After spotting the Wolves a 2-0 lead, the Admirals battled back to send their home-opener to overtime. But Mark Mancari scored his second of the game on a two-on-one rush, giving the Wolves the 3-2 victory Saturday night in Milwaukee.

Coach Evason says that despite the loss, the team can still take some positives out of this game.

Mancari opened the scoring 6:38 into the game, with a laser slapshot from the far dot that beat Hellberg. Corey Locke was being tied up in the corner, but was able to feed a wide-open Mancari, while defenseman Bryan Rodney was without a stick.

Tyler Shattock made it a 2-0 lead, finishing off a 2-on-2 rush with Sebastian Wannstrom. Wannstrom led the rush along the right wing, and Simon Moser got caught in no-man’s land, leaving Shattock wide open for the chance. Moser didn’t play the shot or the pass, and didn’t tie up his man.

After getting stopped earlier in the game on breakaway chance, Mathieu Tousignant scored a shorty for the Admirals after a soft pass by goaltender Jake Allen and a lack of awareness by Taylor Chorney. Tousignant swooped in to receive that soft pass at the near faceoff dot, and after cruising to the crease, he delayed, and lifted a forehand shot top shelf.

Moser atoned by scoring his first North American goal — a power play tip-in of a Miikka Salomaki pass. Moser drove to the net, and was in perfect position for the re-direction, but Salomaki deserves a ton of credit too for the strong play on the rush.

On the game winning goal in overtime, Rodney was able to keep the puck in at the offensive blue line, but turned it over right away to Locke, who started the 2-on-1 rush the other way. Bitetto slid to try and block the pass, but the pass was able to get through to a wide open Mancari, who went up high on Hellberg.

Coach Evason gives credit where credit is due regarding that game winner.

NOTES:

The lines started…

Valentine – Van Guilder – Budish
Moser – Sissons – Beck
Salomaki – Watson – Shalla
Liambas – Tousignant – Rask

They didn’t last very long, as after Shalla’s first shift, he was excused for the rest of the game. The coaches forgot to include him on their lineup card, and the Wolves called them out on it. No penalty was assessed for the illegal player, but that ended his night.

Coach says….well….the only thing that he can say in this situation.

Up until his goal, I was ready to pan Moser’s game tonight. This was the first time I had seen him play, and he looked…average at best. He took a stupid slashing penalty as the Wolves were breaking out of their defensive zone. He missed his assignment on the 2nd goal against. He did make some things happen in a positive way in the third period, in addition to his goal. So I can see why everyone was so excited about him. He just needs to play that way the whole game, and avoid those lazy stick infractions.

Tousignant can stay. He had a breakaway chance, and then scored that shorthanded goal, and was very effective all game.  He talks us through his shot selection process.

The Ads killed off all six Chicago power plays, and one could argue they had more chances on those six than the Wolves did.  Coach Evason gives high marks for the PP and the PK.

Jake Allen played very well. I don’t want that to get lost in the shuffle. There were a few saves he made that really should have been goals. And there were some times when the Admirals just made one pass too many. Although, the Wolves hit metal (at least) four times tonight. So it could have been a VERY different game had one or two of those gone in.

Nevertheless, the Admirals begin the season with points in their first four games — six of a possible eight points.

Jarvinen, Henderson, and Cehlin all missed the game due to injuries.  Coach says Jarvinen is “a ways away”, but the other two are shorter term injuries.

So Roundtable…. Thoughts on the home opener? Did you like the Seven Nation Army intro-to-the-intro? Early impressions of new guys like Tousignant, Sissons, Salomaki, and Moser? Did you like the way they battled back after trailing 2-0? How about Liambas and Bitetto’s fights?  How much did you miss seeing John Anderson on the bench over the last few years?

The Admirals won 3-2 over the Grand Rapids Griffins Friday night. The Ads spoiled the Griffins home opener where they raised their 2012-13 Calder Cup Championship banner in front of a sold out crowd.

“It was a real good hockey game with a real exciting atmosphere,” said assistant coach Stan Drulia after the game on Sports Radio 1250 WSSP. “Our guys stayed focused. We got scored on early on a bad bounce, but I really liked our defense, our commitment, our hustle. We skated with a really fast hockey team.”

