The Admirals won 2-1 on the road against the Utica Comets Friday night. It was a last second thriller that saw Mark Van Guilder steal the win for the Ads tonight on his fifth goal of the season. Magnus Hellberg had yet another stellar performance in net and the Admirals have matched the winning streak that started the season with six straight victories.

Mike Liambas returned to the Admirals lineup for the first time since being suspended three games for his illegal check to the head of Grand Rapids Griffins’ Louis-Marc Aubry. Liambas had sat out the last two games as a healthy scratch. And what better way to return to the ice than with a fight in your opening shift. He dropped the gloves with Tom Sestito and both landed some nice punches. Sestito finished it off. I’d give the slight edge in the fight column to the Comets bruiser.

The Admirals would get on the board first after Rich Clune put away his second goal of the season. Ian White’s shot from the point flew in through traffic and into Jacob Markstrom. The puck took some bounces around the cage, near Austin Watson, before falling over to the right wing side of the net to Clune who cleaned up the garbage.

In the second period, after checking Viktor Arvidsson down at one end of the rink, Andrey Pedan had to answer for his actions down at the other end. Jonathan Diaby was the man who paired up with Pedan and landed serval jabs flush before the Comets defenseman landed some decent blows to earn a take down.

After wave upon wave of offensive pressure the Comets finally solved Magnus Hellberg late in the third period. A puck fell to Hunter Shinkaruk who made a spectacular spinning pass against the grain to the opposite post to give Dustin Jeffrey a tap in for his eleventh goal of the season. Hellberg was a perfect 27/27 prior to the equalizing goal for the Comets.

With thirty-four seconds remaining in regulation Mark Van Guilder played spoiler to the Utica Comets comeback bid. Despite being over-matched from the second period onwards the Comets were burned in transition as Van Guilder was free in space on the right wing and beat Markstrom on a wrist shot to the five-hole for the game-winner. The goal for Van Guilder is his fifth of the season and sees the Admirals winning streak match its season high of six games.

It was yet another great night in net for Hellberg who improved his already impressive stat totals to 1.68 goals against average with a 0.936 save percentage – both of which are tops in the AHL this season. With the win tonight he has officially double the amount of wins he earned for the Admirals last season with ten.

Ramblings: Tonight’s scratches for the Admirals included Joe Pendenza (healthy), Frederick Gaudreau (healthy), Kevin Fiala (has yet to join the team), Taylor Aronson (undisclosed injury), and Johan Alm (upper body). Aronson has now missed the last two games due to an undisclosed injury. Alm has now missed seventeen straight games due to an upper body injury. Fiala is yet to join the Admirals and is expected to arrive in Milwaukee on Monday with a chance to debut for Wednesday’s home game against these very same Comets.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? Did the Admirals just get away with robbery with that late goal? Is Magnus Hellberg making his point that he should be up in the NHL right now?

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The Admirals won 4-1 on the road against the Hamilton Bulldogs Wednesday night. It is now a five game winning streak for the Admirals as their complete game, offense and defense, helped see them to another solid performance.

This game started off with two successful power-play goals for the Admirals. The first opportunity came thanks to a “Check of the Year” candidate by Triston Grant. The veteran lined up Davis Drewiske in front of the penalty box area and laid him out. This drew the attention of Jack Nevins. The officials sent Nevins to the box after he made a scene of the incident by dropping his gloves and looking to engage Grant.

As would be the case, Grant would capitalize on the power-play he helped create. He had Austin Watson on his opposite wing and was looking to pass across to him. As he tried to feed across the puck deflected in past goaltender Mike Condon off of Darren Dietz’s skate. The goal for Grant goes down as his fourth of the season.

The second power-play chance of the night was a little less of a fluke and a little more of a YouTube highlight. Brendan Leipsic, returning for the first time since being a healthy scratch the last two games, delivered a perfect wing-to-wing feed to Watson who buried his team leading fifteenth goal into an open net. The assist for Leipsic was his twenty-second on the season – half of which have come on the power-play.

Just following a successful penalty kill for the Admirals they were picking a puck out of their own net. Daniel Carr let loose an absolute howitzer of a slap shot from the right point that alluded the screen of Gabriel Dumont and netminder Magnus Hellberg for Carr’s seventh goal of the season. With the goal scored by the Bulldogs it snapped the Admirals shutout streak that lasted 148:50 of ice time over the course of four games.

