Milwaukee’s first three wins this season against Chicago are quickly becoming a distant memory.
Instead Saturday night represented the Admirals their third straight loss to Wolves, this time falling 4-2 to Chicago at Allstate Arena.
Other than the location the game played out in much the same fashion as Milwaukee’s previous two losses to the Wolves.
In the first period the Wolves built up a 3-1 lead, chasing Admirals starting goaltender Atte Engren. Joel Champaign scored Milwaukee’s only goal of the period.
Early in the third period Taylor Beck got the Admirals back within two goals, but Wolves goaltender Matt Climie shut the door from that point forward.
Other than a 23-shot second period, the game featured few highlights for Milwaukee. Three of the Admirals top players, Chris Mueller, Gabriel Bourque and Ryan Ellis all finished as -2s. And Chicago scored a pair of power play goals against a Milwaukee penalty kill that continues to struggle.
The only other moment of significance in the game for Milwaukee came from former Admiral Darren Hayder, who with his first period assist, reached 700 career points in the AHL. Haydar is just the 22nd player ever to do so.
So Roundtable . . . Another tough pill to swallow for Milwaukee against Chicago. What can the Admirals do differently against the Wolves? Was tonight just an example of poor Milwaukee goaltending? Or is Chicago starting to click under new head coach Craig MacTavish? Any love for Haydar’s remarkable accomplishment?
It wasn’t the prettiest of games, but a happy ending is a happy ending.
Trailing at the start of the 3rd period, the Admirals battled back to send the game to overtime and a shootout, ultimately prevailing 4-3 over the Grand Rapids Griffins.
The Admirals are still having a tough time getting off to a good start after week-long layoffs. Here’s Coach Herbers.
The Griffins scored first, with Gustav Nyquist finishing a give-and-go play Tomas Tatar in front of the right post. Ryan Ellis was the lone defender back, and got stuck in the middle, and as soon he inched towards Tatar, the pass went back to Nyquist for the easy goal.
Brendan Smith scored a little less than two minutes later. After J. Smith made a save, B Smith picked up the puck by the right post, skated behind the net, and beat J. Smith to the left post for the wrap-around goal.
At 15:12, Scott Valentine and Mitch Callahan squared off for a fight. The stare-down lasted longer than the fight itself, but Valentine was hands down the winner, and the hope was that it would light a fuse under the Admirals. More from the Coach…
About a minute later, Ryan Thang got one back for the Ads. After Gabriel Bourque stole the puck in the offensive zone (and after kind of getting away with a hook), the play went back to Tyler Sloan at the near point. His shot was saved, and while lots of sticks were whacking at the puck in front of the crease, the puck bounced out to Thang higher in the slot. Thanger had space to shoot and put the Admirals on the board.
Once again, we had a wild third period.
Scott Valentine scored his first pro goal on a fantastic individual effort that’ll be on video montages in the near future. He essentially stole the puck from teammate Taylor Beck at the Admirals blue line, skated up the ice, went around Griffin D-man Brian Lashoff after he couldn’t knock the puck away. And then as Lashoff was taking Valentine down, he put a shot on net that beat Joey MacDonald.
Coach Herbers says it was a good thing that he scored on that play…
To help celebrate, Teemu Laakso took a high-sticking penalty 31 seconds later. And Tomas Tatar finished a give-and-go play of his own on the power play, backhanding a shot over Smitty by the far post.
To help redeem himself, Laakso scored a goal of his own 1:08 later. Michael Latta won the faceoff, and Juuso Puustinen sent the puck back to the near point. Bodies were falling in front of MacDonald, and Laakso’s shot had eyes to get into the back of the net.
To help celebrate, Laakso took another penalty with 3:11 left in the game, but the Ads were able to kill it off, and the game went to overtime.
The Ads were awarded a power play after a questionable holding call against Landon Ferraro…it wasn’t much of a hold. It was an attempted hold for sure. But he didn’t get much of the Admiral skater.
The ensuing power play lacked any kind of urgency. And they ended the night 0-3 with the man-advantage.
