It seems that the Admirals were saving all the scoring from yesterday for today’s game.

Linus Klasen had a goal and an assist, Aaron Johnson had a pair of assists, and Blake Geoffrion netted the eventual game winner while shorthanded, as the Admirals defeated the 1^st place Hamilton Bulldogs 3-2 Sunday afternoon.

Coach Lambert time.

The game did not start the way the Admirals were hoping, for with the Bulldogs getting on the scoreboard first. At the 3:02 mark the Bulldogs were crashing the zone when Mathieu  Carle sent a center pass from the far face-off circle to a wide open  J.T. Wyman in the slot, who then put the puck past Admirals goaltender Mark Deckanich, off the post and in.  Kelsey Wilson was the man responsible (or closest) for Wyman but was behind him and unable to do anything but watch the light go off.

Welcome back Linus Klasen. Number 86 was able to score the tying goal just over four minutes later. With Bulldogs’ Alexander Avtsin stepping back onto the ice after serving the period’s only penalty, Klasen was able to knock down the shot from the point from Aaron Johnson and  put the puck past Curtis Sanford to light the lamp.  The goal was Klasen’s 16^th on the year and the spark that the Admirals needed after the early goal to the Bulldogs.

The Admirals were not done yet, and scored at the 10:29 mark on a great redirect from Ryan Thang. With the Admirals passing the puck around the perimeter of the offensive zone, it was Aaron Johnson that put the initial shot on net. With Thang camping out in front with a nice screen he was able to redirect the puck and scored (I can’t say light the lamp because SOMEONE forgot to hit the button, and don’t blame your tools Mr.Someone…..love ya BSB).

In the second period, the Admirals had chances early and even had a power play. It was the same ole’ power play as the Admirals were happy just passing the puck in the zone looking for the “perfect”  set-up.

Brett Palin was sent to Johnson’s office to make some calls to headquarters about his recent commission check, so the Admirals were down a man at 9:30 of the second. That didn’t stop them from scoring though.   Teemu Laakso was down low behind his net and sent a clearing feed off the boards to center ice where Blake Geoffrion was all alone.  He went in on a 2-on-1 rush with Gabriel Bourque.  A retreating Bulldogs player was able to catch up and close the passing lane to Bourque, so Geoffrion skated in, delayed, and went to the top shelf off of Sanfords glove for the Admirals 3^rd goal of the game.

Still down a man the Admirals were not able to keep the Bulldogs from scoring on the same power play. Alexander Avtsin had the puck near the far face-off circle with the Admirals in zone coverage. He was able to hang on to it finally drawing an Admirals player to contest. Avtsin then sent the puck down low behind the red line to Aaron Palushaj who quickly sent the pass through the crease to J.T. Wyman who put the puck in the open net. It was a great set play that was executed to perfection, with Jon Blum and Teemu Laakso unable to get into the way of the passes.

The Admirals entered the 3^rd period with the 3-2 lead and the advantage of a power play. They were unable to convert on the power play but it help set the tone for the remaining stanza. Neither team was able to get a goal but the Admirals did a great job on the defensive side and Dex came up big with some huge saves to seal the 3-2 victory.

LINES:

Gendur – Hunter – Wilson
Bourque – Geoffrion – Santorelli
Thang – Halischuk – Klasen
Flynn – Van Guilder – Bartlett

DISCUSSION POINTS:

Bartlett the bruiser?  Does he have a future as a tough guy?

Dex was awesome.  Feel free to find a more eloquent way to say it.

One of the best games we’ve seen from Johnson this year….didn’t like the mis-play of the puck in the 3^rd period that led to a great chance that Dex bailed his butt out on.

Outshot again, 30-24.   0-5 on the power play….scored a shorty, but then gave up a goal on the same power play.  Coach talks about special teams.

Was this one of Blake’s best games of the season too?  I think the goalie wants that shot back (or a bigger glove), but outside of that, how did you like Blake’s game?

Home cookin’.  12-2-2-1 on the season at the BC.  That’s pretty awesome.  That’s almost a dozen wins, yo.

And how quickly did you get to your car or local bar to start cheering on the Packers?

This definitely wasn’t a slow news day.

With the Thuresson call-up and the Lundmark sail-setting, there was plenty to talk about at the Bradley Center Saturday night….in addition to the regularly scheduled game against the Toronto Marlies.