A minute into the third period the Admirals scored to make it a 3-1 game. Rich Clune skated in off the left wing pocket before tossing a puck to the traffic out in front of the net. The puck appeared to hit Felix Girard’s stick as he was falling down on the ice and then took a final deflection off of the leg of Zach Budish before going in past Condon. That wacky mess of a goal counts all the same. It gets recorded as Budish’s fourth goal for the Admirals this season.

Hamilton attempted to pull a Patrick Roy tactic by emptying their net with 3:44 left in game trailing by two goals. The Admirals managed to shove off the pressure and capped the contest off with an empty net tally for Pontus Aberg – his fourteenth goal of the season.

Hellberg’s night in net was relatively calm. The defense out in front of him forced much of the activity for the Bulldogs to the outside along the wall. Their lone goal just so happened to be a shot coming from far out on the perimeter with a screen. Beyond that, Hellberg stopped 20/21 shots on goal to help the Admirals to their fifth straight win.

Ramblings: Prior to the game, Rob Madore was recalled to the Milwaukee Admirals from the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. He was on the bench tonight. Marek Mazanec should be expected to be officially recalled by the Nashville Predators tomorrow. Tonight’s scratches were Mike Liambas (healthy), Frederick Gaudreau (healthy), Taylor Aronson (undisclosed injury), Johan Alm (upper-body), and Marek Mazanec (being called up). The win tonight improved the Admirals to fifth place in the Western Conference standings. It was also the 100th career win for Dean Evason as head coach of the Milwaukee Admirals.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? What is impressing you about the Admirals during this win streak? How did Brendan Leipsic play in his return to the lineup?

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The Admirals posted a 5-0 shutout against the Charlotte Checkers Saturday night. Magnus Hellberg made it back-to-back night for the Admirals posting shutouts. He stopped all thirty-one shots he faced and the Admirals offense belted the Checkers en route to the team’s fourth straight win.

“We’ve played the right way now for a bit and got rewarded for it,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “We’ve kept the puck out of our net, played simple, yet had really nice opportunities to score goals. Hopefully it sinks in that if you do play that right way you’re going to get chances to score and you keep that puck out of your net.”

In the first period Austin Watson decided to do something he rarely does, fight. After he and Miikka Salomaki pancaked Brendan Woods near the Admirals bench the Checkers winger started to lash out on Salomaki. Watson took exception to this and the two took some swings and had a few noogies before the officials stepped in.

With sixteen seconds remaining in the opening frame Viktor Arvidsson popped in his eleventh goal of the season. The Swede skated in from the left wing on his backhand before spinning at the hashmarks to his forehand and firing a wrister on John Muse. His shot alluded the blocker and clipped the top of Muse’s right pad before hitting the back of the net.

After the first period ended Andrej Nestrasil was given a game misconduct for butt-ending. This gave the Admirals a five minute major power-play to work with to start the second period. With fourteen seconds remaining on the power-play Colton Sissons scored his tenth goal of the season. Ian White teed up Anthony Bitetto for a one-timer that was spilled out by Muse into the net crashing Sissons’ path for a tap in.

After a few careless penalties taken by the Checkers – the Admirals had an extended five-on-three power-play with 1:22 to operate with. Just as was the case on the first power-play goal: White to Bitetto for a one-timer, loose puck, rebound goal for Sissons. It was his second power-play goal scored in 4:07 of ice time and his eleventh goal of the season.

The Checkers had a chance to get something big generated in the late stages of the third period. They had 1:24 of five-on-three power-play to work with and ended up failing to convert.

Immediately following the successful penalty kill the Admirals found the back of the net for a fourth time. Bitetto had his share of howitzers to set up Sissons earlier in the game but managed to find a lane through traffic to bury one of his own. Bitetto’s slap shot tally was his second goal of the season.

Another home game and another fight for Rich Clune. The grit-meister general made it his fourth straight game in Milwaukee with a fight after he and Ben Holmstrom locked up down by the Checkers net. It was a decisive win for Clune who received a big pop from the crowd for his efforts.

The final blow from the Admirals to the Checkers came in the form of a highlight reel play for Arvidsson. The Swede bolted a power move on net from the left wing and managed to maintain puck control on the backhand before tossing it past Muse for his twelfth goal of the season.

“I feel like we’re playing good right now,” said Viktor Arvidsson. “We help each other out and play as a group. We’ve come together and play like a team.”

Hellberg made it back-to-back shutouts for the Admirals. Marek Mazanec was able to win his duel in Rockford last night. And Hellberg followed that performance up by making thirty-one saves in net tonight for his ninth career AHL shutout.