So we went to the shootout. Louis-Marc Aubry scored on the Griffins first try, but Smitty stopped the rest. Michael Latta scored in the 3rd round, and Chris Mueller went high to beat MacDonald in the 5th round. Brendan Smith’s try in the bottom of the fifth hit iron.
Coach Herbers talks about the shootout lineup strategy.
– I’d say the Ads looked like they hadn’t played a game since last Saturday. Passes were not crisp or accurate, assignments seemed to be missed, and early in the game, the Griffins were taking advantage of it. But good teams find ways to win on nights when they aren’t playing their best hockey.
– How about Scott Valentine’s night? Almost a Gordie. Were those fisticuffs just what the doctor ordered at the right time?
– When the score was 2-1, we figured MacDonald was going to be the number one star of the game. Looking back, we should have made the iron the #1 star of the game….bailed both goaltenders out a bit. Smitty more so than MacDonald….
– Not one of Ellis’ best games. Bartley wasn’t as good as he usually is. Fordo’s fight left plenty to be desired. Laakso had more 3rd period penalty trouble. I thought Sloan had a pretty good game overall.
– Bourque had one of his more physical games of the season. Probably got away with a few infractions. I was waiting for him to get called for another snow-job penalty in the 2nd period…
– Pesky Ads go to Rosemont tomorrow to face the Wolves, and then back here to play the first of 12 against Rockford.
Thoughts on the game, Roundtable? Is this the first win of the season that they didn’t really deserve to win? How would you cure the long layoff blues?
And finally, here’s a shot for Valentine to frame, courtesy of Scott Paulus.
Gabriel Bourque scored the game winner with 4:21 left in the 3rd period to break the tie, and the Admirals swept the home and home series with Peoria, winning tonight 3-2.
Atte Engren rebounded from his poor outing in Charlotte and was sharp in net for the Ads tonight. His save of the game came in the last minute, stopping Admiral nemesis Brett Sterling with a right pad save after a Scott Valentine turnover.
Mark Van Guilder opened the scoring for the Admirals 9:28 into the game, being in the right place at the right time. The right place was by the left goal post. The right time was when the puck arrived there after a shot from Teemu Laakso went off of Joel Champagne in the slot, and went right to MVG.
The details of the second period are inconsquential. But it was the second straight game with a wild third period.
1:39 into the period, Mark Cundari had a big hit on Taylor Beck. Michael Latta took exception, and the two dropped the gloves. Cundari got five for the fight and two for interference, and Latta got five for the fight and a game misconduct. Here’s the rule mentioned in the box score. (46.12)
A player who engages in fisticuffs and whose elbow pad(s) are removed other than through the actions of his opponent in the altercation or through the actions of the Linesman, shall be assessed a game misconduct penalty.
So that ended Latta’s night.
A little over six minute later, Bourque was called for Yonking, and the Rivermen were able to tie the game. After Laakso fanned on a clearing attempt, the puck came to Jonathan Cheechoo at the bottom of the near circle, and he beat Engren to tie it up.
Bourque began to atone for the Yonking penalty by drawing a roughing penalty on Tyler Shattock at 13:39. The Admirals regained the lead with a Zack Stortini goal on that power play. He was the big man cleaning up in front of the crease after a Laakso shot from the point was saved by Jake Allen
That goal was the first of three to come in a span of 49 seconds.
Shortly after the goal, Laakso went to the box for interference, and it took the Rivermen just seven seconds of that power play to re-tie the game. TJ Hensick had a shot went over Engren’s shoulder — A shot he probably never saw due to a great screen from Cheechoo.
But again, the Admirals got right back at it, and Bourque scored the game winner, with assists from Ryan Thang, and Jani Lajunen.
The best part of that goal was listening to the public address announcer wrestle with the second assist….
“Assisted by #8 Ryan Thang, and #24….” Pause. Pause. Pause. “Jani” Pause Pause. “Lah-yoon-en”.
Yikes.
———-
NOTES:
– With Mueller playing in Nashville, Lajunen got promoted to the Thang-Bourque line. Slaney moved to center, and played with Cahill and Stortini.