Scoreless through three periods and five minutes of OT, Mark Van Guilder was the only player to score in the shootout, giving the Admirals the 1-0 victory Saturday night.

You might think that since there were no goals, that it was a boring ho-hum kind of game.  That could not be farther from the truth.  Despite the low scoring affair, it was a very exciting game with lots of offensive chances for both teams thwarted by two goaltenders who resembled brick walls.

And now, I present, Coach Lambert.

The Admirals dictated play for the first period, with newly returned Linus Klasen responsible for setting up some scoring chances for others, and a few for himself.  Despite playing much of the period in the offensive zone, they only outshot the Marlies by a 7-4 margin.

The first five minutes of the second period had some swarms around the Toronto net, but Marlies goalie Ben Scrivens was able to keep the puck out.

The rest of the period belonged to the Marlies, and Mark Dekanich made a slew of NHL caliber saves, many of them involving lateral movement in the crease.  And I can’t emphasize enough how great his rebound control was throughout the whole game.

The Marlies outshot the Admirals 17-5 in the second period.

Both teams had great chances in the 3rd, as the Marlies had a pair of breakaways off of turnovers from Jon Blum and Brett Palin.  The Admirals had 49 seconds with a 5-on-3 power play, and controlled the play during the PP, but came up empty in terms of goals.

In the shootout, Linus Klasen tried a little dipsy-doo on his attempt…we’ll call it slight-of-stick….it almost worked, but he ran out of room, and lost control of the puck.

Scrivens saved Mark Santorelli’s shot, won the staring contest against Klasen, saved Halischuk’s shot, but was beaten by Van Guilder’s wrister.  Roman Josi tried Klasen’s patented slow-down play in the 5th round, but hasn’t quite mastered it yet.  Do you think Van Guilder is the odd guy in that shootout lineup?  Coach Lambert doesn’t think so.

Meanwhile Mark Dekanich faced two missed shots, a great glove save, a great right pad save, and a poke check on Mike Zigomanis to seal the deal in the 5th round.

————-

LINES:

Bourque – Geoffrion – Santorelli
Klasen – Halischuk – Thang
Wilson – Hunter – Gendur
Flynn – Van Guilder – Bartlett

Discussion points:

– Anyone miss Lundmark or Thuresson?  Coach didn’t really want to talk about it after the game, but here was his comment.

– How about those missed checks by the Marlies tonight?  Ever seen a player miss and then go head first into their own bench?

– Dekanich.  Talk about a guy who was in the zone tonight.

– Klasen.  Bit of a puck hog tonight.  Lots of skating with the puck, but the Marlies gave him a TON of room to work.  Would prefer that he get rid of the puck instead of turning around and reversing course so much.  But there were some signs of creativity that on some nights will turn in to goals for him or his teammates.  Here’s Coach Lambert on Klasen’s night.

– Only 17 shots on goal during regulation for the Admirals.  They had a lot of blocked shots, but still.  Tough to win when that few are getting through.

– Not liking Blum’s turnovers lately.

– The tweet of the night comes from the Norfolk Admirals.  The original tweet has been taken down….but the apology is still up.  The “I” and the “O” keys are so close to each other, and if you’re typing real fast…..you might have to make this apology sometime too.

“WOW. I apologize for that typo, everyone. Gudas took a SHOT. He took a SHOT.”

– And I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Sutty’s team, the Seattle Freaking Seahawks, for keeping the dream alive that a 7-9 team MIGHT win the Super Bowl.  All hell would break loose, and it would be beautiful!

See ya’ll back here tomorrow.

If you thought that a random Thursday night hockey game wasn’t your time, you missed quite the game.  And you would have received free buffalo wings and free frosties, just coming to watch your favorite hockey team.  Admirals were victorious over the Grand Rapids Griffins 5-1 on Thursday night.

Here’s the coach.