Ramblings: Tonight’s scratches for the Admirals were Mike Liambas, Brendan Leipsic, Garrett Noonan, and Johan Alm. Liambas completed his three game suspension following last night’s game. Leipsic was a healthy scratch for the second consecutive night. Alm has now missed fifteen consecutive games due to an upper body injury.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? Safe to say that this is the Milwaukee Admirals team we saw at the start of the season, right? Who has performed better this season: Marek Mazanec or Magnus Hellberg?

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The Admirals won 1-0 in overtime on the road against the Rockford IceHogs Friday night. It was a dazzling goaltending stalemate between Marek Mazanec and Michael Leighton that held the game scoreless until Austin Watson’s team leading fourteenth goal finished things off in overtime. The Ads have now won three games in a row.

Both the Admirals and IceHogs were unable to find the back of the net through the entirety of regulation tonight. The chances were plenty but both Marek Mazanec and Michael Leighton were stout in net. The Ads matched last night’s season high for shots in a period in the second by peppering in seventeen shots on the back of three power-play opportunities.

The breakthrough wouldn’t come until 2:14 into overtime when Austin Watson scored the game-winner. Watson was flying down the right wing and zipped in a hard shot to the near post that beat Leighton low blocker. The goal for Watson is his team leading fourteenth goal of the season and put an end to Leighton’s Rockford IceHogs franchise best shutout streak that went on for 187:29 of ice time.

Enough superlatives couldn’t be given to both Mazanec and Leighton both from this game. Mazanec earned his third shutout of the season by stopping all twenty-seven shots he faced. Leighton was just as equally up to the task as he had stopped all thirty-four shots he faced in goal right up until Watson scored the game-winner in overtime. Each made highlight reel saves. Each were rightfully voted as the game’s top two stars.

The win is the Admirals third consecutive victory and also, paired with results from around the AHL, sees a big swing in their division standing. Entering tonight the Ads were placed fourth in the Midwest Division. They are now in second after this game and trail the IceHogs for the division lead by six points with three games at hand over Rockford.

You can watch the first period and second period video highlights in the hyperlinks just provided.

Ramblings: Before the game Miikka Salomäki was reassigned to the Milwaukee Admirals after the Nashville Predators activated Taylor Beck and Matt Cullen from injured reserve. Tonight’s scratches for the Admirals were Brendan Leipsic (healthy), Garrett Noonan (healthy), and Johan Alm (upper body). With tonight’s game in the books, Mike Liambas has now officially served all three games of his suspension for his illegal check to the head of Louis-Marc Aubry.

Thoughts from tonight’s game? Are the Milwaukee Admirals back in full swing or what? What do these wins against the Midwest Division leaders do for your confidence in this team after a rough month of December?

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The Admirals won 4-2 against the Rockford IceHogs Thursday night. After trailing by two-goals the Admirals came back with four unanswered goals to secure their second win in as many games.

“For us to comeback after being down two, hopefully, slowly things are turning for us here,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “We’re doing the right things. We’re not trying to be too pretty. We’re not trying to be too cute here at home. And it shows on the scoresheet and the win/loss column for sure.”

Rich Clune started this contest off by dropping the gloves with T.J. Brennan. The two grappled long after a whistle had been blown and ended with a take down for the Admirals winger. It’s now two fights in two games for Clune.

After Zach Budish flipped a puck up and into the stands the IceHogs scored the opening goal on the power-play. Kyle Cumiskey’s centering pass for Ryan Hartman was deflected off by Colton Sissons. During the scramble for the loose puck Joe Pendenza attempted to make a clear but the puck fell kindly for Philip Danault who scored his fifth goal of the season.

The IceHogs extended their lead in the first period from a man who has hurt them all season long by skating in from the blue line, Brennan. Ville Pokka’s shot from the right point deflected off of Pendenza’s stick and dinked over to the left wing where Brennan was racing in. Last season’s Eddie Shore award winner beat Pontus Aberg to the puck and fired a wrist shot past the glove of Marek Mazanec on the short side post to score his eighth goal of the season and fourth scored against the Ads.

Some flashy work by Viktor Arvidsson set up Triston Grant for his second goal of the season. Arvidsson was surrounded by three red shirts and still managed to pick out Grant stationed behind the defense. The veteran Admiral was all alone in front of Scott Darling and beat him with a wrist shot before he could get closed down.

Echoing the start of the game, the second period began with a scrap. Felix Girard paired up with the game’s opening goal scorer Danault and he just about tackled him to the ice. There weren’t many fists thrown in that match up. Just a quick take down for the first year Admiral.