– The Admirals are now 4-0 VS Peoria this season, and have given up just 5 goals over those games. All five have been on the power play. The Admirals have owned 5×5 play.
– Mixed bag for Laakso tonight. Got some points, took a bad penalty, and fanned on the clearing attempt that led to the first Peoria goal. Still, it’s good to have him back.
– 3 stars of the game….1. Hensick, 2. Bourque, 3. Cheechoo. Sure. Okay. If you say so.
– So what next for Milwaukee? Their next home game is Friday against Grand Rapids, kicking off a 3-in-3 next weekend. Jordin Tootoo probably will be having a conversation with Shanahan this week, and depending on the verdict, there may be a call-up before the next Preds game. We’ll see.
After a tight first 40 minutes, the Admirals exploded for four goals in the 3rd period, leaving the Peoria Rivermen behind by a 5-1 final score.
Michael Latta had a pair of goals and an assist, Taylor Beck had one of each, and Ryan Ellis had a pair of assists. Meanwhile, Jeremy Smith was sharp, stopping every shot except for a Derek Nesbitt rebound on a 2nd period Peoria power play.
That’s 13 goals in 2 games of the Ian Herbers era. Here’s the Coach talking about the offense.
Michael Latta tied the game 1:20 after Nesbitt’s goal. He was the 3rd man in on the rush, and had a perfect shot in the upper left corner of the net to beat Ben Bishop.
Victor Bartley opened the floodgates with a goal that Bishop probably wants to have back. His shot from just inside the blue line somehow beat Bishop. We’ll let Bartley describe the play.
About two and a half minutes later, Latta intercepted a clearing attempt at the offensive blueline, and tried to feed Taylor Beck down low. Rivermen D-man Mark Cundari was in position to at least block the pass, but pass got by him and went through to Beck just in front of Bishop. His backhander beat Bishop to make it a 3-1 lead.
Coach Herbers gave high marks to those two former Guelph Storm teammates after the game.
Mark Van Guilder and Joel Champagne completed a 2-on-1 rush. Van Guilder waited for the d-man to commit to a slide, then passed through the slot to Champagne for his first AHL goal.
Latta scored his second of the game by getting behind the defense and taking a long pass from Ryan Ellis along the near side. He went in all alone and his goal with 3:15 remaining in the game was the cherry on top.
And let’s not forget about Smitty. He gets his 10th win of the season, and was sharp throughout. Will he get the start tomorrow? I think he should.
– Puustinen had a penalty shot attempt after Danny Syvret give Juuso a hefty slash on the hands. Puustinen made one move too many and then pushed his try wide right.
– Who didn’t miss Brett Sterling out on the ice? This guy. (I’m pointing to myself)
– Bourque got called for a hockey-stop snow-job into the goalie. Terrible. That’s unsportsmanlike conduct? Never mind the whack that Bishop took at Bourque with his stick immediately afterward. That’s okay. And then we had another one of those interference and diving on the same play calls later in the 2nd period. Where do you stand on that debate? Can it be both interference and a dive, or does it need to be one or the other?
– I thought the Admirals did a really nice job dictating their style of play for most of the game. There were extended periods in the offensive zone, while the Rivermen were just one rush and done a lot of the time. Definitely not the game they’d like to play with their offensive talent. And the Rivermen started taking some extra chances in the 3rd, the Admirals were able to capitalize on their mistakes.
– I thought that this was one of Ryan Ellis’ best games of the season, especially as the game went on. I also liked Joel Champagne on that line with Van Flynder.
– While it’s great to have Marty Gelinas on the bench right now, they are still searching for the permanent assistant coach. Here’s what Herbie is looking for in his #2.
Just one question for discussion (but feel free to comment on whatever you want): What do you expect in the rematch tomorrow night in Peoria? It’s their first home game since November 11th, after 9 games straight on the road. (although, the last four have been in the region).
The Admirals turned the Bradley Center into the O.K. Corral scoring 8 goals in a lopsided victory, taking down the Abbotsford Heat 8-3 in Ian Herbers’ debut as Admiral sheriff.
Here’s the sheriff on his first win, and what went well tonight.