The first period came and went without much excitement. Both teams seemed to be reeling to get that good set up and the Admirals even had a power play to help. Unfortunately for both teams, neither one was able to light the lamp. Now I said that the first came and went without “MUCH” excitement, I didn’t say no excitement.  With 12:32 spent in the first, Adam Keefe was skating the puck through the neutral zone with his head down (tisk, tisk). Scott Ford buried him for his troubles in what was called the “best hit of the year” by some.  Keefe got up from the ice, pride hurting and all, and went after Ford. The two came together and the gloves went flying.  Both were great with the jabs and hooks but Ford took control of the fight landing (what seems to be his new move) body shots and coming up with a hook to the dome in a nice combo effort. With the fight clearly in hand, Ford was attempting to do something (no one quite knows) but whatever the plan was, it backfired and before Ford knew it Keefe was standing over him with a clinched fist ready to end the fight on a downed Ford. Luckily for Ford the linesmen jumped in and sent them both to the bin for their troubles.

The second period took awhile to get going but boy was it way more exciting than the first. It was the Griffins that got on the board first at the 10:07 mark. The Griffins’ Joakim Andersson was down low in the offensive zone skating towards the blue line. Andersson eyed Greg Amadio at the far side of the blue line and dished the puck to him. Amadio wound up and fired a shot on net that got though the traffic in front and somehow ended up beating net minder Jeremy Smith on the short side. We have had several of the country’s best angle-ologist doing well what angle-ologists do best, and frankly, they were stumped how that beat Smith near side.

Not to be outdone the Admirals were able to answer back with Ryan Flynn scoring his first professional goal 18:18 into the stanza. The puck was dumped into the zone with Mike Bartlett chasing the puck down. He was able to fend off two Griffins players and get the puck up the boards to Mark Van Guilder near side, inside the circle. Van Guilder sent a pass through two Griffins defenders (Filppula and Pare) to a wide open Flynn, who took the puck top shelf to light the lamp. It should be noted that the assists that were given to Bartlett and Van Guilder should be classified as “super assists” with Flynn reaping the rewards of their great play.

Shortly after the goal, the Griffins’ Willie Coetzee committed a tripping penalty to give the Admirals the man advantage for two minutes. The Admirals would only need  just 12 seconds to convert, giving them their first lead of the game. Ryan Thang got the puck between the circles and skated to his left towards the net. He put a shot on the net through traffic that was deflected down. With the Griffins defenders following Thang they left the puck for Matt Halischuk to pick up just in front of the crease, and he put a shot on net past a committed Jordan Pearce. The goal was Halischuk’s 9^th on the year with helpers going to Thang and Lundmark.

The Admirals would start the 3^rd period playing the part of the aggressor, and got two very quick goals. Just 3:30 into the period the Admirals were crashing the net after a shot and rebound. The puck was pinballed around in front by Van Guilder and Aaron Johnson.  Flynn skated through the traffic and put a shot on net that got passed Pearce to give the Admirals the 3^rd goal of the game. Coach Lambert says it’s great see guys like Flynn who work hard get rewarded.

Before the crowd was even back in their seats the Admirals put another one past Pearce. Although this one couldn’t be fully credited to Pearce, his defense let him down.  Logan Pyett skated the puck around his own net trying to avoid the persistent Gabriel Bourque. Well, it didn’t work. Bourque caught up to him when he was between the circles, stole the puck and did the ole spin-n-shoot for the goal. Pearce seemed not even to notice the shot but he sure did hear the horn.

***DISCLAMER***

This next sequence is not a joke nor a gag or any cunning ruse for that matter. What I am about to say ACTUALLY happened. With that said, read at your own discretion.

*** END DISCLAMER***

THURESSON SCORED!!!!! THURESSON SCORED!!!!! Truthfully, I had to watch all the replays because I couldn’t believe my eyes. But, through all the smoke, haze and confetti it was in fact Thuresson that got the goal.  It was a nice give and go between Thuresson and Bourque to allow Andreas to get open inside the near circle. Thuresson put a wrister on net that beat Pearce far side. I swear if you looked close enough after the goal you could see the monkey hop off Thuresson’s shoulders, walk through the penalty box, then up to section 212 have a seat and light a cigarette. Talk about a stretch that Thuesson is happy to see end of. The goal gave the Admirals the 5-1 lead and sealed the deal in this matchup.

Coach Lambert hopes that we’ll be seeing more of that from #12.

(quote)

NOTES:

Here were your lines.