Grant had entered tonight’s game with only a goal to his name. In the second period he would score his second goal of the night. Taylor Aronson took a pass from the right wing from Zach Budish and threw it on net. Darling spilled Aronson’s shot and right to Grant who popped home his third goal of the season.

“December is kind of behind us,” said Triston Grant. “I think that’s been a learning process for us. There’s been some games in the past that we played really well and we haven’t won. And there’s definitely some games that we weren’t even in the game. We’re trying to lean on each other and make sure everybody brings out their best game. When we do that we’re a pretty good team.”

After some chippiness around the IceHogs bench between Joe Piskula and Garret Ross the game saw its third fight of the night. While the commotion started with Piskula and Ross it ended up being Jonathan Diaby and Cody Bass that paired up. Both removed their helmets and threw down. The fight ended with a take down for Diaby in what was easily his best showing this season in the fighting department.

The Admirals would end the night in net for their former netminder Darling after scoring two goals forty-five seconds apart late in the second period. The Admirals comeback in the second frame also saw a season high for shots in a period as they recorded seventeen shots on goal.

For the second consecutive home game the Admirals managed to score a power-play goal. Clune, working the trapezoid behind the net, pulled off his best Wayne Gretzky impression and passed right to the tape of Austin Watson. The shot surprised Darling and Watson had his thirteen goal of the season.

The kicker for Darling came less than a minute later thanks to a great individual effort by Budish. The Minnesota native was able to jar a puck loose on the right wing from Klas Dahlbeck. Colton Sissons was able to plow through the center lane to give Budish his shooting angle and beat Darling high glove side on a wrist shot for his third goal of the season and sixth goal in six games including his time played for the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. Darling was taken out and replaced in the IceHogs net by Michael Leighton after the Ads scored their fourth unanswered goal.

In the final minute of play, with the IceHogs net emptied in favor of an extra attacker, Ryan Hartman took a run at Mazanec. The Czech goaltender had his back turned and Hartman skated clean through him. Ian White was first man on call to the situation and did his share of grappling. The game ended with seventy-six combined penalty minutes.

“It was a great comeback tonight,” said Marek Mazanec. “We did a great job. That’s what we need to do in this league. No matter what’s on the scoreboard we need to play the same game and hope you’re going to score. That’s what we did.”

Ramblings: Tonight’s scratches for the Admirals were Patrick Cehlin, Garrett Noonan, and Johan Alm. Prior to the game, Miikka Salomäki was recalled to the Nashville Predators following James Neal and Eric Nystrom’s placement on injured reserve. Salomäki made his NHL debut tonight and managed to score a goal for good measure. Alm missed his thirteen consecutive game due to an upper body injury. Mike Liambas has now served two games of his three game suspension for his illegal check to the head of Louis-Marc Aubry.

Thoughts from tonight’s game? Are these the Milwaukee Admirals that we saw at the start of the season? What has changed in the Admirals offense in their last two wins?

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The Admirals won 4-1 against the Hamilton Bulldogs Saturday night. This was a much improved performance for the Admirals who played a much more simple game tonight. They ended up outshooting the Bulldogs 31-16 and really controlled this game from start to finish.

“We’ve played pretty good the last four or five hockey games,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “Hopefully this is a learning curve for all of us. A game that we can remember that not only did the right things but got rewarded for it. Some of the breaks, and good things that happened, were because we were playing the right way. We made those breaks and it feels good for sure.”

This contest started off with a fight four minutes into the first period. Rich Clune squared up with Bulldogs defenseman Greg Pateryn. As far as fights go – this wasn’t anything special. It was over quickly and ended with both falling to the ice.

The Admirals went through the entire month of December without scoring a power-play goal on home ice. Their last power-play goal was scored by Viktor Arvidsson back on 11/21/14. They then proceeded to go on a run of thirty-two straight chances without scoring on the man-advantage. That run finally ended tonight.

On the Admirals first power-play chance of the night they missed two clean cut chances from the right wing to score goals. Joe Pendenza on a backdoor shot that Joey MacDonald denied. And then Brendan Leipsic fanning on a one-timer. Fortunately for Pendenza he had a second chance. After Leipsic fed wing-to-wing for an Arvidsson one-timer the puck skipped in on goal and right to the net crashing Pendenza. He put away the garbage to score his sixth goal of the season and mercifully end the Admirals over month long power-play drought.

