It has been 10 games since these evil –EVIL– IceHogs faced off with the Ads. That game looked a little something like this:

The game finished with a 4-2 Admirals win. Since, the Ads have played in ten games going 4-4-1-1. The IceHogs played nine games since their defeat in Milwaukee and have gone 3-6-0-0. So, both have been in a less than favorable stretch looking to snap out of it.

The IceHogs currently sit third behind the Ads in the Midwest division with a record of 10-10-1-0 good for 21 points. Their top scorer is defenseman Adam Clendening who has 4 goals, 14 assists, 18 points, and 20 PIM’s. As far as goals are concerned there really isn’t one player shouldering the load. There are three tied with six goals (Klas Dahlbeck, Mark McNeill, and Jeremy Morin) and another three tied behind them with five goals (Alex Broadhurst, Terry Broadhurst, and ex-Admiral Brad Winchester).

There is also a lot of sharing the spotlight as far as goaltending is concerned. The IceHogs have wheeled in three different goalies in their last four games: Kent Simpson, Mac Carruth, and Antti Raanta. Coming into Wednesday’s game against the Ads the top man in net for Rockford has been Raanta… but he is currently playing in the NHL with the Blackhawks. That leaves the starting role in the hands of the 21-year old Simpson who has gone 3-4-1-0 in seven starts and three relief appearances. Backing him up is another 21-year old in Carruth who made his AHL debut in a 5-2 loss in Charlotte where he allowed all five goals scored by the Checkers. My expectation is for a goaltending match up between Simpson and Magnus Hellberg tomorrow night. Simpson faced the Ads in the first meeting of the season stopping 34-37 shots on goal in a losing effort.

Penalty Minutes. The IceHogs have 101 more PIM’s than the Admirals. Alright, fair enough the IceHogs have played in four more games… but still. The first meeting between these two produced 26 combined PIM’s that gave the IceHogs six power-play chances (producing one goal) and the Ads with seven power-plays (where they scored twice). Top of the top in PIM’s in this contest is Rockford’s Jared Nightingale with 63 PIM’s. Those wondering who leads the way for the Ads: Anthony Bitetto with 34 PIM’s. Interestingly enough, as much as I love going back to the infamous bench clearing brawl between these two, there wasn’t a fight in the last game when these two met nor the pre-season game at the Kern Center. You have to go back to last season’s final meeting between the Ads/Hogs to find a scrap which involved Mike Liambas and Kyle Beach. Liambas is a possibility to return at some point in this road trip. Should he return tomorrow night I feel he would be a welcome element to stand toe-to-toe should push come to shove-facewash-punching.

Thoughts on tomorrow night’s game? How will the rested Ads come out to start this game? Will we see anyone drop the gloves?

The Ads have had a rough week in terms of match ups. In back-to-back days they faced the two best teams in the Western Conference with the Abbotsford Heat and Grand Rapids Griffins. The first game resulted in an overtime loss where the Ads held a two goal lead heading into the third period. After last night’s game in Grand Rapids… it is hard to do anything other than look ahead to Friday night’s meeting with the Chicago Wolves.

The Wolves enter Friday night’s game with a record of 9-6-0-1 good for 19 points. They sit just a point behind the Admirals in the Midwest division and continue to produce similar numbers to the Ads. Let me show you what I mean.

GP: 16 (equal)
Record: 8-4-3-1 (Ads), 9-6-0-1 (Wolves)
Points: 20 (Ads), 19 (Wolves)
GF: 44 (Ads), 43 (Wolves)
GA: 46 (Ads), 43 (Wolves)
PIM: 220 (Ads), 221 (Wolves)
Top Scorer: Colton Sissons (7 G, 6A, 13 pts), Corey Locke (5 G, 8 A, 13 pts)

Silly how things work out sometimes but, on paper, these two reflect a lot of one-another.

