The Admirals lost 2-1 against the Chicago Wolves Saturday night. The undoing to this game came in the opening minute of the second period when the Wolves scored two goals from two Bryan Rodney turnovers. Credit where credit is due, the defensive game the Wolves played tonight was tough for the Ads to crack – and AHL All Star netminder Jake Allen’s twenty-five save performance only backed that up.
It was a rather slow start for both teams – the Ads in particular. After ten minutes the shots were four to one in the Wolves favor and the lone Ads shot was a long range dump in the forced Jake Allen to paddle the puck aside.
Where the Ads period appeared to pick up was after a Mike Liambas hit at center ice which set loose his linemates Mathieu Tousignant and Joonas Rask. The hit freed the puck. Tousignant raced it in and fed to Rask who almost marked his return to the ice with a crafty sliding backhand shot. He tried working Allen to the five-hole but received nothing but pad.
The Ads responded just after that shift with a power-play goal from Vinny Saponari. This goal was really created once the puck settled on the tape of Anthony Bitetto’s stick. He was on the right wing door step of Allen’s net and held it long enough that the All Star goalie became impatient. The shot from Bitetto came after Allen was way out of position. The eventual puck scramble went to Saponari who floated the puck into an open net for his fourth goal of the season.
Bryan Rodney’s start to the second period was one to forget. He turned the puck over twice to tee up two goals by the Wolves in the space of fifty-seconds to turn a first period lead into a second period deficit fast.
Dmitrij Jaskin was able to pick Rodney’s pocket and pop a backhander past Magnus Hellberg to level the game at 1-1 twenty-one seconds into the second period. After the Ads picked up a power-play it was again Rodney who set up a Wolves goal. The Ads like setting up their power-play unit with a defenseman atop the middle of the blue line, forwards on the wall, and one on the goal mouth. The puck alluded Rodney who then awkwardly swatted at it to turn Keith Aucoin on a shorthanded breakaway. The veteran Aucoin buried the shorty and, in a blink, give the Wolves a 2-1 lead.
Despite a late rush with an extra attacker on, featuring multiple offensive zone face offs, the scoreline would stay 2-1 to the Amtrak Rivals. The Wolves are now 4-0-0-1 against the Ads this season with Aucoin scoring the game-winning goal in the last two meetings. Every single Amtrak Rivalry game has been decided by one-goal. Of the two games in the rivalry that didn’t spill into overtime: both have been Admirals home defeats. This one more than most is a tale of what could have been. Two goals in fifty-seconds. That was the sucker punch that cost the Ads tonight.
Ramblings:
Joonas Rask returned to the lineup for his first game since injuring his right shoulder 12/20/13 vs. San Antonio. Tonight the healthy scratches included Zach Budish and Scott Valentine. Still out injured is Patrick Cehlin who missed his 26th straight game with an undisclosed injury. Magnus Hellberg made his first consecutive starts in net since 11/27/13 @ Rockford and 11/30/13 @ Charlotte. Ads d-man Charles-Olivier Roussel was caught with a high stick tonight and required eight stitches to his left eyebrow – after the game he told me you could see bone. Naturally he played the rest of the game.
The Admirals won 4-3 in a shootout against the Iowa Wild Monday night. Goals from Austin Watson, Colton Sissons, and Taylor Beck set the background on a shootout game winner for Vinny Saponari – breaking the Ads losing run of two games. Magnus Hellberg returned to the net tonight and picked up his first win since 12/12 vs. Oklahoma City. Hellberg stopped twenty-one of twenty-four shots – including all four in the shootout.
Despite looking sluggish to start the game – it was the Iowa Wild who netted the opener off of a solo effort from Brett Bulmer. The Ads were on attack when Bulmer stormed from the right wing, in front of the player benches, and skated all the way in on Magnus Hellberg. As soon as he closed in the goal, Bulmer pulled up and gave a backhanded spin-o-rama that found a way through Hellberg. The play was initially given no goal signal and went to review before declaring the obvious: Bulmer has scored his tenth goal of the season to give the Wild an early 1-0 lead.
The rest of the opening period really favored the Ads. It felt like the Wild were standing around compared to the Ads work rate in the first: outshooting the Wild 12-7 in the period. Of the chances, Mike Liambas and Mathieu Tousignant seemed to generate some quality offensive chances. Liambas actually led the team with three shots in the period. Those two grinder-style players really have been buzzing with confidence in the offensive zone these last few weeks.
Considering the events of the Lake Erie series and the amount of penalty minutes gathered – it was pretty great to see this game have no calls after twenty-minutes.
That didn’t last long.
Thirty-three seconds into the second period Iowa took a slashing call and the Ads equalized on the strength of Austin Watson… and an assist to Wild d-man Corbin Baldwin. The play for the Ads started from the point with Charles-Olivier Roussel, worked to the left wing wall out to Taylor Beck, and then on to Watson. The amount of patience Watson showed moving into goal forced Johan Gustafsson to sprawl out and make a play from goal. Watson powered around him, tossed the puck toward net, and Wild defenseman Baldwin dove across and carried the puck in. The goal is Watson’s ninth of the season.
