The Admirals won 3-2 in overtime on the road against the Toronto Marlies Sunday afternoon. Taylor Aronson was the overtime hero today as his third goal of the season gave the Admirals their third win in four games. Not a bad road trip if I do say so myself.

It wasn’t a pretty start for the Admirals. After Viktor Arvidsson was called for holding Mike Liambas nearly was sent to the showers two-minutes into the game after a nasty boarding incident that put Stuart Percy down and out. The Marlies defenseman would not return to the game following the hit into the boards.

The two early penalties resulted in a lengthy 1:39 of five-on-three power-play for the Marlies and they were unable to cash in from it. However, they had a head of steam off of it and scored after a scramble in front of Magnus Hellberg. The initial shot by Carter Ashton was pushed aside but the puck spilled out and wasn’t found until Brandon Kozun cradled and fired into a near empty net for his second goal of the season.

The Admirals answered right back in the first period. Similar to the Marlies they were able to score after a rather lifeless power-play. Arvidsson was flattened by Matt Frattin to as the Swede got the puck out to Mark Van Guilder. It looked as if many were focused on the hit behind the play but, before the Marlies could react, Van Guilder passed over to Austin Watson on the opposite wing to score his twelfth goal of the season. Watson has scored a goal in four straight games for the Admirals.

In the second period the Admirals were able to take a 2-1 lead through Felix Girard’s third goal of the season. It was an innocent looking rush down the left wing by Girard who then decided to hit the brakes and fire on Antoine Bibeau in net. The shot was wired right into the roof.

Toronto’s twenty-seventh ranked power-play in the league then tied this game up at 2-2. Sam Carrick’s shot from the left point found the stick blade of Ryan Rupert en route to goal. The deflection beat Hellberg and Rupert scored his third goal of the season.

After a tennis match of a third period the game pushed on into overtime. The Marlies had the better of the chances made during the four-on-four portion of overtime but things were finished off in the three-on-three with just thirty seconds remaining in OT.

Colton Sissons faceoff win put himself in on goal. Bibeau disrupted Sissons bid but the puck fell back to Taylor Aronson at the top of the faceoff circles and his wrist shot flew in for his third goal of the season to cap off the Admirals four game road trip in style.

Hellberg’s start in net was his first taste of game action in eleven days. The rust didn’t show one bit. He made thirty-one saves against the Marlies and now has seven wins on the campaign with a stellar 1.50 goals against average and a 0.942 save percentage.

After losing seven straight games, dropping all five of a five game homestand, the Admirals went on a four game road trip and are coming home for Boxing Day with three wins. It would seem the ball is rolling the right way again.

Ramblings: Today’s scratches for the Admirals were exactly the same as last night against the Rochester Americans: Miikka Salomaki (illness), Garrett Noonan (healthy), and Johan Alm (upper body). Triston Grant played in his 600th game as a professional hockey player today. Marek Mazanec’s run of four consecutive starts in net finally came to an end today with Magnus Hellberg getting the back half of the two-in-two. Per Aaron Sims on Twitter: the Milwaukee Admirals players scheduled to get mumps booster shots today in Toronto.

Thoughts on today’s game? How were the Admirals able to bounce back with this four game road trip? What performances have been standing out from these road games and can the Admirals maintain this current momentum?

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The Admirals won 4-2 on the road against the Rochester Americans Saturday night. It wasn’t pretty. It was actually quite a hot mess. But, for how things have been going lately, who cares! The Admirals overcame a 2-0 deficit before winning this game in a period that saw them only record three shots on goal.

It was the Amerks that did the early damage. They scored two goals from their first three shots and scored them twenty-five seconds apart from one another.

Directly off of a faceoff the home-side picked up the opening goal after the faceoff was kicked behind Felix Girard. Ian White made a bad read on the faceoff and went left as the puck fell to Joel Armia to the right of him. Armia had the time and space to flip back on his backhand and beat Marek Mazanec to score his seventh goal of the season.