The Ads started things off at 5:23 while on the Mountain Fury Power Play when Juuso “I’d like to buy a vowel” Puustinen fired a centering attempt on net from the near side boards. Michael Latta was the man Puustinen was attempting to reach when it instead found the skate of the Heat D-Man Chris Breen. The puck went in to give the Ads the 1-0 lead.
Just over 2 minutes later the Ads went back on the Fury Power Play and had the same success as the first. Puustinen fired a shot on net from the slot that was initially stopped but not covered up by Heat starting (and later relief) net minder Leland Irving. Taylor Beck was there right in front of the goalie to pick up the rebound and get it past the committed Irving. The tally gave the Ads the 2-0 lead and ended the night period for Irving who, faced 3 shots and only stoping one. (Sound familiar, Atte?)
The back-up goaltender Joni Ortio barely had time to take his skate guards off before the lamp was lit and the horn made noise. Just two minutes after the change, Ortio let in the first puck sent his way. To his defense, it was a 2-on-1 break out and I dont know that any goalie would have gotten the save. Mueller and Bourque had the odd-man rush with just the Heat’s Brendan Mikkelson on defense. The Ads duo had a great tic, tac, GOAL with Mueller being the one to seal the deal.
The Heat took a time out to gather themselves. It worked. Just :17 seconds after the Ads third goal and the timeout, the Heat scored off a rebound that came from a shot at the point. Jon Rheault was the man in front that got the rebound past Jeremy Smith.
The Ads answered right back at 15:15 when Zack Stortini grinded out a goal in front of Ortio. Mark Van Guilder put a shot on net resulting in the initial stop. Stortini gathered the puck and just started swating at it, finaly beating the goalie.
Again keeping with the two minute intervals, the Heat got a goal back on a delayed penalty. With Ortio on the bench to give the Heat the extra man, Dustin “Yo Adrian” Sylvester sent a pass from the far side point to the near side crease where Paul Byron was un-defended and uncontested for the redirect goal. I guess someone forgot that there was an extra attacker. Whoops.
After all the smoke cleared on the first period, the score was 4-2 in favor of the Admirals. For those that did not pass advanced addition that is six goals. For comparison, that is as many Mountain Fury bottles as a six pack.
The Admirals wasted no time adding to the lead in the second period. The Heat decided that Irving had a long enough time out and put him back in the blue paint. He started right where he left off, letting in a goal and watching the red light flicker a sad shadow, as he grabbed a drink of some hardly earned water. With Bourque attacking the net from behind the goal line he attempted a wrap around. He fanned, and it turned into a great across-the-crease feed where Mueller finished off another goal from his linemate.
The Heat, refusing to go away quietly, tallied another goal off of a lazy backside defense taking the score to 5-3. On the power play, Byron sent a cross ice pass that was deflected by a d-man but not enough to keep it off of the stick of Sylvester who fired a shot past Smith. It was great reconigition by the Heat to find the open man down low…. Again.
The Admirals continued to make the goal judge earn his free meal and score two more in :31 seconds. Ryan Thang gets a goal off a face off win by Bourque and feed from Mueller. Then Michael Latta scored the second off a redirect that went in off his lower body. Scott Valentine had the original shot and earned his first pro point with the assist.
That is a 7-3 score after two periods, for those keeping track on your abacus.
Mueller got his hat trick goal in the 3rd period. He skated the puck in on the right wing and beat Ortio (yes there was another goalie change). Mueller scored a goal in each period, that has to be worth a bottle of Mountain Fury for sure!!!!!
Mueller talks about his line getting some good momentum.
NOTES:
– It wasn’t all peaches and cream tonight. It wasn’t all beer and pretzels. It wasn’t all frosties and oil changes. Coach says that there are definitely some things he’d like the team to improve on from this game.
– The Admirals were outshot 35-19. 8 goals on 19 shots? Won’t happen every night like that.
– Great win for Hebrie. Obviously, based on this small sample size, Kirk Muller was holding the team back this whole time.
– With Kyle Wilson called up, and Robert Slaney unable to make it to Milwaukee in time, the team skated with 17 skaters. And ten of them skated away with at least a point.