The Ads power-play continued its success against Iowa on its second chance of the evening. The second power-play unit was able to bury a chance from in-tight before the man-advantage expired. Bryan Rodney zipped on to Anthony Bitetto on the right wing wall. Bitetto picked out Colton Sissons sitting in the slot. Sissons turned around to goal and roofed the puck under the crossbar. Gustafsson didn’t have a chance stopping that shot. It’s now a team best thirteen goals and twenty-three points for Sissons.
Early in the third period the Wild were able to tie the game at 2-2. A bad exchange between Sissons and Salomaki in their defensive half lead to a turnover and a goal from Kyle Medvec from the point. It was a rising shot that, with a screen, Hellberg didn’t see until the last moment. By then it was into the roof for Medvec’s second goal of the campaign.
A storyline that repeated itself was the Ads ability to respond after Wild goals. The follow up shifts from Milwaukee were always blistering while the opposition remained flatfooted to the point of attack.
After 2:20 time on the ice from the Medvec goal – Taylor Beck banged home his ninth goal of the season to restore the Ads one-goal advantage. The shift that was ushered by Moser, Van Guilder, Beck, Roussel, and Jarvinen was relentless. They were wiring together chance after chance and kept the puck in-zone repeatedly. Beck was finally on the receiving end of a beautiful cross-ice pass from Moser for a one-timer that burned Gustafsson on the left wing.
There was some bad news in this game regarding the Iowa Wild. The game’s opening goal scorer, Brett Bulmer, went down hard in the third period and clutched his knee instantly. He was in major distress and was helped off the ice by teammate Chad Rau and the team’s trainer. He put zero weight on his left leg on his way off the ice. After the game, I just so happened to be walking out by the arena exit with the Wild team – who were carting Bulmer in a full leg brace on a flatbed dolly. My guess for him is that is a long term knee injury. Certainly wish him a speedy recovery.
Right after the injury delay was the ying and yang effects only the game of hockey can deliver so quickly. A hot shot on Hellberg fell behind him in goal and was dancing its way from the crease and in. Just as the puck appeared to be going in – a whistle blew. Just as the whistle blew – a Wild forward put that puck in. It was borderline robbery that the whistle blew that quickly – especially if it was a matter of someone losing sight of the puck (a linesman was right on the end-redline looking at the net). So, saved by the whistle. The very next faceoff – Iowa Wild goal. Brian Connelly’s shot from the blueline was perfectly redirected with a stick by Chad Rau and in to make it 3-3.
The game lasted through regulation and then went to overtime. There wasn’t much going in the way of Ads chances. If anything, it was the Wild that blew a quick opportunity on the power-play after a Joe Piskula high-sticking call thirty-two seconds into OT. That penalty kill, and Hellberg, stood tall when they had to. Great effort on the kill particularly to the Olympian Simon Moser – whose closing rate on skaters disrupted plenty of time on the man-advantage.
Next came the shootout where the Ads elected to shoot first. Beck stepped up and delivered with the first shot: skated out to the left wing and wired in a low wrister. After four saves by Hellberg and three saves by Gustafsson – it was Vinny Saponari time. The twenty-three year old Georgia native skated in calmly, waited, waited, flinched, went to the backhand, Gustafsson dived flat, and Saponari tossed it into the twine for the shootout winner.
Some Ramblings: Mike Liambas finished this game with the most shots on goal, five. The pair of Liambas and Tousignant was so effective Dean Evason decided to put Beck on line with them towards the end of the first period. Injury updates: Joonas Rask and Patrick Cehlin both participated in practice today. Rask is ahead of Cehlin and has the chance to return this weekend if he stays on course. The assist by Beck on Watson’s goal was his 100th point as a member of the Milwaukee Admirals. Beck in his last nine games has four goals and five assists. The Ads have still yet to be defeated by the Iowa Wild in four meetings. Despite the cold – the Monday night crowd was near the 2500 mark. For those wondering, that is around half of what the team typically draws – but about 2000 more than I expected to turn up against the nasty weather. You rock, Milwaukee.
Thoughts on tonight’s game? Did you brave the cold to attend? Is this a turnaround for Hellberg and the Ads as a team? If Beck continues playing this good – can we expect an NHL call up soon?
The Admirals lost 6-1 against the Lake Erie Monsters Saturday night. The rout saw just about everything – including a goalie fight between Scott Darling and Sami Aittokallio – and a hat trick for Monsters left winger David van der Gulik.