So far this season the Amtrak Rivalry sits with the Wolves up two wins in two meetings in Milwaukee. The first game finished 3-2 in OT. The second game finished 4-3. The Ads, coming off of their last two games with top teams in the AHL, are going to be facing yet another hot team in the Wolves Friday night. The Wolves will be walking into the Bradley Center on a five-game winning streak – the last of which was a 4-3 victory over the Griffins.

What can be a factor in this game is that last game for the Wolves. Not so much that they beat a team that dominated the Ads last night. It’s that the last game the Wolves played was last Saturday. That’s a long layoff period for a team to go through. The pro: rest. The con: rust. It’s going to be telling right out of the opening puck drop to see which hits the Wolves more, rest or rust. They’ll either be flying or making mistakes against an Ads team primed to strike back after two rough games.

Who has the edge in this game? Will the Ads bounce back Friday night? How will the long break between games impact the Wolves? Will Magnus Hellberg have a positive response to getting pulled from net in Grand Rapids? Should he even be in net for this one or could Scott Darling see another start?

This will be the third meeting of the season between the Ads and Griffins. Round I saw the Ads ruin the Griffins home opener and their Calder Cup Champions banner raising ceremony by winning 3-2. Round II took place just one week ago and the Ads won at home 2-1. Video highlights time!

Round I.

Round II.

In the game last week Magnus Hellberg was outstanding in net. The lone goal he conceded from 29 Griffins shots on goal only just squeaked past him on the near post. The Griffins play with tremendous speed and energy from start to finish. While the Ads defense stepped up with a great night in neutral ice slowing the Griffins attack down – it still took a great night by Hellberg to seal the victory.

Considering Hellberg played last night against the loss to the Abbotsford Heat.. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Ads countered in the two-in-two with Scott Darling in net. Darling’s last outing was a 32-save shutout performance in Iowa. Should the Ads look to give him the nod in the second game of a doubleheader it would be interesting to see how he follows up his last outing.

Rather than continuing my praise of Griffins forward Gustav Nyquist in these Grand Rapids scouting reports (he still leads the team in points: 7 G, 14 A, 21 pts) let’s look at some numbers that could make a difference in this game.

Special teams numbers in this match up are high octane. The Griffins power-play is 15-79 (19%) overall. Yet, the Griffins power-play is much sharper at home than on the road: 6-18 (33.3%). Similarly, the Admirals have an overall power-play of 14-79 (17.7%). Yet, they find far more success on the power-play on the road going 9-43 (20.9%). Two of those power-play goals came from Anthony Bitetto in the first meeting between the Ads/Griffins in Grand Rapids. When these two get the chance of a man-advantage in a game like this the PK units will in for a long night.

Speaking of the penalty kill, the Griffins and Ads match up well here too. The Griffins overall kill rate is 81.9% and the Admirals is 83.6%. Griffins do appear to fair much worse on the PK at home, 73.9%, but have killed off 13 consecutive power-play chances at home – including two-straight home games without allowing a power-play goal.

My players to watch in this one? Colton Sissons for the Ads. Tomas Jurco for the Griffins.

Sissons leads the season match-up between the Ads/Griffins in points with two goals and an assist. He currently leads the Ads in points (13) and goals (7). He has also scored a goal ‘every other game’ since the finale on the road against the Texas Stars. That trend continued last night with him not scoring a goal. Perhaps he continues it and extends his scoring lead in this head-to-head.

Jurco is currently second on the Griffins in points (19) behind that Nyquist bloke. He has scored a team best 9 goals. His last two games he has scored a hat-trick against the IceHogs and posted a goal and an assist against the Wolves. Simply put: he’s so hot right now.

Who do you have winning this one? Can the Ads continue their winning ways over the Griffins this year? Who do you think will get the start in net for the Admirals? Who needs to step up? Who do you have scoring goals in this meeting?

