As a writer always looking for symbols during a long American Hockey League season, Saturday night’s 3-2 loss provided plenty. (Video highlights here courtesy of the Edmonton Oilers website)

The game played out much like the entire season to date for Milwaukee. The first period played out like the first third of the Admirals 2011-2012 campaign, with Milwaukee taking a 1-0 lead after a solid effort. Admirals defenseman Victor Bartley buried a power play marker at 9:56 after a perfect setup from forwards Chris Mueller and Kyle Wilson, who picked up assists.

The second period matched the middle stretch of the season for Milwaukee, with one Admirals goal countered with three unanswered by Oklahoma City. Jani Lajunen picked up his third of the season at 9:14 of the middle frame, but Barons defenseman Bryan Rodney (acquired last week via trade), Philippe Cornet and Teemu Hartikainen all countered for the hosts. In the period Oklahoma City peppered Milwaukee goaltender Atte Engren with 17 shots, which led to the three Barons tallies. Rodney’s goal was a point blast through a screen, Cornet’s a top-shelf snipe on a breakaway, while Hartikainen took advantage of a defensive zone break down by the Admirals.

If the season symbolism follows the third period, Milwaukee will miss the playoffs. The Admirals lacked desperation trying to comeback,  getting out shot 12-8, leaving the score at 3-2 in favor of the Barons. For the second straight night a team blew a 2-0 lead in the game.

Engren finished with 34 saves in an impressive effort for Milwaukee. It was a quiet night for Oklahoma City goaltender David LeNeveu, who stopped 22 of 24 shots.

Two of the Barons goals came on the power play, both after delay of game penalties for Milwaukee (including one by Engren). The Admirals took five penalties compared to Oklahoma City’s one, and four of the five Milwaukee minors were avoidable–not a good sign for a team with penalty kill that continues to struggle (Maybe Hal Gill can suit up a game or two for the Admirals).

The loss keeps Milwaukee in 10th place, holding a record of 26-22-2-1 for 55 points. Eighth place San Antonio holds a 27-22-2-1 record for 57 points with one more game played.

So Roundtable . . . Considering the effort from Engren, and a 2-0 lead, was Saturday night a missed opportunity for Milwaukee? Do you feel better about the Admirals’ future after a split at Oklahoma City, or does the second period let down tonight sour the mood? If you were coach Herbers, how do you handle the starts in goal going forward?

Something about the West Division right now…

Milwaukee moved to 9-2-0-1 this season against the West Division, after the Admirals came from behind to defeat the conference leading Oklahoma City Barons 5-3 Friday night.  (Video highlights here)

The Barons scored the first two of the game…Linus Omark was left all alone on the power play, and he took a pass from Ryan Keller and put a nice deke on Jeremy Smith before scoring.  About three minutes later, Tyler Pitnick took a feed from behind the goal-line, and his one-timer beat Smith.

The Admirals then proceeded to score the next four goals.

Joel Champagne forced a turnover behind the Baron net, and the puck bounced to Kyle Wilson in the slot.  Wilson moved the puck to his forehand and beat Yann Danis at the 17:59 mark of the first period.

Thirty seconds later, an odd goal for Ryan Thang.  Thanger tripped one of the Barons and the ref’s arm went up.  While on the delayed call, the Barons knocked the puck into their own net.  The puck kind of pinballed off a couple of skaters, and then bounced by Danis, who hadn’t vacated the net yet.  So Thang got the goal and then the gate.

In the second period, Tyler Sloan scored his first AHL goal since February 6th, 2009.  Chris Mueller fed Sloan, who was pinching down the slot, and his shot beat Danis.  (Incidentally, Kyle Wilson was Sloan’s teammate with the Hershey Bears at his last goal, and also scored in that game…another 5-3 victory).

Ben Ryan made it a 4-2 lead with his second of the year, capitalizing right above the crease, after Kevin Henderson knocked down a clearing attempt at the left circle.  It was Henderson’s first point as an Admiral.

Teemu Hartikainen made it a one-goal game putting in a rebound after a Taylor Chorney shot was saved by Smith.