Only twenty-five seconds later the Admirals were tossing a puck out of their own net again. Zac Dalpe was racing along the right wing wall and drew the attention of four Admirals on the ice. Dalpe lost his balance and made an amazing pass while spinning on his back to find Tim Schaller breaking down the slot. The only man tracking Schaller was Brendan Leipsic but the damage was done before he could have any say. Schaller scored a wrister to make it 2-0 off of his eighth goal of the season.

In the second period a big check by Matt MacKenzie on Girard caught the eye of Mike Liambas. This was a quick scrap directly following the hit and Liambas got a few blows on before earning a take down. This is one of those instances where I feel like throwing a fight card out the window because, even though it wasn’t called on the ice, it was an instigator job from Liambas protecting his teammate. Like Girard on the check, I’m not sure MacKenzie knew what hit him.

The Admirals made a nice push following the bout by Liambas. Joe Pendenza, not a regular on the Admirals power-play, had a great chance to score from out in front of Andrey Makarov on an early power-play bid that was shot off the pads. He was put right back on the next power-play and scored off of a redirection with four seconds left in an Admirals power-play to score his fifth goal of the season.

With how the Admirals have been playing of late you might have thought a goal like this would have happened against them. Instead, another team in a miserable run had the bad bounce beat them. Leipsic appeared to be skating up to center ice to shoot the puck deep and finish his shift. Instead, the puck clipped the stick blade of Jake McCabe and managed to fool Makarov in net and go in. Fluke or not it goes down as Leipsic’s fourth goal of the season.

Just over a minute into the third period the Admirals took a 3-2 lead. Leipsic wired a stretch pass that sent Colton Sissons off on a breakaway. He stayed near post and beat Makarov to the glove-side to score his eighth goal of the season and give the Admirals their first lead of the night.

The Admirals managed to seal this game up with an empty net tally for Austin Watson. It’s his eleventh goal of the season, third goal in three games, and third empty netter. Another fun stat to think about. The Admirals scored twice in the third period to win tonight. They only registered three shots on goal in the frame.

A well-deserved shout out must be given to Mazanec for his efforts in net tonight. He may have allowed two goals in rapid succession in the first period but was lights out from that point forward – making twenty-eight saves when all was said and done. He’s been in net over Magnus Hellberg these last four games not necessarily as a knock on Hellberg but just because of how solid Mazanec has played recently. While plenty of poor performances have been happening on this spell for the Admirals it’s hard to point a finger at the performance in net.

If there was one moment in the game that the Amerks will be tearing their hair out over tonight it shouldn’t be the Leipsic long range howler. It should be their failed conversion of a full two-minute five-on-three power-play in the first period when they had scored two-goals so quickly. The Admirals were pressing. Mark Van Guilder even played the bulk of the penalty kill without a stick. And the Amerks couldn’t do anything. Game changer.

Ramblings: Tonight’s scratches included Miikka Salomaki (illness), Garrett Noonan (healthy), and Johan Alm (upper body). Marek Mazanec made his fourth consecutive start in net for the Admirals. The last time he did such a feat was at the start of this season when he made five straight starts in the Admirals first five games.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? Could the fluke goal for Brendan Leipsic symbolize that the bounces are going to start going the Admirals way? Where would the Admirals be right now without Marek Mazanec and Magnus Hellberg in net? Has quality goaltending bailed the Admirals out of massive struggles this season?

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The Admirals lost 4-3 on the road against the Lake Erie Monsters Thursday night. This game saw the Admirals lose a two-goal lead that they established in the first period before withering under relentless pressure from the home-side Lake Erie.

This game may have started with a good minute of in-zone pressure and a power-play for the Admirals but the Monsters quickly found themselves up in faceoff wins and shots. Against the run of play, Taylor Aronson threw a puck from the blue line and into traffic standing in front of Roman Will’s net. The puck was redirected by Felix Girard and put the Admirals up 1-0 on his third goal of the season.

For a second consecutive game the Admirals tallied a power-play goal. Pontus Åberg was the last man at the end of a great series of quick passes to put away his team leading eleventh goal of the season. Brendan Leipsic’s primary assist was a quick one-touch pass to Åberg on the opposite wing after getting a puck from Miikka Salomaki.