Last night’s game featured some big time hitting from Lake Erie. Tonight’s game flipped the script quick with a massive hit by Joonas Jarvinen on Garrett Meurs. This triggered a fight when Daniel Maggio jumped Jarvinen who responded in kind. Decent scrap – all be it a quick one. The bigger thing from this was the lack of an instigator penalty on Maggio for jumping Jarvinen after a clean check. Dean Evason was furious regarding the no call and actually caused the next puck drop to be delayed because the officials had to go over and chat about the incident. How diplomatic of the officials!
After a faceoff win, the Monsters were able to tag Darling for two quick shots and a goal. The faceoff win by Mark Olver fell to J.T. Wyman who fired immediately on goal. Wyman’s shot was stopped with a left pad save from Scott Darling but the rebound was one-timed by Joey Hishon for the opening goal. It was his fifth goal of the season and, for the second consecutive night, the Monsters grabbed the opening goal.
Only fifty-seven seconds later the line of Kevin Henderson, Austin Watson, and Simon Moser were able to equalize. Henderson threw a puck at Sami Aittokallio in net and it deflected off Watson in front. Due to the knuckling action, the loose puck alluded the Monsters netminder and in to collect the garbage was Moser who beat the outstretched glove hand of Aittokallio for his sixth goal of the season.
The first period ended on the 1-1 scoreline but it is worth looking back to the previous night’s performance. The Ads had a season low fourteen shots in the entire game last night. In the first period tonight they outshot the Monsters 13-8. I can only assume what was said after last night and prior to game time was, “make the goalie work tonight.”
Sadly, the first period work rate wasn’t carried over into the second. It took the Monsters just forty seconds into the second period to regain the lead. David van der Gulik was able to beat Darling for his fourth goal of the season
Continuing the second period theme, the Monsters scored through van der Gulik again – this time on the power-play. The penalty setting the stage for this goal was a faceoff violation against Colton Sissons who played the puck with an open hand on the draw. On the man-advantage the Monsters fired a shot that was blocked out in front by Bryan Rodney. The puck fell in line with van der Gulik who quickly hit a shot on net after the block by Rodney – throwing off Darling in net. It was his second goal of the period and fifth of the season.
The Ads started the third period due to a ‘closing a hand on the puck’ penalty by van der Gulik late in the second. Unfortunately, the Ads were unable to cash in and, worse, allowed a break from the box to van der Gulik – who went forehand to backhand and beat Darling for his hat trick.
After Mike Liambas was called for tripping the Monsters tallied for their fifth goal of the game. The shot by Karl Stollery was banked in off of Scott Ford’s leg and in past Darling for the Monsters fifth goal of the game. Liambas, who was in the box for that power-play, was in the face of the officials once he was let out. He was given a ten-minute game misconduct and this may have triggered some of the raw emotion from the Ads that followed.
After a scrum behind the net of Aittokallio, Scott Darling skated out from his own net to center ice and challenged his counter-part in net. There was a pause. There was a shrug from Darling. Then ka-blammo – we had ourselves a goalie fight! Darling took it to the Monsters netminder and both were subsequently tossed from the game.
After all the dust settled from that Magnus Hellberg entered the fire and allowed a power-play goal almost instantly. The Ads gave the Monsters nine chances on the power-play tonight and they scored three times. This goal was credited to Mark Olver – his ninth of the season.
The game continued getting chippy at the end and the two finished with a combined 120 penalty minutes from 27 infractions. To put the fist to this game was Mathieu Tousignant who fought Mitchell Heard and actually leveled the much bigger opponent to the ice.
So, these games in Cleveland this weekend were about as ugly as it has been all season. Fortunately the “Miley Cyrus” game on Monday against the Iowa Stars on home ice offers a quick refresher to the team. It’s a long bus trip back from Ohio. The team will need to ice their knuckles and study up on all the wrongs of the weekend in prep of that meeting.
Ramblings: Mark Van Guilder, who was injured in the second period of last night’s game and didn’t return, did play tonight. Scott Valentine returned to the ice for the first time since 12/21 @Rockford. He injured his left leg crashing into the boards in that game. His return to the lineup meant a healthy scratch was needed and the odd man out for tonight was Josh Shalla.
The Ads have lost six-straight games over two seasons against the Lake Erie Monsters. What is it about Lake Erie? What happened to the Ads this weekend? With the game as out of hand as it was – what are your opinions of turning to fighting late in the game as opposed to earlier when it could make a bigger dent? What team should we expect on Monday night against Iowa?
The Admirals lost 4-2 against the Lake Erie Monsters Friday night. The Monsters tallied for two goals on the opening four shots of this one. Despite goals from Joonas Jarvinen and Mike Liambas, the Ads were never really able to level the game for as much as they clawed back. Credit where credit is due: the Monsters outworked the Ads tonight and limited Milwaukee to a season low fourteen shots in this game.
(Courtesy of the Lake Erie Monsters YouTube channel)
The Monsters scored from the game’s first shot after some quality passes from the point set Andrew Agozzino loose on the left wing for a goal. The goal was created when J.T. Wyman dropped the puck back to Markus Lauridsen who then faked a slap shot and delivered a great pass that was one-timed in by Agozzino for his eighth goal of the season.