After a couple of Admiral penalties in the latter half of the third period, the penalty kill came up huge, and then Jani Lajunen scored into an empty net with 9.8 left to play, for his second goal of the year.

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This one was a team effort….which is great, because Paul Fenton was in the house to see it.  Ryan Thang had a (fluke) goal and an (empty net) assist, and nine other guys had one point.   Saw guys on the scoresheet that we haven’t seen a lot lately….Ben Ryan, Jani Lajunen, Tyler Sloan….  And listening to Aaron Sims’ call of the game, it sounded like Joel Champagne had his best game of the season overall.

A strong forecheck turned into a lot of scoring chances, and their ability to capitalize on some of them reminds me of this team from early in the season.

It’s a rematch tomorrow night in OKC.  We’ll see if they go back to Smitty again, or if Atte Engren gets the start.

Previously on the Admirals Roundtable….

The Admirals rode a five game losing streak into Houston on February 5th, and skated out with a 2-1 victory.

The Admirals were riding a three game losing streak coming into tonight’s game with the Aeros, and home team was able to snap out of that skid with a 3-0 victory Tuesday night at the Bradley Center.

Jeremy Smith stopped all the shots he faced, and the metal behind him stopped a few as well.  Officially, Smith made 23 saves, netting his second shutout of the season.  After sitting out four of the last five games in favor of Atte Engren, Smith was great.

The Admirals got things started in the first with a Chris Mueller re-direct. Teemu Laakso circled the Aeros cage and sent a pass to the far-side point to Victor Bartley. He fired a wrister that got though some traffic where Chris Mueller re-directed it past a positioned Matt Hackett.

In the final seconds of the second period and with the Aeros on the power play there was a scrum in front of Jeremy Smith and the puck ended up in the back of the net. Immediatley after the light went on, Smith went berserker, imitating a kicking motion and every Admiral on the ice followed suit. The referee closest to the play quickly help up his hand and did the Jedi mind trick and all went quiet. The ref said something, and then skated over to converse with his counterparts. When he spun around from the meeting, he quickly signified the safe motion NO GOAL motion. The puck was kicked in.

In the third period, an Aero had a shot on goal that hit metal twice, and then bounced out through the five-hole.

Here’s Coach Herbers on the concept of puck-luck.

The Ads then extended their lead in the third period on a great put-away by Joel Champagne.  Laakso again got the puck to the point but this time it was Juuso Puustinen that corraled it. Juuso fired a shot from the middle of the blue line that found the pad of Hackett.  The rebound went right to Champagne, who was grinding down low, and he fired it past Hackett. The goal gave the Admirals the insurance they needed as they went on to down the Aeros.  Here’s the video of the goal, and the Coach’s thoughts on said goal.

Oh yeah, lest i forget, Jon Blum had an almost full-ice empty-net shorthanded goal to pad his stats and quell all the Blum haters. Hey look, if it gets him on track that is great news but I wouldn’t call it a breakthrough goal by any means.  But did you see him celebrate?

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I asked Coach after the game if this was as close as he’s seen to a 60 minute game in awhile, or is there more to work on.  (Yes, I know games are usually 60 minutes long….settle down Sparky…Coach knew what I meant)

– Good things happen when you put the puck on net.  The first two goals were both shots that started at the point, and with someone down low cashing in.  That’s successful Admirals hockey.  That’s what we need to see more of.

– I was hoping Ryan was going to ask everyone to exit through the gift shop at the end of the game….or drop in a Mountain Fury power play mention or SOMETHING!  You know, Ryan always likes to say that Matt Moore’s job isn’t in jeopardy….but the last two home wins for the Ads have been with Ryan filling in.  Just sayin’…

– MVG out for awhile.  Measured in weeks, not days.  Tyler Sloan is day-to-day.  Flynn may be back this weekend.  Latta is improving.

– So on to Oklahoma City this weekend.  And it gives us a chance to link to this clip.

Questions:  Best game you’ve seen in awhile?  Was Smitty more good or more lucky?  Scott Valentine returned to the lineup…did you like his game?  He needs to stay out of the penalty box.  Yay for the weddings…..I promised myself I…(sniff)…..I wouldn’t…(sniff)….cry…… Now where’s the open bar?  

