Rockford IceHogs were in a really bizarre game through the first two periods last night. It was a track meet in which both teams were playing really fast, worked in transition, but both struggled heavily once they reached the final attacking third – really lacked quality finishing. Yet, right at the end of that second period everything shifted. The Admirals scored a power-play goal to take the lead. The IceHogs responded forty-two seconds later to equalize. They would score again 24 seconds into the third period to take the lead. And they never looked back as they earned a 5-2 win.
Welp, here we are again: Milwaukee Admirals vs. Rockford IceHogs. This is already the fifth meeting of the season between the two teams and we’re just over a month in. In fact, with a win tonight the Admirals would have as many wins against the IceHogs as they do against all other competitors throughout their first twelve games. It may feel redundant seeing these guys this often -but- the IceHogs have already proven to be a highly skilled and explosive team. These early season wins can go a long way into who is sitting where by season’s end.
The Milwaukee Admirals might have delivered one of their best team performances of the season in front of nearly 8,000 students this morning at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. The energy is always going to be astonishing with all of the kids screaming as though the future of Mountain Dew depended on it but really seemed to inject the Admirals right away. They would go ahead 3-0 after the first period and never look back. Desperate in attack. Desperate in defending. And another brilliant performance in net by Anders Lindbäck.
The Milwaukee Admirals are set to face their Amtrak Rivals at 10:30 AM CST on Wednesday morning. Ahead of the Chicago Wolves arriving to town the Admirals returned to practice today at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena twenty-four hours prior to the first School Day Game of the 2017-18 season.
Admirals Roundtable 