On only their fourth shot of the game the Monsters stepped out to a 2-0 lead 7:21 into the first period. Matt Hunwick zipped around Scott Darling’s cage and tossed the puck from behind the net where both teammate Joey Hishon and Ads rookie Miikka Salomaki were crashing. The puck deflected in off of Salomaki’s skate and in for Hunwick’s sixth goal of the season.
Energy lacking, the bell rang for Mike Liambas and Daniel Maggio. It sounded like a fantastic bout for Liambas. Hopefully YouTube cooks us up the footage!
(Cheers to Adam in the comments for the find!)
The Ads responded towards the end of the period after a rocket by Joonas Jarvinen. There was a fair bit of net front traffic in front of Monsters goaltender Calvin Pickard – including Mark Van Guilder (directly in front) and Bryan Rodney (crashing in from the right wing). After some scoring changes on this one – the goal was finally awarded to Jarvinen and his booming shot from the blue line for his second goal of the campaign.
After a hooking call against Mathieu Tousignant in the second period the Monsters re-established their two goal lead by snapping the Ads run of twenty-two consecutive penalty kills without a goal conceded. There were only two seconds left in the hooking penalty when Mark Olver scored his eighth goal of the season and fourth from the power-play.
Having already put his hands to good use, Liambas decided to put them to even more lethal use by scoring his first goal of the season to make it 3-2. Zach Budish pushed the puck behind the net to Tousignant who teed up Liambas on the opposite post for his second career goal as an Admiral: last scored 2/17/13 vs. Abbotsford. Awesome News Dept: Liambas’ mom, dad, and older brother made a near five-hour drive out to Cleveland to see these games between the Ads and Monsters. They were able to see him score a goal and win a fight.
That just about did it for the game from the Admirals perspective. The Ads recorded a season low fourteen shots in this game. With 1:16 remaining, they pulled Darling to get the extra attacker on only to concede a long range empty netter from veteran Brett Clark with thirty-two seconds left in the game.
The two play again tomorrow night. It should be a very quick turnaround for the Ads who, based on tonight, will need to come out guns blazing. Not enough done offensively to keep up with the Monsters – who the Ads have not beaten in two years.
Some game notes from this one: Mark Van Guilder left the game halfway through the second period after sustaining a big hit from Mark Olver. Van Guilder needed help off the ice and wasn’t putting much weight down on his right leg. He did not return to the game after that check from Olver. After the game on Sports Radio 1250 WSSP, assistant coach Stan Drulia said that Van Guilder was “banged up” and it isn’t a serious injury – but will be a game time decision for tomorrow. If a replacement is needed – he might have joined them on the trip. Scott Valentine traveled with the team after being sidelined since 12/21 @ Rockford with a left leg injury. He might not be a center like Van Guilder, but he’s always capable of playing forward – should he be healthy enough to make a return tomorrow night.
The Admirals capped off the 2013 calendar with a 4-0 shutout against the Iowa Wild Sunday afternoon. For the third time this season, second in Iowa, Scott Darling produced a shutout to provide the backdrop for an equally as impressive offensive night for the Ads.
The game opened with a taste of the opening meeting of the season between the Admirals and Wild: five for fighting. Mathieu Tousignant fought Carson McMillian. Mike Liambas scrapped it out with Jake Dowell. This was the third time these two teams have met this season and, already, there have been a combined five fights and a sum of 122 combined penalty minutes.
The Ads broke through in the first period from Colton Sissons team best twelfth goal of the season. Vinny Saponari was able to tee up his fellow rookie on the opposite post to give the Ads the game’s opening goal.
After a roughing call against Corbin Baldwin – the Ads answered within seconds on the power-play. The Ads won the face off, controlled, and Bryan Rodney zipped onto the tape of “Mr. Power-Play” Anthony Bitetto for his ninth goal of the season – and sixth goal scored on the power-play.
The time between the Ads opener from Sissons to the PPG for Bitetto was a mere fifty-three seconds apart. What’s more shocking than that was how badly outshot they were while doing it. Prior to the goal from Sissons the Wild outshot the Ads 8-1 in over twelve minutes of the first period. After Bitetto’s goal the Ads led 2-0 on four shots on goal.
In the second period the shots kept pouring in on Scott Darling – twenty-four shots through the opening forty minutes. The Wild had four chances on the power-play in the second period alone. Despite those opportunities for Iowa to make a dent against the Ads with the man-advantage they were not able to solve the penalty kill. The Wild went 0/5 on the power-play in this game. The Admirals penalty kill is now 18/19 in their last five games.
Despite their opponent’s woes on the man-advantage, the Ads special teams continued to shine with more success on the power-play. This go-round Vinny Saponari came up trumps with his third goal of the season. Saponari was stationed on the wall, skated in on the left faceoff dot, and fired past Iowa netminder Johan Gustafsson for a goal.