The Admirals did a lot of good things on Sunday evening.  But a few poor decisions ended up leading to Peoria goals, as the Rivermen handed the Admirals their 11th straight divisional loss.  4-2 was the final.

Atte Engren made his fourth start in the last five games, and made some big saves over the course of the game.  Coach Herbers doesn’t really fault him for the three that went in.

Chris Mueller opened the scoring in the final minute of the first period on a play that 50% of the time might have been flagged as an offsides play.  Blake Geoffrion had a long pass up the left wing boards to find Taylor Beck, who was ruled on-side.  From the far corner, Beck fed Mueller, who was crashing the net, and that 14th shot of the first period finally beat Rivermen goalie Ben Bishop.

The Rivermen answered back in the opening minute of the second period, with an Adam Cracknell shot that went off the pipe and in.  A snipe, we’ll call it.  Some great passing on that play too.

Zack Stortini answered back at the 10:37 mark, but it was Brodie Dupont and Chris Mueller that did the dirty work on the play.  After a great forecheck that kept the puck in the offensive zone, Dupont found Mueller in the far circle.  Mueller was being worked over by Cheechoo, but was able to send a no-look pass to Stortini all alone in front of Bishop.

Brett Sterling tied it up a little less than three minutes later on a goal that his back-side deflected.

Sterling had a second goal while Jon Blum was serving a holding penalty.  Two Admirals were caught up ice on a short-handed chance, which led to a 4-on-2 rush the other way.   The Rivermen  are skilled enough to usually make you pay in those situations.

Stortini received five for boarding in a game misconduct on a play against Cheechoo with less than a minute remaining in the game.  I didn’t get a good look at how nasty the hit was from my vantage point….I just saw the train coming.  Tough to say if he’s likely to be unavailable Tuesday or not.  I expected to see the Rivermen send the big guns out on their power play and get some payback, but they didn’t.

But it all comes back to mistakes.  Here’s the Coach on all three Rivermen goals….although not in order….

Don’t usually hear Coach’s say that forwards were outworked by the other goaltender when battling for the puck.

And that’s how it’s kind of going for the Admirals these days.  That, and how difficult it’s been for them to score.

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I won’t bother with the lines, because they were jumbled late in the first period, after Mark Van Guilder left with an upper body injury.

Jeff Foss played again tonight in lieu of Scott Valentine.  No injury — he’s a healthy scratch.

– Jon Blum — defensively a -11 in 21 games for Milwaukee now.  No goals since his second game.  Ford is +11, Sloan is + 9, Bartley is +5, Laakso is a -6.

– Three straight games the Admirals have not scored in the third period.

– After this weekend’s action, the Admirals sit in 11th place in the conference with 51 points.  Four points behind Abbotsford and Peorio, who sit in 7th and 8th place with 55 points.

– In case you didn’t see it on twitter….Chris Cahill quit.  Don’t know the story, but it may be one of those cases where the guy was frustrated that other players were being signed to PTO’s instead of him getting called up from Cincy.  Don’t know if he has plans for Europe a la Jamie Lundmark, or if he’s leaving hockey altogether….but he’s done with this organization, apparently.

Also — responding to a comment in last game’s thread….the Ads/Preds certainly have the power to send Blum to the ECHL.  Chet Pickard is there.  Blum can go too.  Now, there’s absolutely no chance that he WILL actually get sent down, but I wanted to clarify that unless there is something exotic about his contract that most other players don’t have….he can be sent to the E.

QUESTIONS:

– Are you impressed with the play of Atte Engren of late?  Do you expect to see him again on Tuesday?  And how badly will you miss Ben Bishop when he finally gets his chance in the NHL?

– Do you think Stortini will be suspended for more than a game?

– How badly do you miss Michael Latta right about now?

– Anything else strike you  about this game?

The Admirals scoring woes continued against the first place Charlotte Checkers, but they were able to salvage a point in the standings in a 2-1 OT loss at the Bradley Center.  It’s their 10th straight loss against a division opponent.