Anthony Bitetto picked up his first professional multi-goal performance by scoring two power-play goals for the Ads tonight. Colton Sissons continued his strong start to the season by adding his second goal of the season. To boot, Ads goalie Marek Mazanec earned his first win of the season in his first start.

The Griffins didn’t allow the lengthy pre-game festivities to slow them down as they lit the lamp eighty seconds into the contest. The goal was scored off of a deflection by Gustav Nyquist for his third goal of the season.

For you fighting enthusiasts, great news! The Ads finally had their first fighting major of the season. Shortly after the opening goal for the Griffins, Mike Liambas squared up with former Admiral Triston Grant. Bad news for fighting enthusiasts: it was a quickie that ended in a take-down by Grant.

Anthony Bitetto managed to tie things up by scoring the Ads first power-play goal of the season. It was Bitetto’s second AHL goal and, more importantly, snapped an 0-9 PP skid by the Admirals to start the season.

The Griffins would respond with a PP goal of their own moments after a Liambas interference call. Ads d-man Scott Valentine lost the puck leading to the go-ahead goal from Griffins captain Jeff Hoggan.

The second period was a scrap fest amongst the two teams until 17:58 left in the period. Colton Sissons popped in his second goal of the season. Sissons was picked out by Joe Piskula to level the game at 2-2.

Immediately following the equalizing goal, Joonas Rask fought his way to open ice only to by dragged down Griffins defenseman Ryan Sproul. Rask nearly scored off a second effort chance as he went down. No penalty shot was given on the play, but Sproul received a minor for holding.

What do the Ads do on that PP goal? Score. Who else? Bitetto. It’s his first career multi-goal performance as a pro. The late second period surge by the Ads featured two goals a mere 49 seconds apart.

The Griffins pushed the Ads hard in the third period. So much so Mark Van Guilder even took a roughing penalty. The Griffins had a late PP chance with eleven seconds remaining in the game and their net empty. On the last shot of the game Griffins forward Cory Emmerton rang a shot hard off the post to end the game.

The story of the game for me was Ads goalie Marek Mazanec. For his first outing as an Admiral he played very strong. His best moments in net seemed to come late in the third period when the Ads were holding on for the final horn. The first goal might have been a shock to the system. It was a late deflection that gave AHL scorers a fit over who even scored it. Yet, he proved to be dominant past that goal. He put up 24 saves en route to his first win in his first start.

Also worth mentioning: Ads defenseman Bryan Rodney assisted on all three goals scored tonight. That includes a primary assist on Ads opening PP goal from Bitetto.

Three games in. The Ads are 2-0-1-0 and have taken five out of a possible six points on the road to kick off the season. That is absolutely fantastic to see the team so strong on the road to start the year. I believe you’ll all join me in saying, “I can’t wait to see these guys on home ice!”

What are your first impressions of the team so far? Any players exceeding expectations to start the year? Sissons has certainly blown me away to start the year.

The Admirals won their first game of the season 2-1 in a shootout on the road against Abbotsford Saturday night. Magnus Hellberg came up big in this one with 26 saves and stopping all four shootout attempts he faced. Ads youngster Colton Sissons managed to score his first professional goal in front of his friends and family in British Columbia, as well.

“We really did a lot of good things,” said assistant coach Stan Drulia after the game on Sports Radio 1250 WSSP. “It was good to see the guys continue to battle. We gave up that power-play goal early in the third and we didn’t sit back. We kept on pressing and playing the game we’re supposed to play.”

The opening period ended scoreless, but the Ads missed out on a solid chance to open the scoring early. At the 10:51 marker, Mike Liambas was taken down and on the backside of the play the Heat double up on minor penalties with a roughing call. The Ads had a full two-minutes of 5-on-3 power-play to work with. Not only didn’t they cash in. They didn’t even register a shot on goal. Chalk up another gritty performance to the Heat’s penalty kill.