The Admirals started the second period with a four-on-three power-play chance. As their opportunity ended another scoring chance presented itself in the form of an odd man break. When Davis Drewiske’s diving poke check attempt at the blue line failed to disrupt the run of Leipsic it sent him on a two-on-one with Arvidsson. Leipsic passed over and Arvidsson had the finish to score his tenth goal of the season.

It would become 3-0 Admirals just two minutes later after Frédérick Gaudreau scored his fourth goal of the season. Taylor Aronson’s initial shot was ripped so hard that it managed to allude the glove of MacDonald and spill out in front of him. Gaudreau, similar to Pendenza earlier, was in the right place at the right time to capitalize on a loose puck.

Second period fireworks continued with the game’s second fight of the night. This was a heavyweight bout between Jonathan Diaby and Shane Bakker. This fight dragged on a little bit but both landed some clubbing blows to one another. I’d mark this an even ten for both in my fight card.

Triston Grant looked to be the most important person in the world in the eyes of Joe Finley tonight. The two were at it the majority of the game until they finally dropped the glove in the third period. It didn’t last that long. If anything, the initial trigger to the fight looked far worse. Finley had a small spear job to Grant before the veteran Admiral crosschecked the Bulldogs d-man into his own goaltender’s cage.

“I just wanted to go out and play hard,” said Triston Grant. “I gave him a couple of bumps early and just kind of two tough guys trying to go at it. I think I got under [Finley’s] skin halfway through the game.”

Zach Budish marked his 100th career game as a professional hockey player off with a superb goal in his return to the Milwaukee Admirals lineup. Mark Van Guilder had a good screen out in front of MacDonald but Budish’s shot was ripped high glove side on the near post. It’s Budish’s second goal for the Admirals this season.

“Every time we talk to Matt MacDonald in Cincinnati [Zach Budish] has played great,” said Evason. “He’s arguably the best forward down there. Doing all the right things. I didn’t even say hello to him until I got on the bench and I just said, “I heard you’re playing great. Don’t change.” And he didn’t. He played great.”

Midway through the third period the Bulldogs ended Marek Mazanec’s shutout bid. After Joe Piskula was called for slash, Drayson Bowman found himself on a break after getting a step on the Admirals penalty kill off the left wing. His shot beat Mazanec to the blocker side for his sixth goal of the season.

Ramblings: Before tonight’s game the Nashville Predators officially called up Miikka Salomäki and Viktor Stålberg. The Admirals countered with a move of their own by recalling Zach Budish and Garrett Noonan from the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. By playing in tonight’s contest Budish played his 100th career game as a professional hockey player: 57 AHL games, 43 ECHL games. Tonight’s scratches were Mike Liambas, Garrett Noonan, and Johan Alm.

Thoughts on tonight’s performance? What changed in the Admirals from yesterday? Coulf this be the start of the ball starting to roll the other way?

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The Admirals lost 4-2 on the road against the Grand Rapids Griffins Friday night. This game saw the Ads drop their fourth consecutive game after blowing a late lead. The Griffins only lead of the night came with 3:34 left in regulation and they achieved it by scoring the game-winner only fifty-six seconds after equalizing.

Colton Sissons put the Admirals on the board first in the opening period. This goal was neatly set up by a pass by Joe Pendenza as he broke down the left wing and lead his pass to the center lane drive of Sissons who put a stick to the puck before Tom McCollum could make a play on it. The puck banked off the post, back off of the netminder’s skate, and over the line for Sissons ninth goal of the season.

In the second period, Mike Liambas was ejected from the game after delivering an illegal check to the head of Louis-Marc Aubry. It was a blindside hit and Liambas appeared to catch Aubry with an elbow to the face. This triggered Brennan Evans to engage Liambas and they had a decent enough tilt. Evans had the better of the exchanges. As for Aubry he would not return for the rest of the game.

The Liambas penalty gave the Griffins a full five minutes of non-stop major penalty to work with on the power-play. To the Admirals credit, they were twenty-seven seconds away from killing off the entire penalty without even allowing a shot on goal. Unfortunately one shot was taken. And it was a blast from the center of the point, through traffic, taken by Anthony Mantha – who scored his sixth goal of the season.

In the third period the Admirals would regain the lead after Mark Van Guilder scored his fourth goal of the season. Triston Grant, making his return to Grand Rapids for the first time since leaving the Griffins, made a strong play off the forecheck and passed over to Van Guilder who shot on goal almost immediately. The quick release shot was aimed near post, top corner, and beat McCollim to the blocker.