Zac Dalpe scored the game winner, as he was all alone at the left doorstep, after a Justin Krueger shot from the point bounced off Jerome Samson.  Dalpe beat goaltender Atte Engren up high for the winner with 12.5 seconds left in the overtime period.

Here are three descriptions of the play.

Coach Herbers.

Scott Ford.

Atte Engren.

Obviously the offense couldn’t get on track, but Coach Herbers was happy with how the defense kept the Checkers in check for the most part.

The Checkers got on the board first.  A Nicolas Blanchard shot from the right point was saved by Engren, but he didn’t couldn’t find the puck.  Former Badger Sean Dolan did, as he was camped on the right doorstep, and he put it in to give the Checkers the 1-0 lead.

The Ads had a four minute power play late in the first period, but came away empty-handed.

With 1:15 left in the 2nd period, Kyle Wilson tied it up.  Joel Champagne created a turnover at center ice, and fed Ryan Thang at the blue line.  While the defensemen were focused on Thang, Kyle Wilson took a tap pass from Thang, split the D, and went in all alone on Muse.

———–

New lines:

Beck – Mueller – Van Guilder
Champagne – Wilson – Thang
Henderson – Geoffrion – Puustinen
Dupont – Lajunen – Stortini

Blum & Ford, Laakso & Bartley, Sloan & Foss

– Kevin Henderson is the new guy.  And Coach Herbers talks about what he will hopefully be bringing to the team.

– Didn’t like the Blum and Ford pairing.  It’s great that Ford is a stay-at-home guy to compliment Blum, but he shouldn’t be the guy that has to bail out Blum multiple times every game.  Blum owes both Ford and Engren some steaks.

– Interesting seeing Van Guilder on a wing.

– I liked Stortini tonight.  The fight was kind of meh, but it was good that he went right away after the Checkers goal.  Sloan’s fight?  Didn’t see what happened behind the play to spark the fight, but I was pretty surprised to see #89 drop the gloves.

– Ryan Flynn remains day to day with his injury.

– Peoria comes to town Sunday Sunday Sunday.

So Roundtable….first game back from the Texas roadtrip…. give me the name of one guy that stood out in a good way, and one guy that stood out in a bad way.

Usually when a hockey team jumps out to a 3-0 lead in the first 13:27 of the game, that bodes well.

They don’t usually give up the next six goals after that.

But that’s what the Admirals did, as the Texas Stars got some payback in the rematch Wednesday, dropping Milwaukee 6-3.

Ryan Garbutt had a hat-trick, Andrew Raycroft settled down after an unstable first period, stopping all 15 shots he faced in the 2nd and 3rd periods.

Raycroft was having some rebound issues, as the Admirals scored their first two goals on second chances.  Kyle Wilson scored first, putting back the rebound of his own shot.  And then Zack Stortini put in a rebound after Raycroft made a pad save on a shot from Jani Lajunen.

After a Tousignant slashing penalty, Raycroft was whistled a pair of his own infractions, leading to a pair of 5-on-3 power plays for the Admirals.  They scored on their first one, as Chris Mueller converted on a back door play.  Tousignant came out of the box.  And then the Ads had the distinction of being on a 5-on-3 courtesy of two penalties on the goaltender.  Not something you see every day.

And then the first period ended.  A good period for the Admirals, who were strong on the forecheck, strong going to the net, and sticking to the gameplan.

The players got away from the gameplan in the second period.  Coach Drulia said on the post-game radio interview that there were some guys who were trying to be too cute with the puck, and it was on some of those plays that the pucks ended up behind Jeremy Smith.

This has been a recurring theme in 2012.  Getting away from the gameplan, and then paying for mistakes.  I know a lot of fans have complained that the coach is the problem, but the players have to execute.  They’re professionals.  When they are calling audibles after an extraordinarily successful first period, the responsibility falls to the players for collapses like tonight.  It’s like they were already on the flight back to Milwaukee.

Colton Sceviour scored on a 3-on-2 just over six minutes into the second period.