Shots were much more frequent in the second period. The Ads mustered up a 15-8 shots advantage in the period. Yet, the deadlock remained and both goalies stood up well to the increased pressure poured in on net.

With an interference call being carried over to the start of the third period, the Heat broke the deadlock seconds into frame through Roman Horak. It took the Heat forty-one seconds into the period to cash in on the man-advantage. They managed to clean up off the face off and establish the Ads defensive zone fast. Horak, the Heat’s fourth best scorer last season, picked up his first goal of the season.

The Ads would equalize off of Colton Sissons first professional goal. The native of British Columbia, playing in front of family and friends in Abbotsford this weekend, deflected a shot on net by Taylor Beck that finally beat Heat goalie Reto Berra. Sissons recorded his first career point in the season opener last night with an assist. Tonight? It’s the goal that the family and friends were able to cheer.

Like the night before, this game was tightly contested and pushed its way into overtime. Unlike last night, there wasn’t solid chance to end it in overtime. The game was decided on a shootout with the Ads netting taking the win courtesy of Taylor Beck (glove side wrister), Patrick Cehlin (stick side slap shot), and Magnus Hellberg (who denied all four shootout attempts he faced).

The Ads take a hard earned three points in Abbotsford to start the season. Next up? A meeting on the road this coming Friday with last year’s Calder Cup champions the Grand Rapids Griffins. That will conclude the opening three game road stint to the season with the home opener against the Chicago Wolves taking place Saturday.

So Roundtable….Are you going to not dread shootouts anymore if Magnus keeps this up?  Including the pre-season game, he’s now 14/14 in shootout chances.  Sissons — so far so good, eh?  Are you concerned at all about the 0-8 start on the power play?

The Admirals lost the season opener in overtime 3-2 on the road against the Abbotsford Heat Friday night. Penalties were the big story of the contest. The two combined for thirteen penalties. The game-winner for the Heat just so happened to come come off of one of those penalties in OT by forward Corban Knight to put a damper on the Ads first game of the season.

“I felt we got ourselves into trouble in the second period,” said assistant coach Stan Drulia after the game on Sports Radio 1250 WSSP. “We tried to make too many plays through the middle of the ice. We know [the Abbotsford Heat] like to carve things up. [The Heat] do a real good job in the neutral zone. We got too cute in some of those areas and they were able to generate some opportunities due to that.”

The first period of the season went scoreless but saw the Ads fail to convert on three power-play chances. Slashing. Boarding. Hooking. None produced a goal and the Heat penalty kill improved to a 10-13 kill rate to that point.

The best chances of the opening frame went the way of the Heat. After serving his boarding penalty, the puck found Mark Cundari breaking from the box and his spinning back hand pass was nearly cashed in on the rush to the net. Moments later the Heat nearly capitalized on a mishap behind the net by Magnus Hellberg. Fortunately Hellberg bailed himself out on the play by making a big save and relieving the temporary pressure in his net.

Milwaukee’s breakthrough came shorthanded in the second period. The Ads went on their second penalty-kill of the night after Miikka Salomaki was called for boarding. A solid puck pursuit by Austin Watson set up Patrick Cehlin who netted the opening goal. It was Cehlin’s first career shorty.

[Cehlin] always gives you a great effort,” said Drulia. “If we’re going to have success this year we’re going to need [Cehlin] to provide a lot of offense for us.”

With 4.6 left in the second period the Heat managed to equalize through Turner Elson’s first professional goal. A frenzy in the Heat’s offensive zone lead to a missed poke check by Hellberg that resulted in the equalizer for Elson.

Penalty killing was a major factor in this game. The Admirals managed to endure a lengthy 5-on-3 kill midway through the third period, but the impact of that opportunity charged the Heat’s attack. While they couldn’t solve the Ads penalty kill, the Heat took the lead through a Ben Hanowski goal with just over seven minutes left in the game. Persistence paid off.

However, Taylor Beck wouldn’t allow that Heat advantage stand for long. Beck was Johnny on the spot after work from Anthony Bitetto and Colton Sissons put him open for his first goal of the season. Fun Fact: the assist for Sissons goes down as his first professional point.