Åberg was then on the receiving end of something else. Mitchell Heard hit the Swede from behind and sent him head first into the boards. This triggered Jimmy Oligny to drop the gloves with Heard and, fight card-wise, it was an even bout. Oligny fell down initially but regained his balance and both put in some decent work on each other. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the AHL reviews the hit Heard dished out on Åberg.

With under three minutes remaining in the second period the Monsters finally put a puck past Marek Mazanec. Sam Henley’s rush into the zone was disrupted when he lost control of the puck which proceeded to skip around the skates of Aronson and Oligny. Heard was in the right place at the right time to control and fire a wrist shot to the glove side of Mazanec to score his second goal of the season to tighten the Admirals lead to 2-1.

In the third period Salomaki was caught in the face by Stefan Elliott’s stick. He went down hard and left the ice with his blood on it and in quite distress. The resulting four minute power-play came and went with an added four-on-four section following a slashing call against Rich Clune.

Then the second fight of the game broke out after a drive to the Monsters net between Girard and Maxim Noreau. The two grappled and didn’t seem to quite land anything. Girard gets bonus points for the firm take down. As far as fights go. There wasn’t too much in this one.

After wave upon wave upon wave of Monsters offensive pressure they finally equalized. The Admirals had iced the puck and the resulting faceoff was won, spun, and fired in on Mazanec by the Monsters. Heard’s shot to the net was deflected by Paul Carey for his seventh goal of the season to make it 2-2.

The countless waves of attack by the Monsters were then met with some serious mental errors on the part of the Admirals. Salomaki, in his own attacking zone, was called for a slash after knocking a stick out of the hands on a backcheck. It took forty-four second into that power-play but the rifle shot of Elliot put the Monsters up 3-2 with only 1:56 left in regulation. The goal for Elliot goes down as his seventh of the season.

It was then very apparent that the Admirals brains had switched off entirely. Only twenty-four seconds after allowing the go-ahead goal the Admirals went from trailing by one-goal to two-goals. Mazanec hadn’t even had the chance to get out of his net for the last ditch push before Andrew Agozzino zipped his fourth goal of the season in to make it 4-2 in a matter of seconds.

Despite this deflated third period, that only saw four shots on goal, the Admirals managed to claw one back with fifty-five seconds remaining. Åberg hammered a shot from the point and found a deflection from Austin Watson to make it a 4-3 game on the strength of the Michigan native’s tenth goal of the season.

In the end, the Admirals dropped their tenth decision in twelve games. They have only seven points from their last twelve games and continue to sputter in form. From the highs of Tuesday. To the lows of tonight. It is getting to the point when you just do not know which Admirals team is going to show up anymore.

Ramblings: Tonight’s scratches for the Admirals included the likes of Joe Pendenza, Garrett Noonan, and Johan Alm. Ian White made his Admirals debut tonight. He was paired with Anthony Bitetto at the start of the game and appeared to hop around quite a bit.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? How deflating is this result given last game’s performance and the Admirals first period effort? Who is to blame for the lack of energy and creativity in tonight’s contest? What could have been done to slow down the Lake Erie Monsters pressure?

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The Admirals won 4-0 on the road against the Lake Erie Monsters Tuesday night. Marek Mazanec stopped all twenty-nine shots on goal and Brendan Leipsic tagged the Monsters twice to end the Admirals seven game losing streak with an exclamation point.

In the first period the Admirals power-play struggles from the recent homestand continued. They earned two in the opening frame and failed to convert. Fortunately for the Admirals Viktor Arvidsson would get them on the board at even strength with three minutes remaining in the opening period. The Swede made a hard play from the left wing pocket, fending off Cody Corbett, swooping in across Roman Will in net on the backhand, and depositing his seventh goal of the season with a forehanded shot. It was Arvidsson’s first goal in eleven games.

Brendan Leipsic scored his second goal of the season in the second period to give the Admirals a 2-0 lead. He was breaking in off the left wing, eyed up Will in net, and absolutely hammered a slap shot top shelf. Who was the man that fed the puck to Leipsic on the goal? None other than Colton Sissons to record his first assist of the season.

The Admirals finally managed to break their power-play drought in the third period. It was a well sustained attack that finally saw Taylor Aronson pass off from the point to Leipsic on the right wing. The rookie forward faked Karl Stollery almost out of his skates before snapping off a wrister to the stick side of Will for his second goal of the game and third of the season. The power-play goal for the Admirals was their first in twenty-five previous chances.