Ryan Garbutt scored on a 2-on-1 with Jon Blum caught up ice.

Garbutt scored his second goal just 59 seconds into the third period on a shot that went just under Smith’s glove.

Matt Fraser got behind the defense and scored on an even strength breakaway for what was eventually the game winning goal.

Scott Glennie knocked a puck out of mid-air past Smith 1:34 after Fraser’s goal.  And then Garbutt got the empty netter for the hat-trick.

———

I was all ready to write about what a successful Texas road trip it was.  The Admirals did get 4 out of a possible 6 points…but after a collapse like tonight, I can’t help but curb my enthusiasm a bit.  First place Charlotte comes to town on Friday, and if it turns to improv night at the BC again, it’ll be the Checkers that’ll be ‘jumping around’ to the Badger Band.

Atte got two wins this week.  Smitty was left out to dry and gave up six goals tonight.  Who starts on Friday?

The Admirals were outshot badly.  They gave up a go-ahead goal from the red line.  They took two delay of game penalties in the third period to give the Stars a 5-on-3 advantage for over a minute.

And they still found a way to win.

In the context of how they played in January of 2012….I think we can call this win an improbable victory.  The Admirals defeated the Texas Stars 4-3 in overtime Tuesday night.

Atte Engren got his second straight start, after netting the win in Houston on Sunday, and he made 37 saves tonight.  He had about a three and a half minute span in the third period that he’d like to have back, as he let a shot from the red line skip by him into the net, and then was called for playing the puck in the restricted area.  But outside of those two plays, it’s tough to argue that Engren was not solid in net.

The Admiral offense?  Dormant early on.  They didn’t get their first shot until there was 7:53 left in the first period.  But it went in.  Mark Van Guilder intercepted a pass in the offensive zone, and then Taylor Beck put it in for his ninth of the year.  This was Van Guilder’s first point of 2012.  The Ads were being outshot 14-0 at that time.

They got their second shot 2:43 later, and found the net again.  Van Guilder had a shot from the slot that beat goaltender Tyler Beskorowany.

In the second period, the Stars were able to tie the game with a power play goal from Colton Sceviour, and a Travis Morin shot that went in off of Jon Blum’s skates (Blum’s first goal since December 17th…har har har).

After two periods, the Stars were outshooting the Admirals 27-9.

In the third period, Sceviour got his second of the game, on that shot from the red line that skipped past Engren.

Then the Engren delay of game penalty.  Then a Ryan Thang delay of game penalty to send the Ads down two men.  They were able to kill off the power plays, with Engren making some key saves.

Thang made up for his Yonking penalty by netting the game-tying goal with a snipe from the left circle that beat Beskorowany short-side over his right shoulder with 5:25 to play in the third.

The game went to overtime, and Chris Mueller was the OT hero again, putting in a rebound with a backhand shot at 3:15 mark of the extra session.

Taylor Beck had his first pro three point game.  Great to see MVG contributing offensively again.  Great to see Thang make the big play late in the third.  And great to see Engren regain his composure after the fluky goal, and give the Admirals a chance to make the comeback.

Same two teams tomorrow night, as the Ads go for THREE in a row.

Check out the recap from 100 Degree Hockey when it is posted.

Milwaukee fans, thank your lucky stars–the five game losing streak is over! Maybe all the Admirals needed was a little motivation left over from last year’s playoffs.

In the first battle of the season between the Admirals and Aeros since last year’s seven-game battle in the West Division finals, Milwaukee picked up a pair of goals in the second period on Houston’s All-Star goaltender Matt Hackett. Blake Geoffrion got on the board with the first goal in the period’s first two minutes, while Jonathon Blum added an assist (both pleasant surprises). Kyle Wilson scored the game-winner on a power play at the 7:22 mark of the middle frame.

From that point the Admirals held on for dear life allowing a lone goal in the third period by Jeff Taffe. But Milwaukee goaltender Atte Engren stopped everything else for a 24-save victory.

A couple of other bonuses from today’s game. 1) The Admirals did NOT give up a power play goal (a definite rarity). 2) Milwaukee won on the road (another rarity). 3) After the tough travel day yesterday following the loss to Peoria, the Admirals offered a great effort.