The Abbotsford Heat have been, cringe-worthy pun coming, on fire as of late. In their last ten games they have gone 9-1-0-0. In fact, they were on a nine-game winning streak up until a 4-1 road defeat against the Oklahoma City Barons. That incredible win streak included three games that went past regulation with two needing the shootout to wrap things up. They currently sit with the best record in the AHL, 13-5-0-1 with 27 points. Mind you they have also played two more games than anyone else in the AHL.

It was over a month ago since the Ads and Heat faced off in Milwaukee’s opening games of the season. Has it been that long already? Here is the refresher course of those opening games.

October 11th, Heat win 3-2 in OT.

October 12th, Ads win 2-1 in a shootout.

Editor’s Note: the Heat might have the best highlight package production value in the AHL… am I right?

The scouting report for those games talked up a netminder by the name of Joni Ortio. The man who has logged the most minutes to this point for the Heat, Reto Berra, has since been called up by the Calgary Flames. It has mainly been Ortio’s net and his results coming into Tuesday night’s game with the Ads are stellar. Ortio has won all seven games he has played in net, has a 2.50 GAA, and a 0.920 SV%. Last game in net for the Heat was veteran Joey MacDonald facing off with Ilya Bryzgalov (Mr. Universe). MacDonald allowed three goals in the losing effort on the backside of a two games in two days. Expectations should be for the Ads to face the unbeaten Ortio in net. Can the Ads be the first team to hang a loss on him?

As for the unit in front of goal they are just as big a reason as to the success the Heat are enjoying. The Heat have scored an AHL best 64 goals as a team. The top goal scorer on the team is Joe Piskula‘s one-time teammate at the University of Wisconsin, Ben Street. His AHL season has been explosive enough to see him get a call up to Calgary. He played in eight games with the Flames picking up a lone assist before getting sent back to Abbotsford. His AHL season looks like this: 12 GP, 8 G, 7 A, 15 pts, with 33 SOG.

Now the fun news. Street is third on the team in points.

Ahead of him are fellow centermen Blair Jones (7 G, 11 A, 18 pts) and Corban Knight (6 G, 10 A, 16 pts). There are six players on this team who have score five goals or more. The Admirals only have two. Put it this way: the team could use another performance like the one in Iowa that produced a shutout simply in order to keep the Heat in-check.

Thoughts on tomorrow night’s game? Does the shutout in Iowa give you confidence that the Ads can slow down the Heat? Will Colton Sissons, who scored his first AHL assist and goal in the opening games in Abbotsford, strike again versus the Heat? If Hellberg is healthy enough to start this game, does he start or do you reward another start to Scott Darling?

Ads are playing in Iowa again? Feels like only yesterday we were just scouting this team. In that game the Ads managed to power past the Iowa Wild in the late stages en route to a 5-2 road victory.

So, what have the Wild been up to since?

The Wild currently sit at the bottom of the Midwest Division standings with a 6-7-0-0 record good for 12 points. They have played in four games since the previous meeting with the Ads and have only come away with one victory: 5-2 road win against the Rockford IceHogs. Like the Ads, they played games on Wednesday and Friday night. Also like the Ads, last night’s game was a rather scrappy affair that ended with a loss. In short, these will be two teams looking for a composed display of hockey with limited mistakes which torched them the previous night. Either that… or we could be in for a sloppy hockey game where mistakes will be there to be capitalized upon.

Transaction report isn’t too active for the Wild coming into this game. A name that does stand out in that list, and is still on the roster as I write this, is veteran forward Mike Rupp. What you come to expect with a guy like Rupp is physical presence that is great on the forecheck but even better on the backcheck. He blocks shots, gets into the dirty areas, and loves to play the game hard. Rupp has never been the biggest goal scorer in his NHL career, a career best of 13 in a season with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009-10, but will crash the net looking for any rebounds that may get spilled. Just thinking about Scott Ford matching up with him makes me smile. I think those two could have a fun game against one-another depending on how shifts circulate and what d-pairing matches Rupp’s line.