Halischuk – Lundmark – Thang
Wilson – Hunter – Santorelli
Thuresson – Geoffrion – Bourque
Bartlett – Van Guilder – Ryan/Matt Flynn

Jeremy Smith avenged his loss from the last time Grand Rapids played here.  You may recall that was a pretty ugly game.  The defense came in and helped him out a lot, but it was still a very solid effort.  Every game like this makes us forget Chet Pickard’s name a little more.  (But damn, the tattoos just won’t go away)

Bourque continues to be the man.  Every shift, every minute.

We were just about to have a pool-like-contest to guess when Thuresson was finally going to score.  It was going to be epic.  Ah, the best laid plans never go through.

Drunk contestants are funny.  Poor Ryan.  MILWAUUUUUUUUUUUUKEEEEEEEEEEE!

DISCUSSION POINTS:

Do you like how the team kept the pedal to the metal after the 2^nd intermission?

Ryan/Matt Flynn.  Was he just in the right place at the right time for his two goals, or do you think his play has really improved of late?

10-2-2-1 at home for the Admirals.  Pretty good, ya’ll,

How about Wilson’s fight?  Not one of his better ones.

Linus Klasen scratched again for the Preds.  Maybe that’s what we’ll have a pool about….when does he get sent back to MKE?  Trotz would rather run Wade Belak out there for a few minutes than Klasen.  What’s up wit dat?

So Ryan will be back driving this truck for Saturday’s game.  Thanks for laughing at my jokes, or just at me.  Either way, hope you were laughing.

Despite information to the contrary there was in fact an Admirals game played today. As both Ryan and I are allergic to football we figured we would go to the game for you. If you were in fact one of the 2,735 reported to have showed, then you were witness to a pretty good game by the Admirals. The Rampage were playing their 3^rd game in as many nights and it showed.  Jeremy Smith in net for the Admirals and Chet Pickard on the bench begs the question, where is Mark Dekanich?

He tweaked a lower body injury.  Not expected to be serious, but coach says he may or may not be ready to go on Thursday.

The Admirals were able to get on the scoreboard in the first period thanks to some great puck control. While in the offensive zone, Blake Geoffrion gathered the puck and sent a tough pass towards Jon Blum that was skipping and hopping. Blum gloved it down and then sent his own tough pass about thigh high to Gabriel Bourque. (This is where the AWESOME happens) Bourque lifts his leg imitating his best Captain Morgan pose, knocks the puck upwards and then proceeds to catch the puck. He quickly sends the puck down to the ice and puts a shot on net that beat Matt Climie to give the Admirals the 1-0 lead.

That lead would last the remainder of the stanza and in the second the Admirals were able to add to it. With the Rampage’s David Brine in the sin bin for a hooking infraction, the Admirals power play unit went to work. Jamie Lundmark sent the puck to Roman Josi down low. Josi sent the puck to Matt Halischuk, who was at the top of the circle near side. Seeing that there was room to advance he skated to about the faceoff circle and put a scorching wrister on net that beat Climie top side. The shot was a very impressive “snipe” and increased the Admirals lead to 2-0.

The Admirals happy with their two goal lead went into the 3^rd period looking a little on their heels. As a result, it didn’t take long for the Rampage to get one past Smith. Matt (one point twenty one gigga-) Watkins carried the puck down the far side boards, put on the breaks and sent what looked to be a centering pass that carried to the front of the net. It bounced off an Admirals player right into the slot to a waiting Andrew Ebbett, who had a 4×6 square to put the puck into. With that goal the Admirals lead was cut in half and awoke them from their slumber.

The Admirals answer right back off what I would call a “fatigue” goal.  John Blum gets the puck a couple feet inside the blue line. Uncontested, he skated between the circles and put a shot on net that hit Climie in the chest. The puck not being denied rolled up his pads and over the shoulder into the net. It was one of those goals that 99.9% of the time would be (should be) stopped. Fortunately for Blum this one got through and extended the Admirals lead to 3-1.