Teemu Pulkkinen celebrated his birthday by scoring his nineteenth goal of the season to level the game up at 2-2. Alexey Marchenko slid a pass over to the Finn on the right wing and he hammered a slap shot off the blocker of Magnus Hellberg, off the far post, and in. It is Pulkkinen’s seventh straight game with a goal.

Less than a minute later the Griffins would take their first lead of the night courtesy of a breakaway goal by Landon Ferraro. The fifth year Griffin was able to get through Jonathan Diaby and set himself off to the races on the right wing. He beat Hellberg underneath the blocker just before Joe Piskula could cut down his shooting angle.

Ferraro would add the empty net tally to seal the game off at its 4-2 final. He fought of Piskula to get to a loose puck along the left wing and beat make-shift goaltender, Austin Watson, for his second goal of the night and twelfth goal of the season.

Ramblings: Prior to tonight’s game Miikka Salomäki and Viktor Stålberg were called up by the Nashville Predators. It is Salomäki’s first career NHL call up. Tonight’s lone scratch would be Johan Alm – who has now missed eleven straight games with an upper body injury. As far as milestones go: Taylor Aronson played his 200th game as a professional tonight (143 ECHL games, 57 AHL games), Magnus Hellberg played his 75th career game as an Admiral to pass Jan Lasak on team’s AHL games played list for goaltenders, and Mark Van Guilder tied Steve Tuttle for eleventh on Admirals all-time games played list with 339 games.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? Why are the Admirals unable to finish off games such as this? What needs to change? And can it be solved by tomorrow night?

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The Admirals lost 5-4 in overtime against the Lake Erie Monsters Tuesday night. This game saw the Ads overcome a three goal deficit and score with the extra attacker on late to force overtime. Unfortunately, the bounces just keep going against them.

“We played great,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason after the game. “When things aren’t going you get a snowball effect. But we’re close now. We really believe we’re close. We’ll use this as a real positive.”

It was a comfortable opening period for the Monsters who ended the frame off with a 3-0 lead. They scored twice from the power-play and looked by far the more relaxed of the two teams on the ice.

The first goal of the game was a power-play goal from Stefan Elliott. The Monsters worked from the left point and on over to center point where Paul Carey who slide a pass to the right wing for Elliot. The shot burned Marek Mazanec for Elliot’s ninth goal of the season.

Then came a decent brawl between Rich Clune and Mitchell Heard. Both landed some pretty big blows and the fight ended with Clune losing his balance and some of his blood. Give the edge in your fight cards to Heard for the take down and drawing red.

Lake Erie would double up their advantage after winning an in-zone faceoff. Maxim Noreau and Carey would link up around the left wing side of the net with Carey getting a small flick that alluded Mazanec’s blocker for his ninth goal of the season.

The Monsters made it 2/2 on the power-play in the first period after Andrew Agozzino put away his sixth goal of the season. Despite having one of their own players bust a stick, the Monsters managed to hold the zone in a temporary four-on-four and pass themselves into yet another side of the cage tap in. Agozzino was crashing to the blocker side of Mazanec and had the Czech scrambling by the time the shot was taken.

Viktor Stålberg scored his second goal in an Admirals uniform in the second period to make it a 3-1 game. The Swede fought through a defenseman and went quickfire, backhand to forehand, on Calvin Pickard. The shot trickled through and only just crossed the line before being swiped away from goal.

“Viktor Stålberg got us going with that first goal,” said Evason. “Not only the first goal but the work ethic in which he scored the goal. It really jacked the guys up.”

The second period comeback continued with a goal from an unlikely source. Ian White’s shot from the right wing was redirected out in front of the net by Mike Liambas. The puck barely squeaked underneath the right pad of Pickard and, like Stålberg’s goal, trickled across the line before anyone could prevent the goal. It’s Liambas’ fourth goal of the season. He hasn’t scored this many goals in a season since his rookie year with the Erie Otters of the OHL when he was a defenseman.

In the third period the Admirals completed their comeback. Pontus Åberg stepped up on the blueline to challenge puck carrier Bruno Gervais before breaking out of his own zone. Stålberg sprung in on the loose puck which fell to the right of the sprawl for Åberg. After his initial defensive play he fell down, picked himself back up, got the puck, and roofed a shot past Pickard for his twelfth goal of the season to make it 3-3.

“That’s the perfect response that you want from somebody that you sit out to get a response,” said Evason of Åberg. “He’s got such gifts to score goals. He’s just learning to play the pro game. That was just an opportunity for us to give him a wake up call.”