The last bit of damage from the Admirals offense came from rebound work in front of the net. Joe Piskula’s shot from the point rebounded to Kevin Henderson – his follow up shot was spilled loose – and the puck fell to Austin Watson who was able to backhand the rebound by Gustafsson for his eighth goal of the season.
Yet again, the quiet hero of this game is Scott Darling between the pipes. He made thirty-three saves in his third shutout of the season. His month of December is just extraordinary: he has played in eight games, made seven starts, has a record of 6-1-0-0, has allowed 1.12 goals a game, has a 0.964 SV%, and two shutouts. If the AHL is wise, they’d do well to recognize his efforts for the month. It has been fantastic work from him in net.
Thoughts on this game? Is it just me or is Scott Darling making this eventual goaltending situation, when Pekka Rinne returns, that much more intriguing? What do you make of the Ads through the 2013 side of the calendar – positives/negatives?
The Admirals lost 3-2 against the Charlotte Checkers Friday night. After conceding the opening goal, the Ads rallied back in the first period with two goals scored by Mark Van Guilder and Zach Budish. However, the Checkers came back to haunt the Ads – scoring in the second – scoring in the third – and surviving the last minute of pressure poured on by the Ads with an extra attacker.
With the crowd rocking to start the game –7,076 tonight– the Checkers played party poopers with a goal inside the opening minute. There was traffic in front of Magnus Hellberg on the shot by Matthew Corrente that appeared to screen him just enough for this puck to go whizzing past him. After the game, Hellberg honestly admitted that he never saw the shot. For Corrente it was his first goal of the season in twenty-nine games played.
It wouldn’t be too much longer for the crowd to get back into it. Midway through the first period the Ads tagged Charlotte for two quick goals to claim a 2-1 lead.
The Ads opening goal was scored by Mark Van Guilder for his fifth of the season. The play developed from behind the net off the stick of Taylor Beck. The pass from Beck might have been more of a hope-and-a-prayer pass as he was falling over behind the net. Regardless, it found a blue shirt in Van Guilder who powered into goal and roofed the puck top shelf from in-tight against John Muse.
Zach Budish put the finishing touches on the end of a quality shift for the Ads grind-line. The group of Liambas-Tousignant-Budish had strong shifts that tilted the ice back in the Ads favor right before Van Guilder’s goal. On this goal it was all them with a little help from Bryan Rodney. The line kept the puck in-zone, Mike Liambas whirled a backhanded pass to Rodney on the blue line, Rodney’s shot-pass reached Mathieu Tousignant, and his spinning pass fell in the patch of Budish for a tap in.
At 16:57 of the second period the Checkers were able to equalize the game at 2-2. A dancing puck got behind Joonas Jarvinen who then lost a foot race back in the d-zone. The puck would fall to the game’s opening scorer Corrente whose shot deflected off of traffic to the left wing side of Hellberg’s goal and in. It was hard to tell if Chris Terry of the Checkers deflected that shot or if it actually deflected in off of an Ads defenseman. The scorer’s went with Corrente. The scorer’s are wise.
The Checkers took the lead after a rebound, a fortuitous fanned shot, and an open net to fire on. A rebound was spilled out in front of Hellberg and Philippe Cornet’s effort on goal was fanned. Hellberg ducked one way to attempt a save on a shot that was never taken. Cornet’s follow up only needed a simple tap for the goal that put Charlotte back in front for the first time since the opening goal.
That goal also ended the night for Magnus Hellberg who gave way to Scott Darling. Hellberg stopped twenty-three of twenty-six shots but looked very twitchy tonight in net. He allowed the opening shot in tonight’s game to beat him. From there, he looked really all over the place in comparison to the confident and slow style that has worked well for Darling. Once Hellberg made it to the bench he had his head down and Joe Piskula skated over to talk with him. It’s been a rough stretch for Hellberg who lost his twelfth game of the season tonight.
The Ads did threaten big time with the extra attacker on. They held the offensive zone for nearly a minute with saves stoppages from Muse in net during the final push. Sadly, this game ends with a downer of a 3-2 defeat against a lesser opponent only one day after one of the best efforts the team produced all season.
Thoughts on tonight’s game? Major let down after yesterday’s game or just one of those wacky nights in a long season? What are your impressions of Magnus Hellberg this season? How can Hellberg regain his playing confidence that was so crucial to last season’s success? With these last two home games being very Jekyll and Hyde, what are we to expect when the team plays in Iowa on Sunday?
(Photo credit to the illusive raptor Scott Paulus)
The Admirals won 4-1 against the Grand Rapids Griffins Thursday night. An explosive second period put the Ads up and over the AHL Western Conference’s top team. Goals by Taylor Beck, Colton Sissons, Miikka Salomaki, and Kevin Henderson provided the backbone to one of the most impressive performances –start to finish- that the Ads have produced all season.
