Former Admirals captain Alex Henry was the hero Wednesday night in Hamilton, as he scored with 3.5 seconds left in overtime, to give the Bulldogs the 5-4 win over the Admirals.

After the Bulldogs had killed off a penalty in overtime, they were able to make one more rush into the offensive zone.  After an Admiral backchecker knocked the puck free, it came right to Henry, who’s shot may or may not have crossed the goal line.

“(The referees) didn’t come over and talk at all, they just skated off the ice, and I don’t even know if they saw it or not.  Just believed the goal judge…the light’s on,” assistant coach Ian Herbers told Aaron Sims after the game.   “The officiating supervisor was down here today, and he wasn’t sure either.  And from our video you can’t tell.  The point of contention is they had five guys on the ice.  A pretty liberal change.  So that’s the sticky part for us on that goal.”

It was Henry’s first of the year, and it put the Bulldogs in first place in their division.

The score was Nigel Dawes 3, Admirals 0 before the game was 22 minutes old, as Dawes had the natural hat-trick, and scored in his eighth straight game.  Turnovers and failures to block passes helped contribute to those goals, and Mark Dekanich was relieved after the 3^rd one.

But the Admirals battled back and tied the game before the second period was over.  Teemu Laakso snuck in the back door and converted a Chris Mueller pass past trading-chip Drew MacIntyre.  1:55 later, Scott Ford had a blast from the right circle.  And then on the power play, Andreas  Thuresson crashed the net after a Chris Mueller shot, and scored his 9^th of the year.

The Bulldogs regained their lead 6:59 into the 3^rd when Dany Masse put back a shot after a Jeremy Smith pad save.

But another power play goal evened the score again, as Gabriel Bourque continued HIS hot streak, scoring on a backhander down low.  It was Bourque’s 3^rd goal since last Wednesday, and 6^th point since last Tuesday.

Tough to get a read on how the new guys are doing.  Brock McBride didn’t record any stats that showed up into the box score.  Connor Shields had a couple of shots on goal.  But Aaron was complimentary of our new #52, defenseman Patrick Coulombe.  And Coach Herbers liked his game tonight too.

“I thought he struggled a little bit with Toronto just handling weight down in our corners in the d zone…Hamilton is a little bit speedier team with smaller forwards, and I thought he did well against them, because he can skate and is a very smart player.  He moves the puck crisp, he was hard on pucks, got to loose pucks in a hurry, didn’t shy away from any battle. Got his nose in there, got dirty in the corners and along walls, and battled and won battles. And that’s what he needs to do.  I thought he was very good tonight, and was confident playing him out there tonight.”

With the OT loss and Houston’s 8-1 romp over Rockford, the Admirals are still in first place, with 79 points in 61 games.  Followed by Houston in second with 77 points in 64 games.

Travel day Thursday, and then they’ve got a game in Rosemont on Friday night.  With MacIntyre now in Hamilton and Peter Mannino in Atlanta, that leaves one goalie on the roster right now for the Wolves:  his name is Chris Carrozzi.  He made his AHL debut on Tuesday, stopping 21 of 27 shots in a 6-5 overtime loss to Peoria.

Great news Admirals fans, Milwaukee’s pesky two game losing streak is OVER, full roster or not.

After a penalty filled slow start, Milwaukee settled down for solid final 56 minutes of hockey, picking up a 3-1 over the Toronto Marlies in a morning affair in Canada’s largest city.

Forward Gabriel Bourque and defenseman Grant Lewis provided the dominant presence, each picking up a  power play goal and an assist.  Bourque’s goal beat Marlies goaltender Ben Scrivens over the shoulder.  Originally, Bourque was credited with a second goal on the power play, but it was determined that he did not tip the original shot from Grant Lewis.

Mike Bartlett grabbed a garbage goal for the Admirals other score, after some terrific corner work from Ryan Flynn, who is really starting to come into his own.  Bartlett and Flynn showed some real chemistry together on the ice during the game.

Ex-Providence Bruins forward Joe Colborne picked up a five on three power play goal in the early stages for Toronto’s only lead of the game.  The newest Leafs prospect (acquired in the Tomas Kaberle trade), has four goals in his six games with the Marlies.

Admirals Goaltender Mark Dekanich made the lead hold up, snagging his 21st win of the season while turning away 31 of 32 pucks.

Milwaukee’s power play continues to improve.  The Admirals scored a pair of goals on the man advantage, finishing 2 for 6 overall, and moving up to 15th overall in the AHL at 18% success.  However, Milwaukee ranks in the top ten on the power play on the road.