That is where things got very interesting.  We all know that Coach Lane Lambert and tonight’s referee Jeff Smith are not friends but you would hope to see some professional candor. With a horrible non call where the Rampage’s Ebbett went onto the Admirals bench during a time out to try to find out what the coach was drawing up. Ebbett was able to get close enough to hear but remained far enough away not to be noticed. It wasn’t until Ebbett was on his way back to his own bench that everyone realized what he had done. The place erupted and Lambert was beside himself. When referee Jeff Smith came over you could see him mouth “get over it coach, you’re up 3-1”. Lambert didn’t take to kindly to it. He threw off his sport coat and hopped the boards. He and Smith proceeded to fight. The hay makers were coming and no one could separate them. It wasn’t until the warden showed up and fired a warning shot from his trusty shotgun that the two split up. The real travesty about the whole ordeal is that we were at a break and so no footage of this was captured. So all in all, I guess that it goes to show you that no matter what else is going on in the world, you should never, never, never miss another Admirals game because of some “football” game. ***

The Admirals would go on to win the game 3-1 and grab a much needed two points in a very tight western conference division.

DISCUSSION:

So.  Yonkman.  As good as you remember?  Weird seeing him in black?

No Dex, no problem, eh?  How did you like Smitty’s performance tonight?

How about Thang and Halischuk continuing their strong play?

Thuresson?  Crickets?

*** Umm, some of those details of that paragraph may be embelished or fabricated.  But if you need me to tell you that, then, well….I have some land in Russia I’d like to sell you.

Spending New Years Eve on a bus in Peoria isn’t ideal.

Spending New Years Eve on a bus in Peoria after a 3-1 loss to the Rivermen is less ideal.

The Admirals came out strong, out-shooting the Rivermen 11-2 in the first period, aided by some time on the power play.  But the only goal in the frame went to Nathan Oystrick, while Aaron Johnson was thumbing through his roll-a-dex in his office.  Took the Rivermen just 17 seconds to convert.

The Rivermen scored two more goals in the first 5:30 if the second period, and Mark Dekanich was given the rest of the year off starting in the 3rd period.  Jeremy Smith got some work in, and made saves on all ten shots he faced.

Special teams?  Probably the difference in the game.  They still need some work.  0-6 on the power play for the Ads, and they gave up two power play goals on six Rivermen chances.

Thuresson?  Two shots.  No goals.

The only goal went to Ryan Thang, who is doing his best Chris Mueller impersonation, scoring in his second game in a row.  Incidentally, Mueller did not play in this evening’s Preds game.

And with that, I’m going to the Riverside Theater to see the Hold Steady welcome in 2011.  Best wishes to you for a happy and prosperous 2011!

Since Ryan was walking around reading off of blue note cards for the game, you’ve got me for the recap again tonight.  I apologize in advance.

The Admirals were looking to get that bad taste out of their mouth from the loss suffered at the hands of the IceHogs last night. They hosted the road weary Houston Aeros, who entered tonight’s matchup just 3 points behind the Ads.  Still missing top producers Linus Klasen and Chris Mueller, the Admirals were forced to find production from elsewhere in the lineup.  They found it in three different forwards, and were able to hang on for a 3-2 victory over the Aeros.

While a better effort than last night, Coach Lambert says it wasn’t a complete game.  Here are some quotes.

Ryan Thang answered the call for offense halfway through the first.  At the 9:18 mark, Matt Halischuk was skating the puck right between the circles when he was met by two Aeros defenders that jarred the puck loose. Thang was trailing Halischuk and in perfect position for said jarred puck. Thang put a slap shot on net that beat Anton Khudobin  to give the Admirals the lead.  The goal was Thang’s third on the year with the helper going to Hallischuck.

The lead would not last the period as the Aeros are able to score 16:17 into the stanza. What seemed to be a harmless shot from the point by Nate Prosser quickly turned into a dangerous redirect, resulting in an Aeros goal. With Prosser at the far point and an Admirals player crashing on him, he put the slap shot on net with traffic in front.  Admirals Roundtable correspondents didn’t see who got a piece of it but the puck quickly went to the ground and beat goaltender Mark Dekanich glove side.  I think the goal was Prosser’s way of sticking it to the Admirals production crew for putting him on the Harry’s Bar and Grille Kiss Cam with a teammate.   (Where is Mitch Love when you need him?)

The Admirals came out for the second period determined to get more opportunities, however five more shots was all they could muster (wait, 5 shots? That’s all they got 5 GD shots? [ Ryan:] hey you can’t type GD on the Interweb. [Sutty] Don’t worry, they can’t read).  Both teams looked sloppy at times but it was the Admirals once again that looked uncomfortable with each other. Way too many turnovers and not enough shooting. The Admirals power play in the second period gave me the impression that we had 5 Cal O’Reilly’s out there because no one wanted to SHOOT THE PUCK CAL!!!!!!!  Sorry had a flash back right there.