It appeared as if the Admirals disaster button had been hit with 2:16 remaining in regulation. The Monsters broke off on a two-on-one with Mike Sgarbossa passing ahead to give Agozzino a breakaway. He pumped glove side and beat Mazanec to the blocker for his seventh goal of the season and second of the game.

Mazanec went to the bench to bring on the extra attacker. With Admirals jamming up the boards it appeared as if the Monsters defensive focus lost Åberg as he veered away and into the left wing pocket. The puck kicked out to him and he beat Pickard to the glove side to equalize with forty-eight seconds remaining in regulation. It was the Swede’s thirteenth goal of the season and second of the contest.

Despite the incredible theatrics the Admirals would fall short in overtime. Heard flew from the left wing and into the front of the net where he intercepted a backdoor feed from his own teammates, cradled the puck, and popped it in on the backhand before Mazanec could react to where the puck was. The game-winning goal for Heard was his third tally on the season.

“We were able to get a point,” said Evason. “We were down 3-0. We were able to get a point. Disappointed? Yeah, shoot. We want to get our home record back on track. We want to get our home games back on track. No question. But that was close tonight.”

Ramblings: Tonight’s scratches for the Admirals were Triston Grant, Frederick Gaudreau, Garrett Noonan, and Johan Alm. The Admirals power-play drought on home ice has now reached thirty-two chances without a goal.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? Content with claiming a point from this game? What improvements did you notice as this game went along for the Admirals? Can this game catapult them in the right direction?

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The Admirals lost 3-2 in overtime on the road against the Iowa Wild Monday night. The loss sees the Admirals’ record in December fall to 3-6-1-1 in eleven games. The Wild, who have the worst record in the AHL this season, now have eleven wins – four of which have come at the expense of the Admirals.

Following Friday night’s 6-2 loss to the Chicago Wolves the Admirals spent seven hours on Saturday devoted to watching video and working out. It was done to grab the players’ attention. The roster was also given a stir. Pontus Åberg, Triston Grant, and Jonathan Diaby were out. Frédérick Gaudreau and Garrett Noonan were in.

If the first period was anything to go by then the Admirals bite was stronger than that of the Wild’s. The opening twenty minutes ended scoreless with each side having a power-play and the Admirals up big time in shots, 14-5.

In the second period the Admirals broke the deadlock with a power-play goal. Colton Sissons chipped up the right wing boards to Ian White who slid across to the opposite wing for Viktor Arvidsson. The Swede was free in acres of space, skated in towards the faceoff circle, and whipped a wrist shot to the near post and past the blocker of Johan Gustafsson. It’s Arvidsson’s eighth goal of the season and fifth scored from a power-play.

After some jaw jacking put both Mike Liambas and Joel Rechlicz in the box for attempting to get a fight going off of a faceoff, surprise surprise, they dropped the gloves the instant they left their respective penalty boxes. Liambas actually tripped on his own stick and lost his balance as both he and Rechlicz tumbled to the ice. The Wild forward proceeded to keep throwing punches after the officials jumped in and landed himself an additional ten minute misconduct.

The Wild equalized in the third period off of Zack Mitchell’s eighth goal of the season. Marc Hagel was in on the dump and chase, wrapped around from the right wing side of Marek Mazanec’s cage to the opposite end, and threw a puck out to Mitchell’s center lane drive. The one-touch finish by Mitchell beat Mazanec to the blocker side and it became a 1-1 contest.

Arvidsson’s mastery of the Iowa Wild continued when he scored his second goal of the night. Marc Hagel’s pass back to Justin Falk was deflected and sent Arvidsson off on a breakaway. Gustafsson scrambled to square up on his fellow countryman but overcommitted. Arvidsson calmly deposited the puck along the ice and past the outstretched pads of Gustafsson to score his ninth goal of the season. Arvidsson now has five goals in six games against the Wild.

With under four minutes remaining in regulation the Wild leveled things up yet again. Ex-Admiral Jonathon Blum’s initial shot from the point was saved with the right pad of Mazanec but not cleared or covered. Jordan Schroeder was on the door step to push in the puck to make it 2-2 on his eighth goal of the season.

This game would head into overtime where the Admirals would quickly shoot themselves in the foot. Viktor Stålberg took a holding penalty 1:19 into the overtime period and presented the Wild with a four-on-three power-play that they would capitalize off of for the victory. Danny Syvret would connect a back door feed to Schroeder to score a tap in goal for his ninth goal of the season and second of the game.