An impressive and boisterous morning showing from the Toronto fans as 5,614 filled Ricoh Coliseum for the game (likely 80% kids), something rarely used in recent years to describe fans at the Air Canada Center for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

One injury update to report, Steve Begin should be back in game action for the Admirals soon, perhaps as early as the weekend or more likely next week.

So Roundtable, what do you think of the new and improved Admirals power play, starring Grant Lewis? 

With Milwaukee playing “short handed” roster wise for the next few weeks, will the Admirals be ok just splitting games for the forseable future?

Today’s game started at 10AM local time, 11AM in Toronto, yet was played at a pretty good pace.  What is your opinion of early matinee games, especially during the week?  Do they change the way the game is played?

(Photo credits:  Eric W Kent)

Anders Lindback got the start for the fourth time in five days, and had some good moments and bad moments, as the Admirals lost to the Rockford IceHogs 4-3 in overtime Saturday night.

The Admirals never led in the game, coming back from three one-goal deficits, but still managed to get out of town with a point in the standings.

After putting his whistle away in the 3^rd period, Shaun Davis whistled Teemu Laakso for a cross-checking call 1:34 into the overtime period.  The IceHogs converted with a Ben Smith goal from down low, that popped over a down Lindback.

Here’s Coach Lambert on the overtime period.

“The first thing I saw was a bad call, from a guy driving to the net who gets pushed off balance.   And then I saw our guy get picked twice, on a set play that they run…that’s interference.  And then I don’t know how the puck went in the net.”

Here’s the penalty, and the goal…

Evan “Don’t Taze Me” Brophey opened the scoring just 42 seconds into the contest with a shot that Lindback had trouble tracking.

The Admirals answered back with a power play goal by Kelsey Wilson.  After Aaron Johnson’s shot from the point was saved but not covered, Wilson finished the job in the crease.

Rob Klinkhammer was the best player on the ice for both teams tonight, and he shifted into another gear past Admiral defenders on multiple occasions.  In the second period, one led to a shot wide of the net.  A couple minutes later, it was a goal.

Ryan Flynn answered back later in the period, skating with the puck from the near boards to the slot, and his backhander beat Alec Richards.  Richards had Dylan Hunter in front of the net to worry about, that may have helped open some space for the shot.

The 3^rd IceHogs goal is just unacceptable.  A shot from Jeff Taffe deflected off of Scott Ford’s skates and bounced softly right on net.  Easy glove and cover, right?  Wrong.  Lindback couldn’t cover it, and Klinkhammer was Johnny-on-the-spot for his second goal of the game.

“I didn’t like the third goal,” Coach said after the game.  “I don’t know if I necessarily like any of the goals.  I thought he struggled with his rebound control  and he struggled playing the puck.  I think it caught up with us in the end.”

The Admirals tied the game again with a Mike Bartlett goal at 10:53 of the third period.  Ryan Flynn had a shot, and the rebound went through the defenders skates at the left post.  Bartlett was there to bury it.

Lines were shuffled tonight, and that Bartlett – Hunter- Flynn line was OUTSTANDING.  And Coach agrees.

“Bartlett, I thought was his best game of the year by far. Flynn wasn’t far behind him, and Hunter is a solid and responsible guy.”

NOTES:

Asked after the game how much longer he expected to have Lindback on the roster, Coach Lambert said, “He’s going to be here for about 45 minutes and then he’s going back.”

Roman Josi left the game with an injury.  They’re calling it a lower body injury, and don’t know what the outlook is.

Houston won tonight, so the Aeros now sit one point back of the Admirals in the standings, and have played three more games.

DISCUSSION POINTS:

How would you grade Lindback?

With Blum in Nashville and Josi possibly hurt, that really puts a dent in the defensive corps.   Is it Scott Lehman time, or do you think the Admirals sign someone else to a PTO?

Most….creative….headline….ever.

Finding themselves a bit shorthanded after the recalls of Blake Geoffrion and Matt Halischuk, the road-weary Admirals had a difficult time solving Drew MacIntyre, as the Chicago Wolves defeated the home team 2-1 on Dropkick Murphys night.

Anders Lindback picked up his first AHL loss, and had a hand in giving up the game winning goal, misplaying the puck behind the net while the Admirals were on a power play.

Despite the goof, Coach Lane Lambert was complimentary of his goalie after the game.