The game would go to OT and, as was the story of the game, another penalty put the Ads shorthanded. This time the Heat were able to cash in on the man-advantage after centerman Knight lifted a shot over a sliding Joe Piskula and past Hellberg to win it for the Heat.

First outing of the season was a tight one against a scrappy team. Unfortunately some rust may have shown through at points of this game leading to an OT loss. Still, the Ads pick up a tough earned point on their 2013-14 season opener. The rematch between these two takes place in no less than 24 hours later in the same barn.

With Magnus Hellberg and Marek Mazanec playing great hockey, the Admirals were nursing a 1-0 lead late in third period.  But the Iowa Wild finished strong, scoring the equalizer with 4:14 left in regulation, and a power play winner in overtime to give the home(ish) team the 2-1 victory on Friday afternoon in beautiful Moline, Illinois.

Scott Ford scored the lone Admiral goal just 1:45 into the game, after a nice pass from Miikka Salomaki.

Salomaki also played into the last goal in the game as well, for he was the one sitting in the penalty box for a boarding penalty, to give the Wild the 4-on-3 chance.

For the game winning goal, the Wild went ‘around the key’, with point-man Jon Blum passing to Zack Phillips at the left circle for a one-timer that beat Mazanec.

Hellberg saved all nine shots he faced in the first half of the game.  Mazanec was sharp as well, despite allowing the two goals.

FORWARD LINES:

Henderson-Sissons-Beck
Salomaki-Watson-Cehlin
Shalla-Van Guilder-Rask
Liambas-Tousignant-Budish

Simon Moser did not make the trip.

Pessimists will say they are concerned about offense, with the Admirals just scoring two goals in three pre-season games.  Optimists will point to the sample size and the fact that it’s just pre-season.  Optimists will also point out the Admirals goalies gave up just five goals in three season games (plus one empty netter).  Early reviews on Mazanec have been positive.  And Hellberg seems to be picking up right where he left off.

Let’s also hope that Fordo didn’t use up all of his goals for this season in the pre-season…

So Roundtable…how will you be passing the time until OUR opening night next Friday?  Watching the NHL Center Ice preview?  Camping out at Major Goolsby’s to get a good spot for the viewing party on Friday?  Figuring out how much it would cost to get to Abbotsford for a quick weekend getaway? (Guy Lafleur will be making a special appearance on opening night over there)  Counting lucky stars that Krys Kolanos isn’t with the Heat anymore?  

Chicago goaltender Jake Allen turned aside all 27 shots he faced, and a short-handed Corey Locke goal was the only offense the Wolves needed, en route to a 3-0 victory over the Admirals Saturday night in pre-season action.

Magnus Hellberg played the first 30:38, before yielding to Scott Darling.  Hellberg was responsible for Locke’s goal at 1:30 of the second period, while the Wolves were killing off a Dmitrij Jaskin boarding penalty.  Sprung on a breakaway, the former AHL MVP beat Hellberg glove-side.

Darling gave up just one goal as well, a late score from Sergey Andronov on a rebound at 14:16 in the third period.  Kyle Davies added the empty netter with 1:08 left in the game.

Hellberg stopped 10 of 11, while Darling stopped 18 of 19, and both teams were 0-2 on the power play.

The Admirals will be playing a THIRD pre-season game this Friday the 4th against the Iowa Wild.  Both the Admirals and Wild are idle during the opening weekend of the AHL season, so that’ll give them the chance to hit someone in a different colored jersey while they wait for their trip to Abbotsford.  That game will be in Moline, Illinois at 2:30pm on Friday.

So Roundtable…anyone make the trip to beautiful Hoffman Estates, Illinois?  Any observations about the game that you’d like to share?

The Milwaukee Admirals bested the Rockford IceHogs 2-1 after a ten round shootout at the MSOE Kern Center Friday night. The lone goal of the entire shootout came from Mathieu Tousignant to give the Ads a victory to start the 2013-14 campaign. The regulation goal for the Ads was scored shorthanded late in the second period from Charles Roussel. Ex-Admiral Brad Winchester managed the lone IceHogs goal of the night in the third period.