The real story of the second period was MARK “I Just Bailed You Out” Dekanich. Not once, not twice, not even thrice. Dex was standing on his head for most all of the shots he faced. He defused a breakaway, he stonewalled a couple of great attempts from right in front, and I think I even saw him save a young child in section 209 who was choking on his pretzel with cheese.  With any other goalie out there the score would most certainly be much larger in favor of the bad guys, but as it stood they were still tied 1-1.

Coach Lambert says Mark is responsible for the big win.

The third period got started with a bang and a pow.  Just 1:35 into the third period Scott Ford shot a puck from the point that struck Aeros winger in the upper body. After striking the Aeros player the puck caromed over to Jamie Lundmark who was at the near side blue line. Lundmark was able to skate up a bit to the top of the circle and put a shot on net that glanced off Ryan Thang in front of the net, and deflected off the back glass.  The puck still had enough juice behind it to bounce back to the front of the net on the other side to a waiting Matt Halischuk, who put the puck in the vacant net. The tally was Halischuk’s 7^th on the year and good enough to give the Admirals the 2-1 lead.

Before the acclaimed Matt Moore (announcer extraordinaire) could utter those responsible for the goal Blake Geoffrion took a pass just inside the blue line from Mark Santorelli.  Geoffrion wound up from the high-high slot and delivered a slap shot that beat Khudobin to give the Admirals the 3-1 lead. The Admirals, scoring two goals in less than 10 seconds, finally had the look of a confident team.

But as they say, the two-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey, even if it was only for one minute and eight seconds.  With Josi in the bin for tripping, the Aeros took advantage of the extra attacker. The play was eerily similar to something I have seen in the past. Like the very recent past. The Aeros’ Chad Rau (like in Street Fighter….haduiken! eh, close enough) fed a puck to the far side point to Maxim Noreau, who put a shot on net through traffic. Only on this shot we do know who redirected it. It was Cody Almond, who changed the course of the puck and beat Dex low glove side.

LINES:

Lane shuffled em up a bit tonight.

Bourque – Geoffrion – Santorelli
Wilson – Begin – Thuresson
Thang – Lundmark – Halischuk
Bartlett – Van Guilder – Hunter

BEST CROWD OF THE SEASON!  For reals.

Let’s go straight to the questions for discussion:

Was this a good rebound game for Geoffrion?  Better to fight with his scoring than his fists? (I don’t know what that even means).  Should we have him do autograph corner EVERY night?

This just in.  Through extensive research, fact finding, soul searching, mathematical analysis, and advanced calculus, it has been concluded that I, Andrew “Sutty” Sutliff, have scored as many goals as Andreas Thuresson in the last 28 games.

What else can we say about Mark Dekanich?  He’s got the swagger.

Should the Admirals keep Bob Vila on retainer, just in case some more stuff breaks?  I hear that was the second time a door has been broken from these new boards…

 

Grant Lewis got to play tonight.

Oh, you want to know why?  Ok.  Teemu Laakso has a lower body injury.  He’s day-to-day….it’s not expected to be serious.

Did I mention it was the best crowd of the year?

Anything else you’d like to share?

(BTW:  Thanks to Andy Grebe for providing the sound clips)

After a 2-1 win against the IceHogs in Rockford Sunday night, the Admirals dropped the second half of the home-and-home set in unspectacular fashion, losing to the IceHogs 4-1.

With Linus Klasen and Chris Mueller up with Nashville, others needed to step up their games.  And nobody really did.

Early on, Kelsey Wilson tried to light a fire under his team at the 5:36 mark, as he and Kyle Hagel dropped the gloves, shed their helmets and circled the blue line for a good ole fashion fisticuffs.  Once they locked up it was a great fight as Wilson got out to the early lead with a good couple jabs. Hagel wouldn’t be out done and had some crosses and jabs of his own. The fight lasted a good while and after it was all done the score card was given to Hagel. They both spent the subsequent five minutes in Johnson’s office to think about what they did.