After watching the Super Bowl in the Lone Star state Milwaukee will try to extend its winning streak to TWO games Tuesday night in the first of two straight contests at Texas–another 2011 playoff foe.

The Admirals had a lead for a change….their first lead since January 24th.  But the Peoria Rivermen broke a tied score with two goals in third period, coasting to a 4-2 win over the Admirals Friday night at the Bradley Center.

Same stuff, different game.

Here’s the coach.

The Admirals started the scoring off with an odd man rush. Kyle Wilson grabed a loose puck and took off down the ice with Ryan Thang as his wingman, leaving Brennan Evans the only man on D. Wilson never needed his wingman as he fired a shot on net from the far circle that beat Rivermen goaltender Ben Bishop for the first goal of the night at 5:03.

The Rivermen answered back at 11:05 off of a play that I am not quite sure of how it got in. Jonathan Cheechoo fired a shot from the point that (and here is where it gets confusing) hit Jeremy Smith’s stick? A defenders stick? Divine intervention? Either way it fluttered up in the air and in.

The second period is under—-….GOAL!!!! Yea, it happened that fast. Just :12 into the second period Blake Geoffrion found himself in the right place at the right time to net his first on the year and give the Admirals the 2-1 lead. Geoffrion was fighting down low when a puck came sliding right through the slot. He spun around to break free of his defender and slapped the puck right past a Bishop that was caught between playing the puck and staying home. As I mentioned this was Geoffrion’s first for the Ads this season and hopefully it opens the flood gates for many, many, more.

The Rivermen answered back later in the 2nd as Adam Cracknell puts just enough on a Smith rebound to even the score. Cheechoo fired a puck from between the circles that was stopped by Smith, who couldn’t hang on.  He sent the rebound towards the far circle. Cracknell was crashing down from the slot when he swiped at the puck and caught just enough to send the fluttering puck past Smith. Not really anyone’s fault…just a great effort by Cracknell.

The Admirals had an early power play chance in the third period with some excellent scoring chances, but came up dry with the man-advantage.  Shortly after the power play ended, Cheechoo scored his second of the game, that ended up being the game winner.

As Scott Ford and Anthony Nigro were battling, the puck ended up right under the two.  Neither player was able to get to the puck as thier sticks were locked. Cheechoo came on over and just slapped at the puck sending another slow moving shot over Smiths shoulder and in. This is the first time in the night I wondered if they should try to get something back and put Atte Engren in. I thought about that for a little bit and decided “nah”.

About two minutes later, the Rivermen got another one past Smitty.  This goal however was not Smith’s, as a sloppy turnover in the defensive zone led to some nice passing, and Derek Nesbitt had a wide open net to work with.

Here’s coach on the third period.

At the end of the game, the Admirals couldn’t even control the puck long enough to get Smith to the net for the extra attacker.

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NOTES:

The Admirals probably had their most watched warm-up session of the year, but not by choice. The referee Tim Mayer blew a couple of tires on I-94 on his way to the arena.  We’ve all had days like that…so I’m not going to rip on the guy for that.

I think the turning point of the game was coming up empty on that first power play in the third period.  They had chances, thay had plays that should have been goals.

We asked Coach about the Nashville guys.

I’ll respectfully disagree about Blum.  He was terrible on the second power play, and I see way too many bad decisions.  A lot of them haven’t burned us, but it still makes you scratch your head.

Here’s a quote from Geoffrion…it’s funny because he talks about it being a young team…and he makes it sound like he’s not included in that.

Latta and Puustinen update…

You know what the Rivermen did really well on their goals?  They crashed the net and worked harder in front of the net.  Is anybody other than Stortini and maybe Brodie Dupont doing that for the Admirals?  Anybody?  Bueller?

Does Koger look really good, or just look really good in comparison to the other guys on the team out there?

We’ll end with Aaron Sims’ last tweet:  “Since Dec. 31 @mkeadmirals are 3-11-1-0. Every mistake is magnified. Time to end this garbage. Who will be the leader?”

Who will it be?