The opening period of the Ads season started fast and furious. Both sides managed to produce chances in open ice within the opening three minutes of the game. Mark Van Guilder nearly took the opening face off scramble clean to goal, and shortly after that chance Joshua Shalla powered a wrist shot from the left face off dot wide of IceHogs goalie Antti Raanta. The IceHogs Alex Broadhurst then managed a mini-breakaway only to be denied by the glove of second-year Admiral netminder Magnus Hellberg.

“One of the areas we talked about was coming together as a team,” said Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “We were really happy with the way we stuck together and played together.”

The Ads managed to outshoot the IceHogs 10-4 in the first period much in part to three power-play opportunities. The cycle of passing by the Ads did manage to see quality shot chances for Joonas Rask and Miikka Salomaki. The only thing lacking was a quality finish to the Ads man-advantage.

The IceHogs held the majority of possession and chances in a very gritty second frame. Yet, the breakthrough would come with less than a minute remaining for the Ads while shorthanded. The IceHogs lost the draw in the Ads zone to start the face off and nearly gave the puck to Van Guilder for a breakaway. The goal would come in the slot from Roussel who blasted a shot through Raanta to give the Ads a 1-0 lead.

With their power-play carrying over into the third, the IceHogs managed to net an equalizer through former Admirals forward Brad Winchester. The IceHogs were held in check during a brief 5 on 3 power-play, but capitalized off of the proceeding man advantage by working wide and finding Winchester creeping inbetween the face off circles.

Regulation wasn’t enough for this physical contest. OT was a blur, and the two teams netminders locked horns in the shootout. Through nine full rounds of the shootout both goalies were a perfect 9-9 in shootout saves.

The crowd finally erupted after Ads center Tousignant slid his shootout attempt beneath the pad of Raanta and to the back of the net. Hellberg capped off a perfect 10-10 in shootout saves by denying Adam Clendening and capping off a stellar pre-season game.

The start of the evening was Ads netminder Hellberg who saved 33-34 shots and all ten in the shootout en route to the win. Considering how well his rookie season went, this could be a sign of maturity and solid development on his part.

“Everything was new to me last year,” said Hellberg. “New impressions, new style of hockey. I think that this year I feel more prepared. It feels good to be back.”

The Ads will officially open up the season on the road with a Friday/Saturday doubleheader against the Abbotsford Heat, Oct. 11^th and 12^th. The team will then take to Grand Rapids the following Friday ahead of the home opener at the BMO Harris Bradley Center Oct. 19^th against the Chicago Wolves.

“We’re going to keep pushing our group,” commented Evason. “They’ve already set the standard as far as their work ethic and they way that they have competed. I think the effort that you saw tonight is going to be a consistent thing for us.”

The Admirals had their backs against the wall in Texas. Facing a 2-0 deficit after two periods in Game Four of the Western Conference Quarterfinals, Milwaukee needed to dig deep to keep its season alive.

While the Ads mustered a quick goal and outshot the Stars 18-8 in the final 20 minutes, they would come up just short, closing out what was a truly exciting late-season run.

The Ads did a lot of good things Friday night, winning more faceoffs than Texas and firing 35 shots on net to Texas’ 26. Unfortunately, the Stars held the only advantage that really mattered as the final horn sounded.

Milwaukee started the game with a surprising twist in the lineup. The starting five featured Chris Mueller centering Joonas Rask and captain Mike Moore at the wings. As speculated, Scott Valentine played again at wing, where he had been a decent sparkplug for the offense.

Before the game, Kevin Henderson’s comments built some excitement. He made it known that he would be the most physical player on the ice and backed it up with a solid performance.

Just 1:40 into the third period, Henderson got Milwaukee on the board and cut into the Stars’ lead. He entered the Texas zone and dropped a pass off for Taylor Beck at the right circle. Christopher Nilstorp stopped Beck’s wrister with his left pad, but the rebound came to Henderson who buried it. (Enjoy the slow-mo call courtesy of TexasStarsHockey.com)

It was the first time Milwaukee had scored in Cedar Park since October 24th, but it would be the Admirals’ last goal of the season.

