Mathieu Tousignant was a Chatterbox favorite last season as a member of the Milwaukee Admirals. Hopefully he can show up again after tonight’s game. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
The last time we saw these guys they were called the Abbotsford Heat and the Admirals lost 4-2 at home despite hammering twenty shots on goal in the first period. It was during that span when the Admirals were in the middle of a five-game winless stretch.
With the summer move away from Abbotsford, the Calgary Flames AHL affiliate was branded the Adirondack Flames after shipping out to Glens Falls, New York. They presented a firefighter killing mascot named Scorch who was shortly after murdered by the team themselves.
As for the actual team this season. They are doing far better than the PR team that cooked up the mascot fiasco. They are currently seated second in the North Division with a record of 15-10-1-0 (31 points) which has them fourth in the Western Conference standings. They have gone 6-4-0-0 (12 points) in their last 10 games including consecutive wins entering tonight’s contest.
~Odd Stat~
Despite a really successful start to the season the Flames have actually allowed more goals than they have scored… 75 goals forced, 79 goals allowed for a goal differential of -4. They’ve played in a game where either they or their opponent has scored five or more goals eight times this season. That includes a game that saw them come out on the better end of a 7-6 goal fest against the San Antonio Rampage.
~Returning Faces~
In tonight’s game we have two former Admirals and a Badgers product. Nolan Yonkman was the Ads captain from 2007-10. He played a career 283 games, produced 39 points (8 goals, 31 assists), and recorded 466 penalty minutes over his Admirals tenure. Mathieu Tousignant will be a familiar sight to those on the squad last season. He played 76 games, posted 21 points (8 goals, 13 assists), and had 158 penalty minutes. John Ramage played for the Badgers from 2009-13. Ramage was their captain for the final two years of his collegiate career which saw him play 157 games, score 53 points (14 goals, 39 assists), and tally 237 penalty minutes.
Yonkman is the Flames team captain and has 4 assists as well as 2 fights this season. Tousignant has 8 points (3 goals, 5 assists) for the Flames this season and has 6 fights already. Ramage is in his second full season of professional hockey and has 4 assists.
Thoughts for this game? Can the Admirals return to the win column tonight? What needs to happen to ignite the Admirals offense?
Be sure to follow Admirals Roundtable on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and see our photos on Instagram.
Miikka Salomaki is chasing a puck that just appears to keep alluding the Milwaukee Admirals offense during this six-game losing steak. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
The Admirals losing streak is six games. Now would seem to be an appropriate time to use the speech from “Network” or, even better, listen to “Not For Want Of Trying” by Maybeshewill. Because things are worse than bad they are crazy.
That franchise best start to a hockey season with six-straight wins has been erased with four of six losses coming on home ice. The power-play on home ice this season is second worst in the league with 3 goals from 44 chances for a 6.8% succession rate out of 13 home games.
Then there is the player regression. Through 23 games this season Colton Sissons has scored 7 points (all goals). At 23 games last season he produced 18 points (10 goals, 8 assists). Miikka Salomäki, the other rookie stand out from last season, has the same story: 12 points (4 goals, 8 assists) from 23 games… last season through 23 games he had 19 points (5 goals, 14 assists). Mark Van Guilder already has more penalty minutes than he did during the entire 2012-13 season and matched his penalty record from the entire 2010-11 season. His offensive production is also down through as many games this season to last season.
It might be a spell in which things just keep getting worse but, just when you feel the Admirals will hit rock bottom before vaulting upwards, they just find another way to lose. Similar to the game against the Grand Rapids Griffins, the Admirals had another good outing in net by Magnus Hellberg and just failed to provide a lead for him to work with. Specifically during this homestand portion of the losing steak the Admirals are only putting up 1.25 goals per game. During the Admirals six-game winning streak to start the season they were scoring (not including the slapped on shootout figure) 3.5 goals per game.
What the offense is doing right now isn’t good enough. It is nowhere near good enough. Even against supposed minnows like the Iowa Wild or Charlotte Checkers you’re asking for a tooth and nail scrap to earn points. The offense needs to wake up. The power-play needs to play as if they have an extra attacker on the ice (because they do). And the goaltending needs to stay the course and remain reliable.