Trailing 3-0 and looking to claw back – the Monsters emptied their net with under three minutes in regulation. Austin Watson was able to skate up through neutral ice and pop in the empty net tally to record his ninth goal of the season.

Then what better way to set up the rematch tilt between these two side on Thursday than with a bout? Rich Clune and Duncan Siemens locked horns after jawing with each other earlier in the third period. Both had a strong fight. Give the edge in your fight cards to Clune for drawing blood, though. They had to do a quick scrape job of the ice after this tilt.

Marek Mazanec was as calm and confident in net as I’ve personally ever seen. He capped off the Admirals bounce back performance tonight with a twenty-nine save shutout. It is his second shutout of the season. And, everyone exhale, the Admirals seven game losing streak is no more.

Ramblings: Tonight’s scratches for the Admirals included Joe Pendenza (healthy) and Johan Alm (upper-body). This game marked the return of Mike Liambas to the Admirals lineup after he missed four-games due to a shoulder injury. This was the first time since 10/29/14 vs. Iowa and 11/1/14 @ Chicago that Marek Mazanec made consecutive starts for the Admirals. With the win over the Monsters the Admirals leap back to third place in the Midwest Division.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? What changed in tonight’s efforts over the previous run of games? Has Marek Mazanec played his way into a third successive start come Thursday night?

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The Admirals lost 3-1 against the Adirondack Flames Friday night to extend their losing streak to seven games. That mark is a franchise record for the Admirals during the AHL era of the team.

“It’s just frustrating,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “Different ways we’re losing hockey games. I guess we have to be better. We can talk about our group being young and learning but we’re deep enough into the season that we should know what we’re doing.”

The Admirals first power-play chance on the night came in the second period and saw them spend 1:54 of the man-advantage in attack. Nothing came of that chance and they immediately paid for it with a power-play goal against. Ryan Culkin’s point shot took a deflection by Ben Hanowski en route to Marek Mazanec in goal. That goes down as Hanowski’s eleventh goal of the season.

With 1:31 remaining in the second period the Admirals leveled things up at 1-1. Felix Girard poked a puck from the side of the net and skipping around in front of Joni Ortio in net. Joe Pendenza managed to land a backhanded swipe at the hopping puck to tally his fourth goal of the season.

“It was just kind of a scramble out in front of the net,” said Joe Pendenza. “When you get into those situations you kind of start swinging and hope for the best. It was a little flutter shot that went in. We’ll take it.”

The Flames scored 2:25 into the third period to halt the Admirals momentum on the other side of the second intermission. It was nearly the exact same goal that was scored from their power-play. Corey Potter threw a puck on net from the right point and, between the circles, Turner Elson caught a big piece of the puck to score his third goal of the season on the redirected shot.

From that point forward the third period really flew by. With 2:03 remaining in regulation another kick in the gut play cost the Admirals a goal to make it 3-1. Garrett Noonan fumbled the puck and allowed Elson to pounce on him and score a breakaway with a backhander. He scored as many goals in the third period tonight as he had all season entering tonight’s game.

The Admirals dropped all five games and failed on all twenty power-play chances during this homestand. While the defense was hit and miss in front of good goaltending it’s the offense that has been stinging the hardest during this spell. This five game homestand saw four players score goals: Pendenza tonight, Pontus Aberg twice, Gaudreau twice, and Colton Sissons once. Six goals in five home games. Here’s hoping the upcoming four game road trip acts as the proverbial, “want to get away?”

Ramblings: Tonight’s scratches for the Admirals were Patrick Cehlin (healthy), Mike Liambas (shoulder), and Johan Alm (upper-body). This was Marek Mazanec’s first start in net in two games. Mazanec has lost his last three appearances.

Thoughts on tonight’s performance? Is this upcoming road trip the answer to all our problems? Is the problem with our offense that we’re being out-muscled and forced to outside shooting that gets blocked before the goalie even has to make a save? Can we start a therapy Admirals losing streak support group… because I need it.