“We’ve talked a lot, since I got here last year, about are teams being very similar,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason after the game. “If we can compare ourselves to the Calder Cup champions obviously it’s a good thing. I think we play the same way.”
The first period was scoreless and saw the Griffins outshoot the Ads 12-7. Yet, I felt the majority of quality scoring chances came from the Ads. Their opening power-play chance, particularly the first line of that unit, was teeing up some great looks for shots to the net. The best chance in that exchange came with an Austin Watson shot from the slot in-tight. The chances were there. Credit simply has to be given to the Griffins who blocked shots on goal through the opening period.
In the second period things went nuclear. The Ads tallied for three goals in the opening eight-minutes of the period and, in my book, put together one of the most complete periods of the season.
Taylor Beck picked up the opening goal through a deflection. The play cycled from the point where Simon Moser passed over to the left side of defense to Joe Piskula. The rising shot to the net by Piskula deflected off of Beck – who was standing just to the side of Tom McCollum’s net. The goal for Beck is his eighth of the season.
Next came the frenzy. Adam Almquist of the Griffins was called for hooking on a strong drive to the by Mark Van Guilder. Then Ads coughed up a shorthanded breakaway only to have Miikka Salomaki get called for tripping – quite lucky to avoid a call for a shorthanded penalty shot.
The Ads responded quickly to the four-on-four challenge with a beautiful one-touch goal from Colton Sissons. Joonas Jarvinen waited patiently for a shooting or passing lane to open up from the blueline. What he found was Sissons right on the backdoor of McCollum’s glove side. Jarvinen zipped the pass along the ice. Sissons smacked it through for a four-a-side goal. That’s goal number eleven already for Sissons.
Just as time expired on the Griffins penalty against Almquist, Austin Watson was able to take the puck en route to a shorthanded breakaway of his own. Watson had from the blueline in to work with and went forehand to backhand – denied by a blocker save from McCollum.
The penalty against Salomaki ended to finally make it even strength. I don’t think the Griffins were particularly aware of that though because Salomaki went on a breakaway fresh out of the box. The pass from Henderson put him clear through by miles. He pulled Watson’s move to the opposite side, forehand-backhand, and beat McCollum’s glove for his seventh goal of the season.
“I just flicked it up as high as I could in our zone and [Miikka Salomaki] was fortunate enough to get it,” commented Kevin Henderson of his assist on Salomaki’s goal. “It wasn’t a tic-tac-toe play. I didn’t really mean to do it, but I was fortunate he was right there. The timing worked out really well.”
Just as it looked like the Griffins were playing to escape the period, having conceded three goals and burned a timeout with little impact off of it, they picked up a rocket of a goal. Cory Emmerton won an offensive zone face off for the Griffins and the puck fell back to Teemu Pulkkinen who immediately blasted it top shelf. The quick shot semed to fool Scott Darling – and I haven’t caught that side of him much since he was called up from Cincinnati.
The three goal lead for the Ads was restored quickly in the third period after Kevin Henderson scored his third goal of the season. Just 1:56 into the final period of regulation, Watson fired a shot off McCollum that dropped to Henderson who fired at it the moment it fell to him. That goal ended the night in net for McCollum who gave way to Jared Coreau. The goal for Henderson was his first scored in seven games.
The game finished with the 4-1 scoreline and chalk up another win for Scott Darling who has started in six games this month and won five of them. He has stopped ninety-seven of ninety-nine shots on goal in his last three games. His stat line in the month of December should get some recognition from the AHL… or at least it should: 5-1-0-0, 1.34 GAA, 0.957 SV%, and one shutout.
“[Darling] has skill,” smiled Evason. “He’s calm back there. He handles the puck extremely well. He has confidence. I think as important his teammates have a lot of confidence in him. Certainly, when your group can have confidence in both goaltenders, it’s obviously a very positive thing.”
Ads reload and play again tomorrow with the Charlotte Checkers. That means going from playing the best in the West to the thirteenth. If you’re feeling giddy right now it is completely normal.
Thoughts on tonight’s game? Who impressed you the most in this one? What did the Ads do right tonight that they didn’t do in Grand Rapids two weeks ago? How do you see the Ads goaltending situation right now?
The Admirals lost 2-1 in overtime against the Chicago Wolves Sunday evening. There were plenty of shots mustered up in this one, 37-25 in favor of the Wolves, but the goaltending and defenses made this a tight contest. The Wolves scored the opener from a deflection. Taylor Beck answered on the power-play. Sadly, the Wolves jumped right to it twenty-seven seconds into OT to secure a win heading into the Christmas break.
The opening period was all Wolves. Fortunately for the Admirals no damage was done in a frame where they were outshot 15-7. Minimal quality chances were created by the Ads. The best effort came in the dying seconds when Colton Sissons had a shorthanded breakaway get shutdown by Wolves netminder Matt Climie.