Just minutes later, a Henderson pass could’ve set up a huge breakaway for Beck, but it sailed just wide for an icing call. That about sums up how things went for the Ads’ offense the rest of the way.

With around seven minutes to play, Magnus Hellberg robbed Kevin Connauton on a three-on-one rush using all of his 6-foot-5 frame to stretch left while going right and make an incredible left toe save. He finished the night with 24 saves, allowing just seven goals in the series’ four games.

The Ads continued to ratchet up the intensity late in the period, but couldn’t get another puck past Nilstorp, despite a holding call on Scott Glennie that gave Milwaukee a power play.

Hellberg left for the bench with 1:20 left in the game, but the Ads couldn’t get a decent chance on net as the final seconds ticked away.

Matt Fraser opened the scoring for the Stars at 10:16 of the first period, after a pass from Colton Sceviour in the corner inexplicably snuck through the sticks of Victor Bartley and Moore and hit Fraser in the slot. His low shot beat Hellberg glove side.

Texas added a goal early in the second period that ended up being the game-winner. For the second game in a row it was Alex Chiasson who ultimately decided things, as he redirected a Connauton shot in the slot past Hellberg at 1:29.

Before the game, Mattias Ekholm humorously stated that the “two Swedish guys in net” had been the reason goals were so scarce during the series. With just 12 total goals scored between both sides, it was the lowest-scoring playoff series in Admirals history.

Nilstorp and Hellberg were the last guys off the ice after hugging and talking for a while in recognition of what was a magnificent series by both goalies.

In his postgame interview, assistant coach Stan Drulia offered some closure for Ads fans.

“It’s not too hard to go out like this,” Druila said. “They gave it everything they had. They came together and had a tremendous run. It all came down to the men we had in the locker room. We had a really good group of people.”

Questions:

This is the last game recap post we’ll have this season, so I toss it up to you. Share your thoughts on the game and the series overall. Were you ultimately pleased with the Ads’ performance? Are you still impressed with the run they put forth to get to this point?

The Admirals got some familiar faces back Wednesday night, but it wasn’t enough to win Game Three and break the 1-1 deadlock in the Western Conference Quarterfinals.

Along with the returns of Daniel Bang and Kevin Henderson, the Ads lineup card also featured Chris Mueller, Taylor Beck and Victor Bartley. However, in an entertaining contest, Texas scored twice in the final thirteen minutes to make Friday’s Game Four a must-win for Milwaukee.

The Stars’ Alex Chiasson, who rejoined Texas along with Reilly Smith for Game Three, ended up with the game-winner at 7:42. After making contact with Mueller on what could’ve been a crosschecking call, Chiasson was fed by Justin Dowling in the slot and redirected the pass past Magnus Hellberg.

It was the first road goal the Admirals had surrendered in 205 minutes and 33 seconds, and it didn’t get any better for Milwaukee from that point.

Kevin Henderson ran into Kevin Connauton behind the Texas net, drawing a roughing call that gave Texas a power play at 13:33.

Connauton would give Texas a late two-goal cushion just 24 seconds later, firing a slapper from near the blue line that zipped through traffic and over Hellberg’s glove.

That was more than the Stars would need to seal the win, as the Ads couldn’t sneak one past Christopher Nilstorp. Hellberg hit the bench with two minutes left, but it was for naught.

The game was very tightly played up to Texas’ first goal, as the Ads and Stars battled back and forth for two periods.

Milwaukee got off to a shaky start as it was outshot 5-1 in the first eight minutes and 15-6 total for the first period. The Ads bounced back to win the shots battle 7-4 in the second period, and finished the game with 21 total shots.

Texas fired the puck long on Hellberg all night, forcing him to play it and setting up a lot of offensive zone faceoffs. Though they didn’t win a majority of these faceoffs, this strategy kept the Ads at their own end for good chunks of the game.

Despite the loss, Helberg had another solid showing stopping 29 of 31 Texas shots and adding to his total of 93 saves on 98 shots for the series. Nilstorp has been just as good, allowing just three goals in his three games started.