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The Admirals lost 2-1 against the Rockford IceHogs Wednesday night. The losing streak for the Admirals is now up to six-games. The last time the Admirals suffered a losing streak this long was the six-game skid in the 2012-13 season from January 11-23.

“Absolutely terrible,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “We didn’t win any puck battles. Our power-play *pause* there is no power-play. We defend ok and then we lose in a tight game because of that.”

It was a relatively quiet first period. The IceHogs had the better of the Admirals in terms of shots, 8-4, but no team found the back of the net. The standout highlight of the opening frame was a check Triston Grant delivered to Garret Ross that sent the IceHog forward head over heels into the Admirals bench. The reaction from Jonathan Diaby and Jimmy Oligny, who Ross split between the bench, was priceless.

Another big hit along the boards ended up triggering a fight in the second period. Diaby pasted Cody Bass into the boards near the IceHogs penalty box and it caught the attention of Brandon Mashinter. Diaby answered the bell and, despite the size advantage, was knocked down to the ice. Decent blows from both were landed. Score things Mashinter 10, Diaby 9 in your fight cards due to the knock down for the IceHog forward.

1:06 after the fight came the game’s opening goal scored from a tic-tac-toe passing play by the IceHogs. Dennis Rasmussen broke into the zone from the right wing and dropped off for Phillip Danault. As he edged in towards Hellberg from the faceoff circle he picked out the center lane drive by Ross for a one-touch finish. It’s Ross’ eleventh goal of the season.

Then some relief. Viktor Arvidsson passed off from the right wing wall to Pontus Åberg. IceHogs netminder Michael Leighton appeared to be over-committed to the near side post and Åberg unloaded a Gatorade smasher against the grain to beat the veteran netminder blocker side. The goal for Åberg, his tenth, makes him the first Admiral to reach double-digit goals this season.

Forty seconds into the third period and the IceHogs regained their lead. It was a goal for T.J. Brennan that was eerily similar to his sniper shot from last Thursday. The defenseman flew up on the left wing for the rush and ripped a shot from the wall over the shoulder of Hellberg. There was next to no room where he was aiming but the puck dinked off the crossbar and in for his sixth goal of the season.

The Admirals pushed for the final minute with their net empty and an extra attacker on but, just like their power-play work, couldn’t get the job done. On this current homestand, four-games in, the Admirals are a baffling 0/17 on the power-play.

“Our power-play is not only not giving us any goals it’s not giving us momentum,” said Evason. “It has to be better.”

Ramblings: Tonight’s scratches for the Admirals included Johan Alm (upper-body), Mike Liambas (healthy), and Joe Pendenza (healthy). Speaking of scratches, after not being included in eight-straight games for the Chicago Blackhawks – Jeremy Morin was sent to the Rockford IceHogs on a conditioning assignment starting with tonight’s game. Morin had failed to score a point from fifteen NHL games this season after being a point per game player for the IceHogs last season. Florida Panthers general manager Dale Tallon was in attendance tonight potentially taking a look at the IceHogs forward. Rich Clune made his return to the ice after suffering a lower-body injury the last time the Admirals and IceHogs met last Thursday. Clune missed the Admirals two games this past weekend.

Behind the scenes tonight a very tragic story unfolded in which a fan died of an apparent heart attack. I would like to personally extend my thoughts and prayers to the family and friends associated with this incident.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? What would you fix to make the Admirals power-play run better? Is this simply a matter of the offense running out of steam or are more issues at work during this losing streak?

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The Admirals lost 2-1 in a shootout against the Grand Rapids Griffins Saturday evening. With fifty seconds left in regulation Teemu Pulkkinen forced overtime for the Griffins and denied Magnus Hellberg from the shutout he deserved. The game lasted to a shootout where the Admirals saw their losing run extend to five games.

“The first fifteen-sixteen games those breaks were our’s,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “They got one tonight. So, we’ll use this as a step forward and put a positive spin on it for sure.”

Entering today’s game the Admirals record when scoring the opening goal was an impressive 9-1-0-1. During the Admirals four-game losing streak they only managed to score the opener once. That came from the 3-2 shootout loss to the Charlotte Checkers.