After controlling the first and the opening minutes of the second, Chicago finally broke the scoreless draw after a deflection by Mark Mancari. Pat Cannone started the play off by skating in from the right wing wall and into the slot. From that position his snapped a low wrist shot that connected off of Mancari to beat Magnus Hellberg.
The Ads then took to the power-play after an interference call against Cade Fairchild. Taylor Beck, off the puck, moved towards the blue line and was picked out perfectly by Bryan Rodney from all the way in the Ads defensive zone. Beck caught the pass on his backhand, circled in on the net from the right faceoff circle, and beat Climie with a low shot to the stick-side for a power-play goal. That’s Beck’s seventh goal of the season and fourth scored on the power-play.
This game remained tight through the entirety of the third period and pushed its way into overtime. Unfortunately, just twenty-seven seconds into OT, the Wolves were able to squeeze a puck past Hellberg for the win. The veteran Keith Aucoin was able to skate in from the left wing, take a check from Joonas Jarvinen, and was played in front of the net by Alexandre Bolduc for a close range shot – and the game-winning goal.
In terms of the OT defeat, this ends a decent run put together at the start of the weekend. The Wolves were probably deserving of the win tonight with the amount of shots and chances established. Magnus Hellberg, who made his first start in over a week, played well tonight – stopping thirty-five of thirty-seven shots – and really played smooth in net in the pressure packed opening first period for the Ads. Might have wanted to be greedy and take all points tonight against the Wolves. Long term outlook though, this was a strong weekend for the team and a good response after last weekend’s Grand Rapids road trip.
Thoughts on today’s game? What happened to Filip Forsberg after his fiery return to game-action? Is Taylor Beck back to the form that got him to the NHL last season? Was this a good return to the net for Magnus Hellberg in your eyes – or would you judge him on not getting the wins right now?
The Admirals picked up a 3-1 win on the road against the Rockford IceHogs Saturday night. Despite conceding the opening goal of the IceHogs, another strong performance for the second consecutive night in net by Scott Darling – along with three unanswered goals – meant the Ads were able to pick up some valuable points on the road against a division rival. The men doing the damage on goal tonight were Miikka Salomaki, Scott Ford, and Simon Moser. Again, those goals all came without reply. Tip that cap to Mr. Darling.
Rockford was able to open the scoring up after a tripping call against Mark Van Guilder. The shot from the point by Brett Skinner was blocked in front of Scott Darling by d-man Joonas Jarvinen. Before anyone could react against the downed puck off Jarvinen – Joakim Nordstrom was able to direct the puck by Darling to make it 1-0.
The second period saw its share of shots: fifteen shots for the Ads and thirteen shots for the IceHogs in the frame. Both goalies were really sharp to open of the game. IceHogs’ Kent Simpson in particular looked locked in through two-periods.
With just fifty-seconds remaining in the second period the Ads finally managed to get a pick behind Simpson to level the game at 1-1. Colton Sissons was able to fire a shot on net – to which Simpson tried pushing it into an open corner. That “open corner” was occupied by Miikka Salomaki who tagged the puck for his sixth goal of the season.
With the start of the third period the Ads immediately carried on. Scott Ford scored his second goal of the season in the opening minute of the period to give the Ads a quick 2-1 lead. There was a great screen in front of Simpson by Van Guilder and Ford was able to wire his shot through traffic to give the Ads their second goal in 1:42 of ice time.
After the Ford goal, the third period saw lots of penalties taken at inopportune times for both the Ads and IceHogs. As a results there were plenty of power-play chances that ended just about as they started, four-on-four hockey, an abbreviated power-play, and repeat.
That’s where the nail in the coffin comes in.
With just thirty-five seconds of an abbreviated power-play coming – the Ads quickly raced up ice and delivered with a goal. Austin Watson managed to power his way towards goal and set up Simon Moser for his fifth goal of the season – and first since 11/22 vs. CHI.
The game went into cruise control from there. It was yet another victorious thirty-four save performance in net for Scott Darling. It might have been a bit of a surprise to see Darling get tipped for tonight’s game over Magnus Hellberg, but I think last night’s effort for him begged for two-games out of this weekend’s three-in-three. Darling repays the team with his fifth win of the season – and continues to play great in net for the Ads.
Other notes for this game: Anthony Bitetto was absent from this game due to an illness. It isn’t clear if he will come back and play in tomorrow’s game or not. That should be made clearer closer to the pre-game skate. Also absent were Patrick Cehlin, Mike Liambas, and Joonas Rask. Cehlin hasn’t played since the start of November – and isn’t expected back anytime soon. Mike Liambas was dinged up in the rough and tumble series against Grand Rapids. The expectation is for him to also be absent for tomorrow’s game. Rask missed his first game of the season after sustaining a nasty hit from Steve Pinizzotto last night against the Rampage. No word on the longevity of his absence, but he missed his first game of the year as a result of that boarding call in last night’s home game.