Half way through the first period, Ryan Thang was called for a questionable slashing offense whilst (yea, I said whilst, what ya gonna do about it?) in the offensive zone.  With the IceHogs up a man, they quickly converted at 10:54 when Peter LeBlanc sent the puck around the boards to Brandon Pirri on the near boards near the face of circle. Pirri gathered and sent a pass to Mathis Olimb at the point who put a cannonade on net and beat Ads goaltender Mark Dekanich high side through traffic. The goal was Olimb’s fourth on the year and gave the IceHogs the 1-0 lead.

The Admirals had their chances in the first but were unable to convert. With 2:05 to go in the stanza Roman Josi got through the defense and into the slot where it was just he and IceHogs goaltender Hannu Toivonen.  Josi tried to put a quick move on the goaltender but was stonewalled in the process.  The Admirals would surrender the first period trailing 0-1.

8:24 in the second period Dylan Hunter evened the score 1-1 with a goal from about 2 feet out. Gabriel Bourque was fed the puck at the point and he fed it to Laakso on the far side blue line. Laakso fired a shot on net that Toivonen initially saved but couldn’t control. The puck spit out to Hunter who was waiting in the slot and put the rebound past the goaltender.  The tally was Hunter’s first goal of the season in his 3^rd game played with the Admirals this season.

Both teams got into penalty trouble in the second period but it was the IceHogs who capitalized on the opportunity.  Matt Halischuck (second game back from injury) was sent to the sin bin for a slash at 17:35 and 1:14 later Ben Smith gave the IceHogs the lead again. Jeff Taffe dished the puck to Smith who skated down the near side and fired a puck on net from the right faceoff circle. The uncontested shot beat Dex short side about glove height. It was most likely a shot that Dex would have stopped 9 times out of 10 but failed on this attempt.

The third period didn’t prove any easier for the Admirals. At 5:45 in the 3^rd Ben Smith got behind the defense and put a shot on goal that Dex was able to knock down with his glove but not contain. The Admirals’ Aaron Johnson tried to clear with a backhanded swing. Johnson was able to hit the puck but unfortunately for him, right into the crashing Evan Brophey.  Brophey was able to gather the puck from the bottom of the near circle and put on a shot from a sharp angle that found the little daylight that Dekanich gave him.  The goal was Brophey’s 3rd of the season giving the IceHogs a 3-1 lead.

(BEGIN RANT)

That goal would be more than enough to beat the stagnant Admirals as the IceHogs went on to win 4-1. From the start of the match the Admirals seemed complacent and lacking on, well, offense (duh statement of the month, and coming from me that says a lot).  With the lack of offensive production we could make excuses that the Admirals were still without their production guys in Klasen (15 goals) and Mueller (12 goals).  We also could talk about how the vuvuzelas were super distracting and the Admirals couldn’t focus.   Or we could even talk about why the NFL would move a game to Tuesday when they know Lane has Vick going at QB in his keeper league and needs 25 points to win it all.

Instead we should focus on some other questions, like why hasn’t Thuresson scored in over 2 months, or who is going to step up on this team and start to score goals.

Oh, and Blake Geoffrion?  Your attempt at that fight pretty much summed up the entire game.  Outmatched.

(END RANT)

They’ll try again tomorrow against Houston.  Feel free to leave a rant of your own in the comments section.

Hope everyone had a great holiday yesterday.

The Admirals scored two more power play goals, and that’s all they needed, defeating the Rockford IceHogs 2-1 Sunday evening.

The last four Admiral goals have come with the man-advantage.

After a scoreless 1st period, Blake Geoffrion converted 9:09 into the second, unleashing a one-time snapshot from the near face-off dot, after taking a feed from Jon Blum.  It was Blake’s second goal of the year, and second on the power play.

Just 1:27 later on another power play, Jon Blum scored his fourth of the year, and second in as many games.  After the Ads lost the opening power play face-off and had to regroup in their own zone, they were able to set up shot in the offensive zone.  Roman Josi’s pass to Blum at the center of the point gave him a shooting lane, and his blast beat goaltender Alec Richards stick-side.

Another controvercial goaltender interference call, with the Admirals as beneficiaries.  With three seconds left in the game and already on a power play after Matt Halischuk was called for Yonking, Ryan Potulny was called for G.A. while engaged with Steve Begin.