Thoughts about this road game? Will we see a bounce back from the Ads or more of what we saw last night? Can the Ads manage to get on the board first? Which player steps up tonight and makes an impact? My money is on Taylor Beck who scored last night… and -prior to that- scored his last goal for the Ads in Iowa before getting called up to the NHL… and -prior to that- he scored a goal against Rockford. Can he make it four goals in four-straight games?

Amtrak Rivalry night is upon us and revenge is on the mind. The last time the Ads and Wolves played was the home opener in Milwaukee. It went something like this:

Got to love a good rivalry, eh?

As for the last scouting report, not much has really changed in terms of the general make up of this team. The Wolves currently sit fourth in the Midwest Division with a 7-6-0-1 record good for 15 points out of 14 games played. Like the Admirals, this isn’t a team that draws too many penalties. The Ads are the least penalized team in the AHL with 164 PIM’s. The Wolves have 197 PIM’s. However, that first meeting of the season produced a combined 46 minutes worth of penalties. Roughing. Fighting. Slashing. Good times. I won’t be surprised to see a similar hockey game played even with the injury that currently sees Mike Liambas on the sidelines.

For the Wolves, this game will mark the conclusion of a lengthy six-game road trip. Regardless of tonight’s outcome this has been a very successful road trip for Chicago. They’ve won four of five, including three straight games, heading into the Amtrak Rivalry. The first on that trip was a 6-0 rout of the Oklahoma City Barons. They then dropped the rematch the following night, 4-2. But since? Perfect. 2-1, in Charlotte. 2-1, in Charlotte (again). Their last game was a 3-1 victory against the Iowa Wild on Wednesday.

I feel the first meeting between the Ads/Wolves is going to be a perfect barometer to tell just what type of game we should get tonight. My guess is this will be nip and tuck, scrappy, and defensive hockey. Last time out the Ads did a fantastic job staying composed defensively against one of the best teams in the AHL. They’ll need to continue that feat again against the Wolves.

While the Ads defense looked good against Grand Rapids it took a minor hit yesterday with the news regarding Filip Forsberg. In short, he won’t be in Milwaukee for this one. So what does that mean for the offense? The top two forward lines against the Griffins were strong throughout the course of that hockey game. Small example of what I mean: the starting forward group at the opening puck drop (Salomaki-Watson-Rask) won the draw and worked the puck in the offensive zone, line change (Moser-Sissons-Forsberg) with the puck still deep, and -bingo- goal. There is no guarantee that Taylor Beck instantly drops into the pairing with Moser and Sissons… but it seems likely don’t you think?

As for the starting line last game, after struggling to really have consistency with who he has been on the ice with, it seems as though Austin Watson has found a line in which everyone clicks into place. The Finnish combo of Salomaki and Rask provide the Michigan native with good speed, skill, and -tactically- wingers who are more than capable of playing defense just as well as offense.

“It’s nice to find that chemistry,” said Austin Watson of his linemates after Wednesday’s game. “[Salomaki and Rask] are two very skilled players. They work really hard. It’s great that we found that chemistry. We put in some good shifts together. The biggest thing I think is there speed and skill is so good that we can just sustain pressure in the offensive zone for twenty to thirty seconds at a time. That’s huge, and it’s going to create scoring chances for us.”

While I think it’ll be most interesting to see where Taylor Beck lines up tonight, the Ads are going to need the exact same consistency that Salomaki-Watson-Rask produced with the win over the Griffins. It set the tempo for the lines that followed and really guided the offense to zone time and -therefore- shots to the net. With a scrappy game in the cards. They could use lots of that.

Who wins tonight? How do you think Taylor Beck will respond in his return to the Admirals? Where would you fit Beck into the forward group? Will we see more fisticuffs in this one? Banter! Banter! Banter!