– Mueller’s hat trick was the first since Dave Scatchard scored three in the third period of an 8-1 win over the Chicago Wolves on April 9th, 2010. And the last time the Admirals scored 8 goals was last season, January 28th, 2011 against the Peoria Rivermen. I think Blake Geoffrion had like, 12 points in that game.
– The Bourque – Mueller – Thang line is back. They’re like McRibb that way. They’re playing like they did in the playoffs last year. Hope they can keep that up.
– Oh, and we asked Herbie if he’s keeping the stache since the result ended so well tonight.
OK Roundtable — Give your best mazel tov’s to Coach Herbers’ first “Dubya” as head coach of the Admirals. And I guess talk about whatever else you want to talk about with this game. I won’t give you any more direction. Just make it happen in the comments section.
In Saturday’s game, the Admirals came up just short against a great goaltending performance and a solid Charlotte Checkers team.
In the rematch on Sunday afternoon, the Admirals played arguably their flattest game of the season, losing to the Checkers 5-1.
This is going to be a choose-your-own-adventure recap.
For the glass-is-half-empty-sky-is-falling details, flip to page 22. For the don’t-panic details, flip to page 46.
—-
—-
(22)
-Atte Engren started the game in net. He faced two shots and allowed two goals, before being replaced by Jeremy Smith. Engren’s night was done after 3:23.
– Smitty fared marginally better, but was still tagged for three goals of his own.
– Admirals were outshot 17-6 in the first period, and outscored 3-0.
– Admirals 0-4 on the power play in the game.
– Admirals didn’t score until the last minute of the game and had no fire for most of the contest.
– Chet Pickard is 4-6 in Cincy, with a 2.80 GAA and .895 save percentage, in case you want to start a Chet watch.
– The Admirals were by far the slower team. The Checkers were ready to play and the Admirals weren’t.
– The Admirals will slip to 3rd place in the Midwest Division, regardless of how the Chicago/Peoria game ends this evening.
– You can read the Checkers recap if you need to know the details of how they scored.
– The team is now 0-3 this season wearing the blue jerseys.
—
—
(46)
– The Admirals played better after the 1st intermission, outshooting the Checkers 26-12 the rest of the way.
– Gabriel Bourque scored his first of the year, finishing a nice tic-tac-toe play with 56 seconds left in the contest.
– Sometimes you go up against a hot goaltender. Yesterday it was Mike Murphy, today it was Justin Peters. It happens.
– The Checkers are a good team. They’re in first place for a reason. They’re fast, they’ve got great depth, and a two-headed goaltender monster.
– Here’s what I imagine Kirk Muller would have said after the game to the media. “We need to be better, and we’ve got stuff to work on and we’ll work on it. It’s a young team, but really, it’s just one game. We’ll learn from it, and we’ll be better on Tuesday.”
For an update on how the Mo-vember mustaches are going, flip to page 77. For the Belfast Giants “All I Want For Christmas Is You” video, flip to page 83. For discussion questions, flip to page 96.
Going into Milwaukee’s Saturday night game at Charlotte, the Admirals streak of gaining at least a point in road games stood at an AHL record 23 and counting.
The evening affair also marked a notable moment in the history books as Milwaukee played the franchise’s first ever AHL game in North Carolina’s largest city.
Perhaps that meant too much history collided on one night because the Checkers proved to be unwelcoming hosts by ending Milwaukee’s run at 24 in row with a 3-2 win.
Chris Mueller scored a pair of goals for Milwaukee in the loss, but his first and third period power play tallies were sandwiched around two goals by the always dangerous Zach Boychuk of Charlotte and a single score effort from Checkers winger Chris Terry.
Admirals netminder Jeremy Smith was handed the loss making 21 saves on 24 shots, while the Checkers Mike Murphy goes into the record books as the goaltender who ended the streak with 28 saves on 30 shots.
Milwaukee will not get much time to sulk about the loss. The Admirals will rematch against Charlotte Sunday afternoon at 1 P.M. after 6,516 people at Time Warner Cable Arena witnessed the history breaking/making night.