After the game, assistant coach Stan Drulia said the team will need to find “a way to get more pucks to the net in Friday’s game.”

“We just didn’t get into it in the third period,” Drulia said. “We have to shake this one off and be ready to go Friday. We’ll also need to make sure we’re getting out of our end cleanly at key moments. In the end we try not to rush to judgments, so we’ll look at the video and see what adjustments we need to make.”

Milwaukee must now win on back-to-back nights in Cedar Park to advance to the Western Conference semifinals.

Questions:

How do you think the presence of Mueller, Beck and Bartley affected the team tonight, if at all? Mueller led the team with four shots, and Bartley was a close second with three. Zach Budish and Patrick Cehlin were the only other guys with more than one shot.

If you were at Goolsby’s (or if not), what adjustments do you see the Ads making in Game Four? Valentine back at wing possibly?

Magnus Hellberg stopped all 23 shots he faced, while goals by Austin Watson and Captain Mike Moore gave the Admirals all they needed to knot up the Western Conference Quarterfinals at 1-1.

Texas ended up outshooting Milwaukee 23-20, but the Ads were able to squeeze one past the Stars midway through the second period and finish with a remarkable empty-netter.

While the first period ended scoreless, the Ads had a strong start controlling most of the action. They got their first power play chance just 20 seconds in after a Kevin Connauton hooking call, and used it to build early momentum.

Mattias Ekholm had two pretty good chances on the PP, but the Stars eventually killed it off. Nevertheless, Milwaukee finished the period up 12-2 in shots.

The Ads got another early power play chance 37 seconds into the second period, but again failed to put one past Christopher Nilstorp.

After a brief rumble along the boards, Brad Winchester was down on the ice for a few moments and had to be helped up and off by trainer Doug Agnew and Patrick Cehlin. He went to the locker room and did not return. No news on his status.

After a couple of nice saves by Hellberg on long blasts from Francis Wathier and Joe Morrow, Watson got Milwaukee on the board.

Mike Liambas fired a nice shot from the left circle that popped off Nilstorp right to Watson. Watty was able to chip it past the Stars goalie who was late adjusting the rebound.

Watson said after the intial shot it was a matter of beating the goalie to the puck.

The Ads went on the PK right after taking the lead, but a shorthanded rush by Cehlin drew a tripping call on Mike Hedden that evened things out.

Holding the 1-0 lead for the final 20 minutes would be no easy task for the Ads, as they were dealt a blow in the first four minutes.

Liambas was called for charging after a big hit along the boards, and he then dropped the gloves with Luke Gazdic. After Gazdic dropped Liambas to the ice with a vicious hook to the head, Liambas looked a little dazed getting up. He also would not return after being helped off the ice.

The results of the fiasco were offsetting five-minute fighting calls, a ten-minute misconduct call and two-minute instigating call on Gazdic along with the initial charging call on Liambas. In short, after two minutes of four-on-four, the Ads faced a three-minute Stars power play.

The defense came up huge and Hellberg made some nice stops, as the Ads killed off what could’ve been a big turning point for the Stars.

Coach Dean Evason was pleased with his team’s performance on the extended PK and overall on defense.

With the Ads keeping the good chances away from their net, Nilstorp hit the bench with 1:30 to go.

Moore erased any doubt with a goal from the top of the left circle…of his own zone. His laser beam from the opposite end hit the back of the empty net to seal the deal.

Notes:

When asked about which Nashville guys he expects to rejoin the Ads Wednesday, Evason promptly replied, “All of them.”

Evason also gave his expectations of the team’s trip to Texas, complimenting their ability to never get “too high” or “too low” after a game.

As mentioned, we don’t know the statuses of Liambas and Winchester and will keep you posted.

Milwaukee is 42-73 historically on the road in the playoffs and 9-13 in road Game Threes.

Questions:

Did tonight change anybody’s opinions on the overall series outlook? Do you think the Ads can pull off two of three on the road?

While it would be foolish to not want guys like Chris Mueller back in the lineup, are you at all concerned it may mess with the Admirals’ chemistry at this point?