“I thought he made a ton of great saves.  He kept us in the game at the start when we were on the penalty kill.  I thought he played an outstanding game.  Those kinds of things happen once in awhile.   I thought our team played hard, I thought we battled, I thought we had more than enough opportunities to win the hockey game, and it didn’t work out for us.”

After a scoreless first period, former Admiral Mark Matheson was first to beat Lindback.  On a rush up the right wing, Fredrik Pettersson left a touch pass for Andre Deveaux, who left a touch pass for Matheson, who fired a shot from the top of the near circle that was perfectly placed in the top left corner of the net.  It was a perfect shot, and you have to tip your hat to “Mad Dog”.

With Squirrel Face (see the glossary) serving a high sticking penalty, Tim Miller met Lindback behind the net.  Lindback misplayed the puck, and Miller’s wrap around  made it a 2-0 lead.

With 1:43 left in the game, Mark Van Guilder deflected an Aaron Johnson shot from the far face-off dot, to give the Admirals some late hope.  But they couldn’t beat MacIntyre again.

Andreas Thuresson had a shot that bounced off the bottom of the crossbar and then straight down on top of the goal-line.  Close play, but the no-goal call looked to be the correct one.

Coach recognizes the tough part of the schedule, but isn’t interested in making it an excuse.

“We knew this was going to be a tough stretch for us playing 11 games in 15 nights.  Not a lot of rest and on our off-days we’ve been traveling.  So welcome to the American Hockey League!  There’s your incentive to play in the National Hockey League. “

NOTES:

LINES

Here’s how they started….

Thang – Hunter – Thuresson
Bourque – Mueller – Santorelli
Wilson – Van Guilder – Flynn
Shields – McLean – Bartlett

Hunter had been playing well lately, but I would rather not have seen Bartlett drawing the short straw and having to start with the 4^th line of doom.

Admirals were awful early on winning face-offs, but got better towards the end of the game.  And I think they actually had a great game keeping pucks in at the offensive blue line, which we’re not really used to seeing.

See anything interesting about Shields or McLean tonight?

Klasen is still day-to-day with that upper-body injury.  But he’s very unlikely to play tomorrow in Rockford.

Which goalie do you want to see tomorrow in Rockford?  Lindback or Smith?  It would be Lindback’s fourth in five days.  But he’s here to get some work in.  What do you think?

Do you miss Jon Blum?

How long before Blake comes back from his promotional call-up to the big club?

It’s probably not the way he envisioned it happening, but Anders Lindback got the W in his AHL debut, stopping 31 of 35 shots in the Admirals 5-4 win over the Houston Aeros Tuesday night.

All four games against the Aeors this year have been decided by one goal, and all four have been tied after two periods.  The Admirals currently sport a record of 3-0-0-1 in the season series.

It was a game of runs, as the Admirals scored the first two, gave up the next four, and then scored the last three.

Andreas Thuresson reappeared and scored just 1:19 into the contest on a power play.  A Blake Geoffrion shot went off the skates of Justin Falk, and Thuresson was able to sweep the puck throw Anton Khudobin’s five-hole.

About halfway through the period, Chris Mueller scored his 17th of the season, after Matt Halischuk created a turnover with a check on Patrick O’Sullivan at the Aeros blue line.  The puck came to Mueller and his shot from the right faceoff circle was deflected by Jamie Fraser and over Khudobin’s left pad.

O’Sullivan responded with a power play goal on a slapshot 2:20 later, while Brett Palin was serving two minutes for yonking.

In the second period, the Admirals kept the penalty box seat warm with four minor penalties, but were able to kill all of them off.

The Aeros tied it up with 46 seconds left to go in the period, on a goal from Brandon Buck.

They scored two more times before the 3rd period was four minutes old, with an O’Sullivan breakaway goal, and a Warren Peters deflection of an O’Sullivan shot.  The score was 4-2, with 16:02 left to play.

Brett Palin answered back 21 seconds after Peters’ goal, with a snap shot from the top of the left circle.

With O’Sullivan serving one of his three (dumb) penalties, Matt Halischuk buried a shot after a great keep-in at the point from Aaron Johnson.

And then after a great shift by the Halischuk – Mueller – Bourque line, Halischuk got the game winner at the 9:43 mark of the third.  Bourque actually had a couple good chances including a wrap-around attempt, but Halischuk crashed the net, and lit the lamp.

We’re used to seeing some kind of a prevent defense late in the third period when nursing a lead, but the Admirals controlled much of the play down the stretch, with Geoffrion and Bourque among the players killing lots of time with some nice plays in the offensive zone, keeping Khudobin in the net, and the puck as far away from Lindback as possible.