For quotes from the Charlotte side, check out the Checkers’ website game recap here. The AHL’s game summery is here. To read post game thoughts at ChasingCheckers.com, click here.
So Roundtable . . . In your humble opinion, what went wrong Saturday night? Does this loss get the streak monkey off Milwaukee’s backs? Can the Admirals put together another run of this nature?
If the Admirals come out of every 3-in-3 set this year with four points, that’ll bode well for the team.
Both the Admirals and San Antonio Rampage were playing their third game in three days Sunday evening, but a pair of first period Admiral goals created a hill that was too steep for the Rampage to climb, as the Admirals were victorious 3-1.
Coach Muller says the last two games have been some of the most complete hockey the team has played this year.
Why has the team been good so far closing out the three-in-three sets?
At 10:04 of the first period, Kyle Wilson gathered the puck along the near side boards and sent a pass to Juuso ” I’d like to buy a U” Puustinen. Juuso fired a slapper that beat Brian Foster top left to give the Ads the early lead. Puusitinen did a great job of getting into the open area, but full credit goes to Wilson who got the pass right on the tape while fighting for the puck along the boards.
Just over 5 minutes later Chris Mueller got a great feed from Taylor Beck to give the Ads the 2-0 lead. With Beck behind the net he fought off a defender and sent a nifty “no look” pass to the slot where a crashing Mueller got his stick on it and put it towards Foster. It looked like Foster had it covered up, but either through a helping attempt by his own D-man or just sheer determination the puck squeezed though Foster’s 5 hole and trickled across the line for the goal.
The Rampage struck back at 14:30 of the second period with Bracken Kearns getting the tally. Kearns was skating in and attempted a shot on net when Victor Bartley went to the ice and deflected the shot. The puck bounced off of Bartley and was re-aquired by Kearns who fluttered a shot that beat Smith. It was a great second effort by Kearns to finish the play.
The Admirals went back on the attack right away. This time it was Ryan Ellis who found himself on the GOOD side of a scoring play giving the Ads the 3-1 lead. Just as Nolan Yonkman’s two minute sentence ended at the Penalty Box Penitentiary, Gabriel Bourque dished a pass from behind the net into the slot where it found Ellis’ stick. Ellis wasted no time in sending the puck towards the net, beating Foster, who looked like he was over-committed on Bourque.
And that would be all of the scoring for this game as the Admirals cruised to the 3-1 victory.
NOTES:
– As aforementioned, it was very nice to see Ellis find a way to help his team offensively especially since he has been the center of many discussions around our water cooler on his recent string of bad turnovers and their direct correlation to goals against. An improved game from him tonight, so Ryan Ellis — EYE Salute You.
– The Admirals again held their opponent to a low number of shots….it was 15 shots on goal tonight. We asked Coach what he credits for that.
– Joel Champagne returned to the lineup as Ben Ryan sat out. And this was the second straight game that Coach Muller went with Taylor Aronson instead of Scott Valentine on the D. Here are Coach’s thoughts on the lineup changes.
– Good cheese race tonight.
– So the week ahead. They’ll probably do what the rest of the hockey world will be doing….watch the griping reality television that will be Sidney Crosby’s return to action. It’ll be a TV event not unlike the first time they put a man on the moon. Everyone will remember where they were the night that Cindy Criesby was cleared to play an NHL game. Of course they saved it for November sweeps!!!
So that’ll happen. And then they’ll prepare for a pair of weekend games against the Charlotte Checkers after Thanksgiving.
After a rough outing last night against Chicago, the Admirals rebounded with a big win on the road. Timely scoring, solid goaltending, and good special teams play late in the game were key in the Ads 3-1 victory over the Grand Rapids Griffins Saturday night.
The win marked the 23rd straight regular season road game with at least a point in the standings for the Admirals.
The Ads trailed after one period, thanks to a Gustav Nyquist power play goal 3:24 into the game. But productive start of the second period changed the momentum in a hurry.
After Juuso Puustinen created a turnover at the Admiral blue line, Michael Latta was able to beat Jordan Pearce glove side just 1:05 into the second period.