This afternoon the Admirals were able to get on the board first through Pontus Åberg’s team leading ninth goal of the season. Mark Van Guilder made a great play in neutral ice to force a turnover that fell kindly to Åberg breaking in off the right wing. The Swede aimed near post to the glove-side of Jared Coreau and beat him on the quick release shot.

After taking their timeout and emptying their net with 1:29 remaining in regulation – the Griffins scored an equalizer to force overtime. The toss on net was coughed up by Magnus Hellberg and spilled into the sprawl in front of him before getting pushed in by Teemu Pulkkinen. The tally by the Griffins ended Hellberg’s 123:17 shutout streak against them that dated back to last season when he conceded five goals against on 12/14/13 in Grand Rapids. For Pulkkinen it goes down as his team leading eleventh goal of the season.

“It was a cluster-[expletive] in front of me,” said Magnus Hellberg in regards to the equalizing goal for the Griffins. “I saved the first one and I don’t know how many guys it was but it was a lot of sticks just jamming my pads and everything. At that point it is so hard to see where the puck is because sticks everywhere. It’s frustrating.”

The game flew through the entirety of overtime and headed to the shootout. After two rounds the Admirals and Griffins were tied 1-1 but Miikka Salomaki’s third round chance was stopped and Mitch Callahan fired a shot to the blocker side of Hellberg to give the Griffins a 2-1 shootout victory. The Admirals losing streak has now reached five-games.

Hellberg may have taken the shootout loss but make no mistake – he was phenomenal today. He made thirty-three saves and only allowed the late frenzied goal from the Griffins with their goalie pulled and the extra attacker on in the final minute of regulation. If not for his play today – I question if the Admirals would have even picked up a point today.

“He’s been good all year,” said Admiral captain Joe Piskula of Hellberg. “It goes from the goalie to the defensemen to the forwards. It kind of builds our confidence and demeanor of the team. It’s huge.”

Ramblings: Today’s game marked the 500th game played in Joe Piskula’s professional playing career. The Antigo native has played in 488 career games at the AHL level including 12 games in the NHL. The scratches for the Admirals included Rich Clune (lower-body), Mike Liambas (healthy), and Johan Alm (upper-body). Clune did skate ahead of today’s game and Alm was a late decision for an upper-body injury. Both are expected to return to the lineup soon.

Thoughts on today’s game? Close but just not close enough? What would you change amidst this losing streak?

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The Admirals lost 5-3 against the Oklahoma City Barons Saturday night. The word of the night is streak because it is now a four-game losing streak for the Admirals and a ten-game point streak for the Barons – including an eight-game winning streak.

“There will be positives to draw from,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “We talk all the time about learning from our adverse situations but we’ll draw some positives from tonight’s game.”

It was the Barons that scored the opening goal against the grain of some quality attacking hockey by the Admirals through the first five minutes of the game. Brad Hunt stepped up from the right point to hammer home a slap shot through Marek Mazanec for his sixth goal of the season.

Then came the Admirals first goal scored in 92:51 of ice time. Miikka Salomaki made an excellent push to goal breaking from the left wing. He dished off to Colton Sissons who was trailing off of Laurent Brossoit’s back post. It was a tap in effort for Sissons whose goal triggered the teddy bear toss festivities. He now has seven goals this season. Each and every point he has scored this campaign has come from goals.

“It was pretty fun,” said Colton Sissons on the experience of scoring the teddy bear toss goal. “We were kind of joking around before the game who was going to get it. I was happy to finish off a really nice play from [Miikka] Salomaki off the wing.”

In the second period the Barons regained the lead off the strength of their deadly power-play. Austin Watson took a slash to break up what would have been a back door tap in for the Barons. In the end, they scored on nearly the exact same play with the man-advantage. Hunt pass from the left wing over to the right wing for Barons captain Anton Lander. He didn’t get the shot off first time, which made have disrupted Mazanec in net, but still had plenty of the net to tally his sixth goal of the season.

The Barons were right back after it with another power-play goal and a second goal of the game for their rangy defenseman Hunt. The d-man had acres of space on the right wing and Mazanec squared him up, got low fast, and sent himself the wrong way as Hunt whipped a wrister high blocker side for his seventh goal of the season.