Lindback was a bit rusty, but we’ll see if Coach Lambert goes back to him Wednesday night in Oklahoma City.

And despite the team scoring five goals….Roman Josi didn’t figure into any of them on the scoresheet.  So his points streak is done at 13 games, which is tied for the longest in the league this season.  Here’s hoping he starts up a new one tomorrow night.

As for Jon Blum, he made his NHL debut in Columbus tonight.  The Blue Jackets won 4-0 behind four 3rd period goals, and Blum had 19 shifts with a time on ice of 16:02, paired with Alexander Sulzer for most of the night.  Blum was on the ice for the 3rd Columbus goal, and lost a battle in the corner that eventually led to the goal.

The Admirals and Texas Stars were both playing their third game in three days, and it was the Stars who were able to hold on in the game, defeating the Admirals 2-1 Sunday evening.

Still, it was a good weekend for the Admirals, obtaining four out of a possible six points.  And despite the loss, they’ll still spend the night in first place.

“I thought both teams battled and battled in hard areas, and kicked and scratched for everything they got,” Coach Lambert said after the game.   “And the difference in the game was I thought they had a little more puck luck than we did.

“We took enough shots at the net and we generated enough opportunities, and it just wasn’t our night.  They did a good job blocking shots. “

Fatigue seemed to be a factor in the first goal for the Stars.  Blake Geoffrion turned the puck over at the offensive blue line with a pass to nobody, Brandon Segal skated right around Roman Josi to fire a shot on net, and Mathieu Tousignant snuck up behind Scott Ford to take a whack at the rebound that Mark Dekanich  seemed to have covered.  Instead, the puck dribbled past Dex.  There were a lot of ways that goal could have been avoided, but it gave the Stars the 1-0 lead.

Josi was flat-out beat on that play.  And I’m not used to writing that.

The Admirals answered back 6:26 later with a power play goal.  Matt Halischuk had a shot from the near face-off dot, and the rebound kicked perfectly to Jon Blum at the other face-off dot.  Blum’s shot beat Stars goaltender Tyler Beskorowany before he could get back into position.

The game winning goal came in the 2^nd period, while Kelsey Wilson was serving a 4 minute high sticking penalty.  Sean Backman had a quick shot after coming out of the corner that changed direction.

“The second goal was scored off of our stick and through Dex’s arms, so it was a re-direction there that found the net.”

The Admirals had a late power play chance with 3:20 left in the game.  And while they weren’t able to get the equalizer, Coach has good things to say about the effort.

“I thought we had some decent looks and it was one of those situations where we took some shots and pucks didn’t go in the net.  On any other given night, one of those can find its way through.  I thought we controlled the puck pretty well, and I thought we showed good poise in that situation.”

LINES:

Halischuk – Mueller – Bourque
Thang – Geoffrion – Thuresson
Wilson – Van Guilder – Bartlett
Flynn – Hunter – Lewis

Yep.  A couple of things should stand out there.  Grant Lewis played the first two periods as a forward, while Mark Santorelli was scratched for the third straight game.  Lewis went back to the point in the 3^rd period.

And Linus Klasen is out with an upper-body injury.  The coach said he is considered day-to-day.  We’ll see if he makes the trip down south for the games this week.

That line takes on a whole new look with Thuresson instead of Klasen.

Roman Josi’s assist on the Admirals goal extended his point streak to 13 games.  It’s the longest active streak, and tied for the longest streak in the league all season.

Sutty’s tweet of the night:

adsroundtable Admirals Roundtable

That last goal was on the MOUNTAIN FURY POWER PLAY!!!!! the lucky fan sitting in section 441, row zz seat 22 just won a life time supply!!!

Keep an eye out for some actual Mountain Fury giveaways on twitter in the future.  Or at least until we get a letter from the Roundy’s company asking us to stop….

Questions for discussion:

Anyone seen Blake Geoffrion lately?  Anything since his four awesome games got him back-to-back player of the week honors?

Would you agree that Dex deserved a better fate?  Had some great saves in the 3^rd to keep the game a one-goal game.

Thoughts on the Grant Lewis experiment?  Do you like him in lieu of Santorelli, or is ‘The Proof’ kind of getting the shaft?

You never quite know what you’re going to get against the Peoria Rivermen this season.

Tonight, it was a 24 save shutout for Jeremy Smith, as the Admirals defeated the Rivermen 3-0 Saturday night.

