The Admirals won 6-5 in overtime against the Rochester Americans Sunday evening. Today’s story was about really bad bounces with Admiral leads coming and going. In the end, it was a clean sweep of the weekend three-in-three for the Admirals.

“That was a crazy game,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “I don’t even know where to begin. Our heads are still spinning. Bounce after bounce. It was just a really funky game.”

It took the Americans 4:40 before they registered their first shot on goal. Fortunately for them, the Mark Pysyk shot deflected off of Joe Piskula’s leg and fooled Magnus Hellberg in net to the near post. It was Pysyk’s third goal of the season.

The Admirals struck back with a pair of power-play goals in the first period. Ian White belted a slap shot through traffic for his fourth goal in the AHL this season, third since joining the Admirals, and first scored as an Admiral that wasn’t an empty netter. The second tally was a lightning fast series of passes that sent goaltender Andrey Makarov scrambling once the shot was put on net. Triston Grant buried the loose puck out in front for his seventh goal of the season.

In the second period the Admirals scored their third power-play goal through Brendan Leipsic. It was a tight to the cage effort for Leipsic as he hacked away twice on a loose puck while two defenders closed him down. His last swat had enough on it to go up and over Makarov for his sixth goal of the season.

Just as they did in the first period the Americans were able to score a goal off of a deflection off an Admirals defenseman. Zac Dalpe’s wrister off the right wing wall hit off Anthony Bitetto’s right leg and in past Hellberg on the glove side. It was Dalpe’s eleventh goal of the season.

The Amerks clawed back from the two goal deficit to draw level in the second period. Jerry D’Amigo passed over to Phil Varone who was all alone on the right wing faceoff circle. The 2015 AHL All Star was able to beat a fellow All Star in net as Hellberg wasn’t able to slide over fast enough to stop Varone’s twelfth goal of the season.

That level score wouldn’t be around for long though. Leipsic made a Play of the Year candidate. As the Amerks were looking to get back out of their zone Leipsic raced in and picked the puck clean off of Jake McCabe’s stick and controlled the puck with pace in on Makarov, threw some quick stickhandles in, and buried the goal for his second of the game and seventh of the season.

“I just tried to finish my hit and caught the defenseman being a little too casual and poked [the puck] through,” said Brendan Leipsic. “I was fortunate enough to beat the goalie.”

After the goal by Leipsic the Amerks swapped goalies. Makarov had stopped 15/19 shots before getting pulled. He was replaced by Matt Hackett.

Midway through the third period the Americans equalized once more. Dalpe flicked a backhander in on Hellberg that was coughed up into the air. As it was coming down Dalpe managed to bat the puck through the right arm of Hellberg and in for his second goal of the night and twelfth of the season.

Sick of hearing the Admirals gain a lead and then lose it? Well I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news. The two traded goals late in the third period en route to forcing overtime. Viktor Arvidsson unleashed the howitzer slap shot of his off the crossbar and down. Just to be sure it would count as a goal, Mark Van Guilder cleaned up the loose puck behind the back of Hackett to make it 5-4. It is recorded as Van Guilder’s sixth goal of the season. Only forty-eight seconds later the Amerks tied the game on their third goal scored off of a bank shot off an Admiral. McCabe’s shot hit clean off of Felix Girard and into an open net for his fourth goal of the season.

The moment the game shifted to three-on-three overtime was the decider. The Amerks had iced the puck and the Admirals had an attacking zone faceoff to work with. Austin Watson won the draw back to Taylor Aronson who fed right back to him. Watson delivered a powerful slap shot that blew past the glove of Hackett for his team leading eighteenth goal of the season to win it in overtime.

The Admirals swept the weekend three-in-three and now have a four point gap to the Rockford IceHogs who will be stationary until Friday. The Admirals play on the road against the Chicago Wolves on Wednesday. Good news for all is that this weekend was the last three-in-three of the Admirals season.

“Those two games, the back to back with Rockford, kind of felt like a mini playoff series,” said Leipsic. “Definitely a lot of energy and emotion goes into those but you have to find enough to get another game Sunday. Obviously, guys are spent right now.”

Ramblings: Rich Clune made his return from a lower body injury after missing the Admirals previous four games. The scratches were Miikka Salomaki (upper body), Pontus Aberg (healthy), Jimmy Oligny (right knee), and Johan Alm (left wrist). Joe Piskula was injured in this game and did not return. This comes with the additional news that Mattias Ekholm was injured for the Nashville Predators today as well. After the game, Evason said that the team will most likely call up Jaynen Rissling from the Cincinnati Cyclones, have a played called up, and the Admirals will need to look into bringing in more defensemen.

Thoughts on today’s game? As far as wacky games go where does this rank? How well has the Admirals offense played lately and has it masked defensive issues?

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The roller coaster that was the Milwaukee Admirals against the Rockford IceHogs in Rockford has just come to an end. The Admirals won the track meet 7-5 to claim sole possession of the Midwest Division on the road Saturday night. Viktor Stålberg scored a hat trick, Triston Grant recorded a Gordie Howe hat trick, and Marek Mazanec picked up his seventh straight win in net for the Admirals.

Before this game even started there was a standoff between the Admirals and IceHogs during pre-game skate. There are no officials on the ice for warm ups and shoving got started a half-hour before game time. They then piled up near the penalty box area in neutral ice before dispersing.

T.J. Brennan crushed Kevin Fiala in the game’s opening minute to put the Admirals on a very early power-play. The result saw Taylor Aronson pass over to Brendan Leipsic who hit a wicked one-timer through Scott Darling for his fifth goal of the season.