Then something that we didn’t see Thursday night – a fight. Jimmy Oligny paired up with Jujhar Khaira. Not many blows really landed but the resulting take down by Khaira was a heck of a thud. Score Khaira 10, Oligny 9 in your fight cards.

With the Admirals already down, and needing a quick start to the third period, the Barons added another goal just 1:03 into the last period of regulation. The Barons leading goal scorer Ryan Hamilton was cruising in the left wing and threw a wrister to the near post, glove-side, of Mazanec who never touched it. That went down as Hamilton’s tenth goal of the season and the final shot on goal that Mazanec would see in the game. Magnus Hellberg was brought on in place of him for the rest of the third period.

“Whenever you have a goalie change that really sparks your energy,” said Sissons. “It’s a wake up call. We feel terrible that that happened to [Mazanec]. We kind of hung him out to dry there.”

Frederick Gaudreau gave the Admirals a quick response after scoring his second goal of the season only 1:15 after the Hamilton goal. Joe Piskula’s point shot knuckled up on Brossoit and Gaudreau was in the right place at the right time to clean up the garbage.

Gaudreau was right back at it again a few minutes later from almost the exact same play. Anthony Bitetto’s shot from the point cleared through bodies and fell to the crease. Joe Pendenza made a brilliant kick pass with his skate to Gaudreau on the left side of the net for a thumping rebounded goal – his third goal of the season and second of the game.

The Admirals used their timeout and emptied their net for an extra attacker with 1:23 remaining. It would go for naught as Jason Williams tacked on an empty netter with a backhand on the left wing wall to score his ninth goal of the season and cap the game off at its 5-3 final.

“We’re in a tough spot right now,” said Sissons. “I think that a little bit of frustration has crept in and that’s not a good sign. So, hopefully we can turn things around.”

Ramblings: Prior to this game both Joe Pendenza and Jonathan Diaby were recalled from the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. Both were assigned together this past Tuesday. Tonight’s scratches included Mr. Diaby. It also included the Bash Brothers, Mike Liambas (healthy) and Rich Clune (lower-body). In tonight’s “Teddy Bear Toss” it was announced that fans threw 1,082 total teddy bears.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? What has been happening to the Admirals during this losing streak?

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The Admirals lost 4-0 against the Rockford IceHogs Thursday night. From start to finish this game was never really close. The passing and shooting lanes weren’t available for the Admirals as the IceHogs defense and puck control dictated this entire game.

“We were terrible,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason after the game. “Absolutely terrible. We talked that there is a difference between work and compete in the past. We’ve always said that our group works. We get out-competed sometimes but we always work. Tonight we didn’t do either. It was like men against boys out there.”

It was a shaky start for the Admirals in the first period. They found themselves shorthanded only seventeen-seconds into the game after a delay of game penalty against Anthony Bitetto. They never really seemed to click thereafter and the IceHogs made them pay for it.

Garret Ross threw a puck on Magnus Hellberg from the right wing and it appeared to knuckle in on the big Swede and squeeze through him. There was traffic crashing in for a rebound but the lamp lit up before anyone else could touch it up. It’s Ross’ seventh goal of the season.

“We were not ready to play the game tonight,” said Evason. “They came at us right away. Our entire game wasn’t right.”

The IceHogs added another tally in the second period to give themselves a two-goal cushion. T.J. Brennan stepped up from the blue like and into the left wing faceoff circle to deliver a wing-to-wing feed on a platter for Matt Carey. Hellberg was at full stretch to make a post-to-post save but, even with Carey fanning the initial one-timer, he still couldn’t make the save. For Carey that goes down as his fourth goal of the season.

In the third period a Garrett Noonan turnover led directly to the IceHogs third goal of the night. After winning a faceoff in neutral, the puck fell back to Noonan who tried to toss up ice for Johan Alm. The pass was picked off and turned into a two-on-one the other way with Cody Bass teeing up Drew LeBlanc for his third goal of the season.

With the game winding down, and blood in the water for the IceHogs, Brennan stepped up from his blue line again to provide offense. Rather than dish off an assist this time Brennan roofed a wrist shot over the right shoulder of Hellberg to score his fifth goal of the season and make it a 4-0 game.