Ramblings: Tonight’s scratches for the Admirals were Triston Grant, Pontus Åberg, Jonathan Diaby, and Johan Alm. The lone injured player from that list is Alm who missed his ninth consecutive game due to an upper body injury. Viktor Stålberg returned to game action for the first time since injuring his knee on 11/7/14 in a game against the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? Why are the Milwaukee Admirals unable to close out games? How costly are these losses to the Iowa Wild? What should the response be tomorrow night?

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The Admirals lost 6-2 against the Chicago Wolves Friday night. This is the Admirals sixth consecutive loss on home ice. The defeat to the Wolves sees the gap in the Midwest Division between the two grow to four points.

“We felt good about playing good on the road,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “Clearly we don’t feel good about playing at home which absolutely makes no sense. No sense at all.”

The Wolves scored the opening goal moments after the Admirals had a goal reviewed and called off.

A net front scramble for the Admirals led to netminder Jordan Binnington getting bowled over. Rich Clune appeared to push the puck across but, upon further review, the call on the ice went down as no goal.

Just moments after the goal review the Wolves found themselves on an odd-man rush. Pat Cannone and Shane Harper had a two on one with Jonathan Diaby choosing to attack the puck carrier Cannone. The pass flew over to Harper and he buried a wrist shot to the blocker side of Magnus Hellberg for his eleventh goal of the season.

In the second period the Wolves extended their lead to 2-0 off of their first power-play chance of the game. Jeremy Welsh was stationed low to the right wing side of Hellberg’s cage when he received a pass from Philip McRae. It appeared as though Welsh was looking to toss a no-look spinning backhand pass to his opposite wing but, as the puck was en route, Joe Piskula deflected it past his goaltender to gift Welsh his eighth goal of the season.

The Wolves added another goal only thirty-five seconds later. Brent Regner stepped up from the right point, caused Brendan Leipsic to blow a tire, skated in closer, eyed up Hellberg, and ripped a shot top shelf for his fourth goal of the season.

The spin-o-rama might be banned from the shootout but it can still be displayed in on-ice action. Ty Rattie had enough space on the puck, standing in front of Hellberg, to pull off a spinning backhander over the big Swede’s blocker to record his fifteenth goal of the season.

Miikka Salomaki marked his return to the Admirals lineup with a goal late in the second period. Joe Pendenza chucked a shot off of Binnington’s pads from a bad angle and the puck spilled kindly to the on-rushing Salomaki for his fifth goal of the season.

That was the high. Then came another low. With less than a minute remaining in the second period, on a four-on-four, Wolves defenseman McRae scored after skating himself off the left wing wall and into space at the middle of the point. His slap shot had Hellberg flailing his glove at thin air. It was McRae’s tenth goal of the season and the Wolves fourth of the period.

Hellberg’s night of horrors ended after that second period. He faced seventeen shots and allowed five goals. Marek Mazanec was given the net for the third period and was signaled that he was going in following the fifth goal allowed by Hellberg. The Swede entered the game with the best save percentage and goals against average. That was thumped down to Earth courtesy of tonight’s game.

“We’re professional hockey players and we have to be ready when the puck drops and it starts with me,” said Magnus Hellberg. “I have to be a lot better than I was today. I’m accountable for my actions out there. I have to make the saves to make the team able to get a chance to win and I didn’t do that today.”

The final kicker from the Wolves came from their second power-play goal of the night. Colin Fraser’s shot took a deflection off of Taylor Aronson’s stick as he got low to block the shot. The puck knuckled to goal and right to Cody Beach on the backdoor of Mazanec for his second goal of the season.

The Wolves would end the night 2/2 on the power-play. The Admirals finished the night 0/5 and have a run of 0/27 on the power-play on home ice in their last seven games.

With twelve seconds to go there was a small silver lining for the Admirals to take from this game. Jimmy Oligny was able to score his first professional goal. He skated from the left point and into space before letting a wrister fly through traffic. Binnington never picked it up.

“Felt good,” said Jimmy Oligny in regards to scoring his first professional goal. “It would have felt better in a win. I can’t really celebrate because it wasn’t a good game for us.”

Ramblings: Tonight’s scratches for the Admirals were Frederick Gaudreau (healthy), Garrett Noonan (healthy), and Johan Alm (upper body). After the game, Evason stated that Alm is not close to returning to the team as he has yet to participate in skating drills. Miikka Salomaki returned to the Ads lineup after missing the final two games of the recent road trip due to illness. Attendance for tonight’s game was 7,089.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? Where does the fault fall tonight? What do the Admirals need to do to ignite their power-play on home ice?

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