One of the major instigators in last night’s chippy instances on the ice, Pierre-Cedric Labrie, got his wish shortly after the opening goal. He engaged a fight with Triston Grant and the two hardly landed a blow to each other. They went down on the ice quick and it almost felt like they could have been given roughing calls over the fighting majors that they received.

Fiala and Brennan met yet again but this time the circumstances were flipped as it appeared the 18-year old was looking for a revenge hit of his own. The IceHogs were put to the power-play and Viktor Stålberg pounced on a fumbled puck by Ryan Hartman. The Swede was all alone for the shorthanded breakaway and buried a forehand to backhand deke past Darling for his fifth goal of the season.

Just like that, the Admirals were up 2-0 on the IceHogs off of two special teams play and the IceHogs decided to pull Darling from the net in favor of Michael Leighton. Darling was only in net for 4:11 of ice time in the game and made one save from three shots.

The first period would have another bout on the ice and it was one that almost started the night prior. Mike Liambas and Cody Bass locked up and they landed plenty of punches. This scrap was triggered in last night’s game when Liambas had a huge check along the penalty box boards to Mark McNeill. As Bass came over the boards for a change he went right after Liambas. It didn’t happen then and there. But it did take place in Rockford tonight.

Weirdly, Liambas was given an additional roughing call on his fight with Bass and it ended up biting the Admirals. A great tic-tac-toe passing play set up McNeill all alone in front of Marek Mazanec for an easy finish. The passes started with Matt Carey and Garret Ross along the right wing before setting up McNeill directly in front of goal to score his fourteenth goal of the season.

It seemed for a moment that the IceHogs had leveled the game up at 2-2. Ross faked a slap shot to turn Ian White inside out and cranked a wrister off the crossbar and down. The goal light went on, the players celebrated, but the video review went against all the commotion and it was ruled no goal.

Before you knew it the Admirals turned around and made it 3-1. Stålberg made an incredible play to fly past Dillon Fournier with speed, cut in front of Leighton with power, and finish it all off with a backhander top shelf for his second of the night and sixth goal scored with the Admirals this season.

In the second period the IceHogs scored a shorthanded goal of their own on an “Ugliest Goal of the Year” candidate. Mazanec didn’t catch that Phillip Danault was racing in down the left wing side. When Mazanec left the puck behind his net Danault was able to swoop in, swat at the puck before Aronson could get to it, and then the bounces came. The puck hit off Danault’s stick, Aronson’s leg, Mazanec’s back, and then the ice inside the net for Danault’s seventh goal of the season.

With 3:59 remaining in the second, Hartman was called for a roughing minor that sent the Admirals to the power-play and the IceHogs’ Ross to a temper tantrum. The forward was ejected after exchanging words with the officials following the call on the ice.

From that power-play Stålberg capped off his hat trick by scoring his seventh goal of the season. The Admirals power-play goal was almost identical to that of the IceHogs earlier in the game. It was a tic-tac-toe play between Viktor Arvidsson and Colton Sissons before laying off to the front of the net for Stålberg for the hat trick. Not a bad way to celebrate Swedish Heritage Night in Rockford if I do say so myself.

The third period brought about the third fight of the night. After a hit along the boards Brennan dropped his gloves and attempted to engage Liambas. It would have been Liambas’ second fight of the night and a game penalty as a result so he smartly declined and actually drew a penalty against Brennan for delay of game. Meanwhile, Hartman grappled Félix Girard and those two tussled themselves into the ice.

As Brennan’s penalty expired the Anthony Bitetto hit Grant with a picture perfect stretch pass that sent him loose on a breakaway. The veteran torched Leighton on a snapshot high glove side for his sixth goal of the season.

Less than a minute later the IceHogs got that goal right back. Some really solid work in front of the net by Ryan Schnell jarred a puck loose to the side of the net. Jamie Wise was quick to react, and picked up the puck behind the net and was able to bank a shot off of Mazanec and in for his third goal of the season.

The Admirals tallied their sixth goal of the night off of their third breakaway goal of the game. Grant was able to set Austin Watson free down the right wing and, after a faked slap shot, he cut in on Leighton and deposited his seventeenth goal of the season as a pair of IceHogs defensemen crashed him into the net. The assist on the play for Grant gave him a hat trick of his own – the Gordie Howe variety.

Rockford had their net emptied and the extra attacker on when Schnell scored his second goal of the season with fourteen seconds remaining in the game. Thankfully, the scoring wasn’t done there because Ian White decided to score his second empty netter with the Admirals this season to reach the game at its mind blowing 7-5 final.

Massive credit for this game must be given to Mazanec in net. The Admirals, especially in the second period, were actually quite over-matched on offense and resorted to quick-strike counter attacks to catch out the aggressive IceHogs. Mazanec made thirty-nine saves tonight in a thrill ride of a game that saw his counterparts on the opposite side get lit up like they haven’t in ages. The Admirals scored seven goals from only eighteen shots. That is simply scary when you consider the goalies they just did that to.

The game’s video highlights are broken up into three parts. You can watch them period by period: 1st Period, 2nd Period, and 3rd Period.

Ramblings: The Admirals lineup and line combinations were exactly the same as they were last night against the IceHogs. The difference though was that Rich Clune actually participated in pre-game skate today. I imagine that means he is cleared to play but was a game time decision and the team elected to roll the same group out as the night before and make sure Clune is 100% before going back at it. Perhaps he’ll return tomorrow afternoon? We’ll see. This game had a combined seventy-two penalty minutes. It’s the most goals that the IceHogs have allowed in a single game this season – the previous high was five goals allowed and came against the Iowa Wild.

Thoughts on this game? Putting aside technical aspects and thinking purely on entertainment – was this the game of the year so far? Will the Admirals have anything left in the tank for tomorrow?

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