That meant, for as stacked as camp looked yesterday, the team was actually just able to squeeze out a lineup tonight. Unfortunately, Scott Valentine appeared to pick up an injury to his left leg or foot in the middle of tonight’s game when crashing into the boards. He did not return and its unknown what that could mean as far as tomorrow’s game in Chicago is concerned. Perhaps chicken noodle soup is in order for Bitetto to fill in Valentine’s spot.
Thoughts on tonight’s win? How about this Darling kid? Despite injuries, does a result like this make you feel comfortable about the team’s depth? What can we expect from the Ads tomorrow against the Amtrak Rivals?
The Admirals posted a 4-0 shutout over the San Antonio Rampage Friday night. It was a 34-save shutout from Scott Darling for his second shutout and fourth win of the season. The headline into this game, Filip Forsberg, also made a massive splash in his first return to game action in over a month. Forsberg scored two power-play goals en route to a highly successful night for the Ads as a group.
“[Filip Forsberg] is such a gifted goal scorer,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “Obviously we’ve struggled a little bit to score some goals here. Certainly in our last two games. Our power-play was 0/9 in our last game. To have a goal scorer, a pure pure goal scorer, inserted into your lineup – an NHL goal scorer to boot – injects a lot of life into your group.”
Taylor Beck scored his sixth goal of the season to open this game up in the first period. Beck played off the near wall on a two-on-one opportunity with Simon Moser on the left wing and Rampage d-man John Lee between them. Beck maintained a shooting posture, stuttered a bit, and fired high glove against netminder Michael Houser for a silky smooth finish on the goal.
After a questionable hit from Mathieu Tousignant on Steve Pinizzotto, the two decided it best to have at one-another in the corner. It was somewhat more of a tussle than a fight. Some good punches thrown. Not sure if any exactly landed, but Pinizzotto skated off the victory of that exchange in my book.
San Antonio did manage to light the lamp – if only momentarily. The Rampage ransacked the net, running into Scott Darling in goal, and saw their goal –not only disallowed– but sent Eric Selleck to the box for goaltender interference.
The Ads capitalized off of the Selleck penalty with one heck of a goal by newbie Vinny Saponari. The twenty-three year old winger powered in from the left wing wall, held off a defender, and stickhandled his way toward goal and right past Houser in net.
“Great hands,” said Evason of Vinny Saponari. “He’s making plays, he’s scoring, but as importantly he’s not turning any pucks over. He’s getting pucks out on the wall. Making good decisions. Making good passes. Not only offensively but defensively to exit out of our zone. We’ve liked his entire game so far.”
Instantly off of that goal we were given an early fight of the season candidate. Scott Ford went toe-to-toe with the “goaltending interference” miscreant Selleck and the two hammered each other with some bombs. Give the win to Ford – and get ready for YouTube.
The Ads power-play, which struggled big time against Grand Rapids last weekend, was at it yet again to put an exclamation mark on the second period. This time it was Filip Forsberg who answered – marking his return to game action with a power-play goal. The Swede was stationed on the left wall primed to shoot during his shifts on the power-play. This goal was a solid wrist shot that would end Houser’s night in net and force Rob Madore into the game for the Rampage.
“It felt pretty good actually,” said Filip Forsberg on playing his first game since mid-November. “The first period was pretty tired. I was feeling like legs were pretty tired, but during the game I felt better and better. So it was a pretty good game.”
The Ads smacked in their third power-play goal of the night in the third period in similar fashion. Forsberg was laying in wait on the left wall. Austin Watson teed him up perfectly with a crafty toe-drag pass. BOOM, with a one-timer for Forsberg on a slap shot. It was 4-0 Admirals – and would stay 4-0 Admirals.
“Last time I was here we had a power-play goal and we just picked up where we ended,” said Forsberg. “First, [Salomaki] had a good feed and I put it in. Then a nice empty net pass by [Watson] – so that was pretty easy. Two pretty easy goals and nice play by the boys.”
How about a hand for Scott Darling in this game? As much as the spotlight can be shined on Forsberg, for good reason, Darling delivered yet another composed and no nonsense game in net. It seems, the more I watch Darling, his method is the “Keep It Simple, Stupid” approach. Either that or he makes plays in net just seem that calm. He doesn’t let the puck spill out very often. He’s great at stopping the run of play when it really needs to. And –when he does allow goals– he isn’t allowing bad ones. It takes a lot to fool him in net. Can’t say it enough: strength in depth. This organization has lots of big sized goalies that can play very good hockey. Darling is just becoming another example of that the more he gets the call to play.
“I have to credit the team,” said Scott Darling on his second shutout of the season. “It’s just nice. Any win is a good win. Guys blocked shots. Kept most of the shots to the outside. Didn’t really have too many scoring chances. It was a team effort.”
Thoughts on tonight’s game? What did you make of Filip Forsberg’s game tonight? What are your impressions of Scott Darling through eight starts in net? Should Darling get more games or are the Ads sharing the net well?
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