“They just out-worked us,” said Mark Van Guilder. “They moved the puck quicker. They worked smarter. They worked harder. We just weren’t very good tonight and they were.”

He didn’t have a difficult night in net but he’ll certainly take the shutout. Michael Leighton stopped all eighteen shots he faced en route to his second shutout this season. The most difficult save he had to make this season was robbing Austin Watson on the doorstep of goal in the second period. Outside of that – he had it relatively easy.

The opposite end of the rink saw Hellberg taking a solid swipe at his water bottle as the game finished. He let in four goals from twenty-eight shots to pick up his first regulation defeat of this season.

“We didn’t bear down today and it starts with me,” said Magnus Hellberg. “I didn’t do the extra saves today to make us have a chance in this hockey game and it’s frustrating.”

Ramblings: Tonight marked the return of Patrick Cehlin to the Admirals lineup. It was his first Admirals game since Game 2 of the 2014 Calder Cup Playoffs in Milwaukee against the Toronto Marlies and his first regular season contest since 4/18/14 when the Admirals defeated the Charlotte Checkers. With his return, and the recent roster moves for Joe Pendenza and Jonathan Diaby, the only scratch tonight for the Admirals was Frederick Gaudreau. Rich Clune took a puck to the groin during the game and never returned. He isn’t expected to return for Saturday’s game.

Thoughts on tonight’s game? What happened? Where was the bite that we’ve seen from the Admirals all season?

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The Admirals lost 3-2 in a shootout on the road against the Charlotte Checkers Sunday afternoon. Drew MacIntyre came up huge against his old team yet again as he made thirty-nine saves in net for the Checkers including all three shootout attempts to give the Admirals their second loss inside twenty-four hours.

The Admirals scored the opener late in a first period they dominated. Anthony Bitetto hit Mark Van Guilder on a stretch pass to send him loose into the attacking zone. Van Guilder then passed off to his left for Triston Grant to wired a shot through Drew MacIntyre for his first goal of the season. The Admirals outshot the Checkers 16-5 in the opening frame.

Yesterday’s second period marked the beginning of a lot of insanity. Today’s was a bit more composed. The Checkers were able to equalize early on in the period from Brock McGinn’s fifth goal of the season. Rasmus Rissanen’s initial shot from the point was blocked down by bodies out in front of Marek Mazanec. McGinn was able to pick up the loose puck and wire a rising shot up and over Mazanec to make it 1-1.

In the closing stages of the second period the Admirals were able to punish the Checkers on a five-on-three power-play. I don’t know what happened in the build up to these games against the Checkers but this weekend’s power-play passing by the Admirals has been stunning to watch. Lightning fast passing from Brendan Leipsic to Miikka Salomaki to Colton Sissons resulted in the latter’s sixth goal of the season. All six points that Sissons has on this season have been scored from goals. At this time last season he had seven goals and seven assists.

Midway through the third period the Checkers leveled the game at 2-2. Justin Shugg’s shot on the right wing took a few deflections with Phil Di Giuseppe and AJ Jenks crashing the net. It would be Jenks getting the crucial last touch past Mazanec for his second goal of the season.

The game would last all the way to a shootout. The lone man on the mark in the shootout would be the Checkers’ right winger Shugg who pumped forehand and switched to the backhander to beat Mazanec on the glove-side. It is the first time all season that the Checkers have recorded back-to-back wins.

While today’s result may have only yielded a point for the Admirals – give the credit where it belongs in-between the pipes for the Charlotte Checkers today, Drew MacIntyre. The former-Admiral was sensational in the game and stopped 39/41 shots including all three shootout attempts. If it was anyone else in net for the Checkers today, outside of perhaps Pekka Rinne, this game is a runaway for the Admirals.

Ramblings: Today’s scratches included Joe Pendenza and Jonathan Diaby. With the secondary assist on the opening goal – Anthony Bitetto is now on a five-game point streak. His career best point streak was recorded last season at six-games.

Thoughts from this weekend’s games? Are these bad losses for the Admirals or simply better wins by the Checkers? What will it take for the Admirals to get back into the win column this coming week?

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