The division leading Grand Rapids Grffins roll into town tomorrow night. The Ads defeated them on their big Calder Cup banner raising ceremony night by the score, 3-2. Since then the Griffins have gone 7-1-0-1 including seven-straight wins in regulation. Just for good measure they’ll be entering Wednesday night’s game off of two consecutive games where they’ve scored six goals. For an Admirals team that has allowed 125 shots in their last three games… this could be trouble.

Leading the way for the Griffins is a guy I still can’t believe isn’t in the NHL, Gustav Nyquist. He currently leads the team in goals (7) and assists (10). The previous two games, where the team put up six goals in both contests, he has two goals and two assists. The whole team right now is rolling offensively. The man that will cause the most trouble for the Ads defense with each and every shift? Nyquist. It’s not all about scoring goals for him. He’s a great playmaker that creates quality chances for his teammates. While there is no denying he isn’t the only hot offensive player on the Griffins right now. To slow down the Griffins offensive attack the Ads defense will need to stay tight to Nyquist and keep him from controlling the game.

We all know about Petr Mrazek and how good he is. Yet, Tom McCollum is starting to really shine in net for the Griffins this season. McCollum was the first round draft pick for the Detroit Red Wings in the 2008 NHL Draft. He is entering his fifth season with the Griffins and might just finally be proving his value to the organization. This year he has won six games out of seven starts in net. He has allowed 2.25 goals per game but does has a good 0.922 SV%. Both McCollum and Mrazek are proving themselves to be very reliable options in net for the Griffins. No matter who gets tipped to start Wednesday the Ads will be in for a test offensively just as much as they will defensively.

How will the Ads match up against the division leaders? Who steps up big in this game? Will Hellberg continue to face 40+ shots? How can the Ads slow down the Griffins?

I know exactly what you’re thinking this morning. I am sick of playing the Texas Stars. Well good news! As of last night’s game the Ads finished off the season series with the Stars. Bring on the San Antonio Rampage! …who also know how tough those Stars can be.

Like the Stars, the Ads will play four games with the San Antonio Rampage. This is their first meeting of the 2013-14 season. Last year they met twice with the Ads winning 5-4 at home and getting shutout 1-0 in the road contest. The year before that they did play four games against each other and the Ads managed to win three out of four.

So, who exactly are the Rampage?

For starters they are a team under brand spankin’ new management as of Friday. The new head coach of the Rampage, Tom Rowe, replaces one time Admiral head coach and long time Nashville Predators assistant coach Peter Horachek who was named the head coach of the Florida Panthers on an interim basis. Rowe has a great background of coaching experience that includes being the head coach of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL last season. His first game as head coach of the Rampage resulted in a comeback victory over the Oklahoma City Barons, 3-2 in a shootout. While Rowe seems more than up to the task of his position it still shakes up a camp having a coaching change. There is a new voice barking orders and getting the right lines on the ice. In his first game as Rampage coach the team was called for “too many men on the ice” twice. Expect a team that is still getting used to a different voice on the bench.

Some of the top prospects that make up the very youthful Rampage roster include: Vincent Trocheck (C), Alex Petrovic (D), and Quinton Howden (LW).

Trocheck is a native of Pittsburgh who was drafted in the third round (sixty-fourth overall) of the 2011 NHL Draft. This is his first season of professional hockey and the 20-year old has played very well. In twelve games he has scored 6 goals and 6 assists. He scored the game tying goal in the Rampage’s shootout win last night. He’ll be the young gun to keep an eye on against the Ads.

Former Admirals: Greg Zanon (D) and Jed Ortmeyer (RW).

The man with the perfect beard –PERFECT– was voted as the Milwaukee Admirals 14th Greatest Admiral last year. How to sum up Greg Zanon? Like this:

Zanon is as tough as they come. A relentless defensive presence with zero regard for the human body… namely his own because he tends to block shots in his sleep. While the NHL is where Zanon would like to be, having played a career 493 games in the NHL, he starts the season in San Antonio as a veteran leader of a young Rampage team. If there were any player to pick out on this roster as the man players need to look up to, it’s Zanon.