Kelsey Wilson and Ryan Reaves got their token fight out of the way two seconds into the game, and Reaves did a little of the hotdogging that Kelsey has become a bit notorious for.  So fair play there.

The Admirals were able to score first for the eighth time in nine games, as Kelsey Wilson put it home after Jake Allen didn’t make a clean save.  A Teemu Laakso shot deflected off a Riverman, and the redirection went through Allen’s legs, but not past the goalline.  Wilson finished the job.

Blake Geoffrion had a power play goal 2:50 later, redirecting a shot from the point by Roman Josi — who with that assist, extended his point streak to 12 games.  That’s the longest active streak in the league, and a game away from the longest streak all season.

No scoring in the second period, and the Admirals entered the third period with another multi-goal lead.  So how were they going to come out in the third?  They didn’t allow a shot on goal until there was 7:44 left in the game.

But the Rivermen compensated by getting 10 shots the rest of the way, and Smith stopped them all.  They even withstood a late penalty, killing off an Aaron Johnson cross-checking infraction.

2:10 after Johnson returned to the ice, Gabriel Bourque put the icing on the cake.  He scored on a snap shot from the bottom of the circle, after accepting a great pass from Chris Mueller that went between the legs of the defender.

The Rivermen didn’t even bother pulling Allen for the extra attacker in the waning moments of the game.

NOTES:

Mark ‘The Proof’ Santorelli and Grant Lewis were healthy scratches again.

The Ads haven’t given up a power play goal in the last four games.

Jeremy Smith is 7-1-0-1 in his last 9 decisions for the Admirals, including a pair of shutouts.  That run goes back to December 12th…so that says a couple of things.  A) He doesn’t play very much, and 2) He has been able to be focused and sharp when called upon.

I guess the question of the night is…..with two solid wins this weekend including shutout tonight, do you run Smith out there again tomorrow against Texas?

Not exactly the exciting thrill-a-minute game that you might have expected between the top two teams in the division.  But sans Mark Dekanich, the Admirals rode the shoulders of Jeremy Smith en route to a 2-1 victory in a shootout over the Houston Aeros.

“He played great,” Coach Lambert said after the game.  “He found some pucks through traffic.  The difference to me was on some of those traffic shots, he was able to smother the rebounds.  He had good net presence in good traffic.  I thought for the most part he was excellent tonight.”

Picking up where they left off in the last game, the Admirals were outshot 16-3 in the first period, but weren’t particularly outplayed.  The Aeros had lots of low percentage shots, and the Admirals were able to kill off three penalties, including 1:35 of being down two men.  Smith had a couple of nice saves, but for the most part, he wasn’t tested too often in the period.

The only regulation goals came within 25 seconds of each other early in the 2^nd period.  Mark Van Guilder was the beneficiary of a loose puck in front of Matt Hackett after a Roman Josi shot :29 into the frame.  Patrick O’Sullivan got the goal back on a play that found Jeremy Smith out-of-position.  He was probably expecting a Jon DiSalvatori shot from the slot, but DiSalvatori made a nice pass back to O’Sullivan.  (The scorer thought it was Cody Almond instead of DiSalvatori…..it might have been…meh)

The Aeros had the better overall play for the rest of the game.  And then the theme of the 3^rd period seemed to be Admiral turnovers in their half of the ice.  It was all of the defensemen, and it was some of the forwards.  Not going to name names tonight….they know who they are.  And again, their goaltender bailed them out.

With Mark Santorelli out of the lineup, Blake Geoffrion got the nod to be the opening shooter in the shootout, and he delivered one of the best non-Klasen shootout shots so far this year.  (Too bad he was invisible the rest of the game).

The Aeros scored the next two, and Jeremy Smith learned from the ones he let in.

“I feel that no matter what happens on the other end I just got to stay the same goalie no matter what.  I felt like on the first goal, I wasn’t patient.  I felt like I maybe bit too early.  I learned from that, I was like, ‘I gotta be more patient on these next two.  I know they can’t beat me laterally if I just out-wait them’, so that’s what I tried to do.”

Roman Josi was the last shooter for the Admirals, and was able to beat Hackett.  Smith then proceeded to make his best save of the game, squeezing the pads on a Cody Almond attempt.

Gabriel Bourque scored in the 6^th round on a pretty goal, and Brandokn Buck hit the pipe in the bottom of the inning, to give the Admirals the win.

“We were overdue, weren’t we?” Coach asked after the game, forgetting that it’s US that ask the questions, tough guy.  “It’s funny how it goes because you’re down to your last shot and you score.  And then you still have to make a save, and it turned around for us.”