Ben Ryan scored his first AHL goal 1:26 later,. Ryan Flynn was doing some hard work behind the net, and fed Mark Van Guilder in the slot. MVG’s shot was saved, but the rebound went to Ryan at the left post.
A little less than 3 minutes later, the Griffins were awarded a penalty shot after Chris Conner picked Roman Josi’s pocket, and Josi stymied the breakaway in an illegal kind of way. On the attempt, Conner tried to go five-hole on Jeremy Smith, but the shot ended up going off of Smitty’s knee and stayed out of the net. The Admirals ended the period with the 2-1 lead.
The Ads had a slow start to the third period, as they didn’t get their first shot until they were on a power play just over 7 minutes into the game. And much like last night, that power play was negated early thanks to a Chris Mueller interference penalty in the offensive zone. 19 seconds later, Ryan Thang was called for a hooking penalty.
While on that 4-on-3 penalty kill, the Griffins were awarded their second penalty shot attempt of the game (first time in team history they had two in a game). The call was that Kyle Wilson gloved the puck in the crease.
Smitty came up huge again, stopping Tomas Tatar on his attempt.
59 seconds after the Mueller and Thang penalties were killed off, the Admirals went on the power play thanks to a slash Taylor Beck drew from Gleason Fournier. And Roman Josi scored his first of the year to make it a 3-1 lead. His shot from the top of the right circle beat Pearce.
The Griffins took another penalty as the third period was winding down, so there wasn’t much of a last minute offensive flurry.
——
Stortini was back, Champagne was scratched. Taylor Aronson returned to the lineup, replacing Scott Valentine.
Smitty was named the #1 star of the game, and deservedly so….do you think he’ll start Sunday against San Antonio?
Last weekend, turnovers were the ultimate culprit of an Admirals 6-3 loss to the Wolves.
It was a similar story tonight.
The Admirals spotted the Wolves a 5-0 lead before losing again by a 6-3 score. The win was the 4th in a row for the Wolves, who are playing some pretty good hockey right now.
Credit the Wolves for finishing. But the Admirals can’t make things so easy for them. Here’s Coach Muller.
– Sloan had the first turnover that led to a goal.
– Ellis had a pair of turnovers that turned into goals.
– Bartley with the yonking penalty to create a 5-on-3 power play for Chicago that they ended up converting on.
– Engren? Had so little faith in leaving the puck for Ellis, he played it himself and passed right to Duco for a shorthanded goal. Okay, it wasn’t exactly like that….we’ll let Atte describe what happened.
Coach Muller in his pre-game chalk talk with the season ticket holders talked about how a lot more mistakes are made on the ice in the AHL, and they don’t always cost you like they would at the NHL level. Tonight, they certainly did.
The Admirals outshot the Wolves 13-5 in the third period (according to the shot counter), ad carried most of the play. Juuso Puustinen had a pair of goals. After I made fun about the Hockey’s Future writer earlier this week for saying that Puustinen plays a Hornqvist kind of game, there he was down in front of the crease for both of his goals.
So it’s going to be a long bus-ride to Grand Rapids tonight. You may recall that the day before the Griffins made their BC debut this year, thay had a rough one at home against Abbotsford. Then they came into our barn and pretty much dominated the Admirals. Milwaukee now has the chance to return the favor. Here’s the message to the team from the coach.
———–
Lines started out:
Bourque – Mueller – Thang
Beck – Latta – Puustinen
Flynn – Van Guilder – Wilson
Champagne – Lajunen – Ryan
Smitty in goal, relieved shortly after his fourth goal against by Atte Engren.
Stortini’s arm was sliced in the Oklahoma City game last weekend. Needed some stitches, and needs a little time to heal. That’s why he wasn’t out there tonight.
Discussion:
-For those of you that were at the chalk talk, what did you think of the Coach? Did you like his style better than Lane’s? – Ready to not see the Wolves for another three weeks? -Think the Admirals will rebound well tomorrow?
News & Discussion Site For Your Milwaukee Admirals
Admirals Roundtable 