Thoughts on the Rampage? Will the Ads end their two game skid today? What are your memories of Greg Zanon in Milwaukee?

Hey, remember these guys? Me too.

The Ads took two of two against the Stars in their last homestand. The games didn’t start pretty, both starting with two goal deficits, but the Ads scrapped out the Stars, battled back in both games, and won them both.

Saturday, October 26: Ads 4 – Stars 2.

Wednesday, October 30th: Ads 3 – Stars 2 (OT).

In both games the Stars skated circles around the Ads in the first period. They chipped pucks behind the Admirals’ defense and set up plenty of odd man breaks that required Marek Mazanec to bail out his defense. The Stars penalty kill stood out in the two meetings as well. The Ads went 0-7 against the Stars PK unit and conceded a shorthanded goal in the first meeting to Taylor Peters. The aggressiveness of the Stars PK unit featured very active sticks with forwards on the kill primed to attack the moment the puck was cleared out of the zone. No doubt the Ads looked into footage regarding the Stars penalty kill of these two games ahead of this weekend’s clashes.

Since they last squared off the Stars played two games against the Iowa Wild. They lost the first game, 4-2. Despite picking up the point for taking the Ads to OT, that loss in Iowa was their fourth consecutive defeat. How did they respond the next night? By pummeling the Wild 5-0.

The Stars have been resting up since that game. The Ads have been resting up since their Sunday win over that same Iowa Wild group. It’s going to be interesting to see how both handle the time off as well as how the two match up in this second set of games against one another. Yet, Mr. Evason seems upbeat about what this weekend will bring for the team.

How do you expect this weekend to go? Does the point streak end in Texas? How will Magnus Hellberg fair in his return to the Admirals net? Will Filip Forsberg make an immediate impact as an Admiral?

Time for brief history lesson. Last season, after the Minnesota Wild were unable to reach a lease agreement with the Toyota Center, the Wild said “happy trails” to the Houston Aeros. What became of that failed negotiation would be a return of an AHL team in Des Moines, Iowa. Previously they had the Iowa Stars (2005-06 through 2007-08) and lastly the Iowa Chops (2008-09). It’s been two seasons in the making for Iowa hockey fans but they now have the Iowa Wild. 10,213 fans showed up for the home opener and they are averaging 5,636 fans a night to make the Wells Fargo Arena a great atmosphere to play in front of.

History lesson over. Now about that team…

The Wild boast a roster built on team success. There is a grand total of 19 players on the roster who have scored at least a point. There is a three-way tie for most points scored on the team with 6 points and a a five-way tie with players who have scored 5 points.

Top goal scorer? Erik Haula and Brett Bulmer with 3 goals each.

Top in assists? A pair of defensemen: Brian Connelly and ex-Admiral Jonathon Blum who both have 5 assists.

In net the team has been sharing the load between Darcy Kuemper and Johan Gustafsson. Through seven games, Kuemper appears to have the edge and that was slammed home with his winning effort in relief of Gustafsson against the Chicago Wolves. He’s started every game since that relief appearance and won two out of three starts.

Perhaps the single most important factor comes on this lovely Saturday. Both the Ads and Wild played last night. Both won. Yet, the Ads have the day off. The Wild are set to play the Texas Stars for the second straight night before finishing off a three-in-three when the Ads storm in Sunday afternoon. The Ads finally had a quick start last night against the Rockford IceHogs. With a tired Iowa Wild team on deck, expect the Ads to pounce on them early and have an extra gear in the third period thanks to the Saturday off.

Do you think the Ads point streak extends past this match up? Your thoughts on the return of Blummer against his old team? Will the day off for the Ads be the difference maker in this game? Banter! Banter! Banter!