NOTES

LINES:

Klasen – Blake – Thang
Halischuk – Mueller – Bourque
Wilson – Van Guilder – Thuresson
Flynn – Bartlett – Hunter

Zero flow to this game.  Major overdose on offsides and icing.

Bourque and Jed Ortmeyer dropped the gloves after Maxim Noreau tripped Mueller on a rush… Bourque obviously was trying to show management that they did indeed make the right decision not re-signing Ortmeyer.  Actually no.  But it was a statement fight.  Not a heavyweight bout by any means, but a nice try to get some momentum standing up for your linemate.

Sutty’s Twitter predictions were 0-for-2.  Probably because he’s not very smart. (His guesses were a Wilson fight with hotdogging, and lots of shots)

Great crowd tonight….9,529 strong, and they were in to the game.

QUESTIONS:

Do you chalk this up as another game that we didn’t really deserve to win?

Was there any semblance of a playoff atmosphere in this game?

Your thoughts on the maturation of Jeremy Smith?

3-in-3 this weekend….do you want Chet Pickard to play tomorrow in Peoria, Sunday against the Stars, or not at all?

Did you like your Mr. Baseball bobbleheads?  What’s your best Harry Doyle quote…..the more  obscure, the better….

That’s coach Lambert after the game.

People are going to look at the final score and think this was a laugher.

It was for 20 minutes, as the Admirals jumped out to a 5-0 lead.

If you ever wanted to know what sitting on a lead looks like, you saw it over the last 40 minutes.

The Admirals had just three shots total over the last two periods, and walked away with the 5-2 win over the IceHogs.  It may be the least satisfying 5-2 win in the history of 5-2 wins.  But it all looks the same in the standings, so I guess we should feel good about that.  I guess?

“It’s unbelievable.  I don’t have an answer for it,” Coach said after the game.  “I do, but I’m not going there.  Personally, I feel like we lost the game, because that was the way we played.

“We obviously are in a stretch drive here – we’re in a very tight race, and we’ve got to sort this out.  What happened today is completely unacceptable.  I don’t think there’s a guy in that room that can walk out of there and be happy about our hockey team today.  And if any of them are, then they’re on the wrong team.”

16 shots for the game was the lowest of the season for the Admirals, and the one shot in the 3^rd period was also the lowest of the season.

We’ll just touch on the scoring….

Chris Mueller opened the scoring with his 15^th of the year, putting a Matt Halischuk rebound back past starting goaltender Alec Richards.

Mark Van Guilder scored his 5^th of the year, putting home a shot just next to the far goal post.  The IceHogs defensemen did an awful job in the first period getting pucks out of danger, and are just as guilty for the first two goals as Richards.

Then the Ads scored three times in less than two minutes.  Chris Mueller had a snipe from the near face-off dot that beat Richards short side – a very stoppable shot.  Richards was then relieved by Hannu Toivonen.  Who then gave up another goal to Mark Van Guilder, and a power play marker to Jon Blum, before being replaced by Richards again.

Van Guilder was in the same spot for his second goal.  Blum’s goal was a blast from the point that had eyes.

Kyle Beach scored before the period was over, and Jeff Taffe added one with 4:39 to go in the 2^nd.

And then we all started having flashbacks to last Wednesday night, when the Ads blew a 3-goal lead in the 3^rd period.

————

– Here’s some Don Tanner history for you.  (Thanks Don!)  Last time the Admirals scored five goals in a period was December 22nd, 2008 at Chicago, when they scored five in the 3rd period.  The last time they had five first period goals was February 16th, 2008 in Grand Rapids.  The last time they scored five goals in a period at home was October 24th, 2007.

-Nice to have Matt Halischuk back.  The Halischuk – Mueller – Bourque line was the best tonight.  The Klasen-Blake-Thang line was invisible.

– Sutty’s line of the night – “That guy can sell some jerseys!” referring to Kelsey Wilson hot-dogging it after his fight.  How do YOU feel about Kelsey raising the roof?  Is it kosher or tasteless? He sure had the place loud.

14,109 was the final attendance.  They saw a great 20 minutes of hockey.  We’ll leave you with this quote from Lane.

“Not very often can you say that you won the game in the first period.   Right now, at times we’re getting out to these sizable leads, and then we’re afraid to make mistakes.  And we are not recognizing shifts in momentum.”

Next game is Friday against the first place Houston Aeros.  Let’s hope for a good week of practice.