The Admirals didn’t need to call anyone up to replace Linus Klasen on the roster, because the previously-alluded-to Matt Halischuk was able to return to action for the first time in awhile.  Halischuk had one shot on goal, and was assessed that untimely Yonking penalty.

Aaron Johnson missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury, allowing Grant Lewis to get some ice time.

Day off Monday, rematch with the IceHogs Tuesday at the Bradley Center.

As for Klasen…He had 16:21 of ice time, and his one shot on goal was one of 32 that didn’t beat Jaroslav Halak.  Blues win 2-0 over Preds.  Klasen was not on ice for the even strength goal in the 2nd period or the empty netter in the 3rd.  Linus played along side Goc and Kostitsyn, and accounts say that he wasn’t out of place.

After a disappointing effort against the Wolves on Saturday, the Admirals rebounded with a much better performance Tuesday night, beating the Wolves 3-2 in a shootout.

LINKS:  Box score, Ads recap, Wolves recap, Game highlights (thank you Wolfkeeper), Kulda lynching

I won’t go into the descriptions of each goal, as the highlights speak for themselves, and the play-by-play guys do a pretty good job with analysis.  But I’ll share some thoughts…

– Some fluky goals against tonight, and the interesting thing is that’s not usually how the Wolves beat you.  It’s usually skill, speed, power-play, and crashing the net.  But the two goals?  A long shot catching Dex cheating, and a play where Dex kind of taps it in himself.  Despite those goals, good marks to Dekanich and the defense for neutralizing the high powered offense.

– Dex really did settle down after that first goal.  Very poised, and stayed that way with all the chaos around him, and getting run into a few times.  The Admirals had a goaltending interference penalty called in their favor tonight, with Riley Holzapfel bowling into Dekanich at the end of the second period.  That was the penalty that gave the Admirals the power play that they tied the game with.  The Wolves complained was that Holzapfel was pushed by Brett Palin, but I’m not sure the physics work out in their favor.  Palin was late with his push, and had he been successful, I think it would have pushed Holzapfel wide of the net.  Yes, he did get a get a little bit of Holzapfel, but I think Riley still had time and space to avoid contact with Dekanich.  I think it was the right call.  But I had the benefit of replays….the ref had to make a call on a bang-bang play.  In defense of the Wolves, the ref did let a ton of stuff go, and a lot of that was to Milwaukee’s advantage.

– Touching on the 2nd Wolves goal for a moment.  The ref didn’t have a good angle on the puck, and I think one could make the argument (Lane probably tried to) that the play should have been blown dead as soon as he lost site of the puck.  The camera angles were great, but the ref doesn’t have those.  He didn’t call it a goal right away, but after discussion with the linesmen, and a conversation on a phone in the penalty box area, the play was ruled a goal.  I’m certainly not arguing that the puck didn’t cross the line, and credit the goal judge for being on top of it.  We’re able to read Lane’s lips in the highlight video…I’d be interested to know what the ref said back to him.

And Wolfkeeper (or anyone else who may know) — is the league testing out video replay in the All-State Arena?  Any idea who was on the other end of that Bat-phone call?

– Great special teams from the Admirals.  Great puck movement on the power play.  Some nights pucks bounce over sticks at the blue line and passes aren’t clean.  Tonight they moved the puck well, and won battles down low to spend a lot of time in the attack zone during their power play chances.

– I’d be interested to know what Lundmark was yapping about after his shootout goal.  But man….Mannino looked like a different goalie in the shootout.  If you’re going to try to poke it away like that he did on Lundmark’s attempt, you better get it.

– After going backhand and forehand on previous shootout attempts/penalty shots against the Wolves, Klasen goes five-hole.  Way to keep ’em guessing!  Pretty good offensive night for Klasen on the stat sheet, and overall play too.

– Took the camera folks less than 3 minutes to put my wife and I on the Megatron.  Grand.  We elected to find some new seats.

– 3 stars on the box score?  Not the 3 that were announced.  Mannino and Machacek were in the original announcement, if I recall correctly…

– Preds are playing the Blackhawks Wednesday night, and the Preds brass made the trip to Rosemont tonight.  I had the chance to talk with Coach Trotz and Mr. Poile, and we’ll share some of their thoughts with you over the holiday break.

Discussion?  Watch the highlights and opine away!