Right now this is a power outage with the offense unable to gain, pass, or shoot the puck. The transition from defense to offense is shattered. The sooner the team can find it’s confidence back so they can play with the same fluidity, pace, and precision that they did at the start of the season – the better.
The Admirals are staring down the barrel of dropping all five games of this homestand including the two road games that preceded it. The Griffins went through a stint not too dissimilar to this earlier this season. They lost all four games of a four game homestand and dropped back-to-back games on the road. They followed that losing streak up by winning three-straight and six of eight games. Identity lacking. Find it. Get back on a run.
After the game I spoke with Dean Evason, Triston Grant, and Joe Piskula. Here is what they had to say following the Admirals 2-1 loss against the Rockford IceHogs on Wednesday night.
Triston Grant’s check to Cody Bass might have been the highlight of the night. Yet, the Admirals dropped their sixth-straight game with a 2-1 loss at home to the Rockford IceHogs. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
The Admirals lost 2-1 against the Rockford IceHogs Wednesday night. The losing streak for the Admirals is now up to six-games. The last time the Admirals suffered a losing streak this long was the six-game skid in the 2012-13 season from January 11-23.
“Absolutely terrible,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “We didn’t win any puck battles. Our power-play *pause* there is no power-play. We defend ok and then we lose in a tight game because of that.”
It was a relatively quiet first period. The IceHogs had the better of the Admirals in terms of shots, 8-4, but no team found the back of the net. The standout highlight of the opening frame was a check Triston Grant delivered to Garret Ross that sent the IceHog forward head over heels into the Admirals bench. The reaction from Jonathan Diaby and Jimmy Oligny, who Ross split between the bench, was priceless.
Another big hit along the boards ended up triggering a fight in the second period. Diaby pasted Cody Bass into the boards near the IceHogs penalty box and it caught the attention of Brandon Mashinter. Diaby answered the bell and, despite the size advantage, was knocked down to the ice. Decent blows from both were landed. Score things Mashinter 10, Diaby 9 in your fight cards due to the knock down for the IceHog forward.
1:06 after the fight came the game’s opening goal scored from a tic-tac-toe passing play by the IceHogs. Dennis Rasmussen broke into the zone from the right wing and dropped off for Phillip Danault. As he edged in towards Hellberg from the faceoff circle he picked out the center lane drive by Ross for a one-touch finish. It’s Ross’ eleventh goal of the season.
Then some relief. Viktor Arvidsson passed off from the right wing wall to Pontus Åberg. IceHogs netminder Michael Leighton appeared to be over-committed to the near side post and Åberg unloaded a Gatorade smasher against the grain to beat the veteran netminder blocker side. The goal for Åberg, his tenth, makes him the first Admiral to reach double-digit goals this season.
Forty seconds into the third period and the IceHogs regained their lead. It was a goal for T.J. Brennan that was eerily similar to his sniper shot from last Thursday. The defenseman flew up on the left wing for the rush and ripped a shot from the wall over the shoulder of Hellberg. There was next to no room where he was aiming but the puck dinked off the crossbar and in for his sixth goal of the season.
The Admirals pushed for the final minute with their net empty and an extra attacker on but, just like their power-play work, couldn’t get the job done. On this current homestand, four-games in, the Admirals are a baffling 0/17 on the power-play.
“Our power-play is not only not giving us any goals it’s not giving us momentum,” said Evason. “It has to be better.”
Ramblings: Tonight’s scratches for the Admirals included Johan Alm (upper-body), Mike Liambas (healthy), and Joe Pendenza (healthy). Speaking of scratches, after not being included in eight-straight games for the Chicago Blackhawks – Jeremy Morin was sent to the Rockford IceHogs on a conditioning assignment starting with tonight’s game. Morin had failed to score a point from fifteen NHL games this season after being a point per game player for the IceHogs last season. Florida Panthers general manager Dale Tallon was in attendance tonight potentially taking a look at the IceHogs forward. Rich Clune made his return to the ice after suffering a lower-body injury the last time the Admirals and IceHogs met last Thursday. Clune missed the Admirals two games this past weekend.
Behind the scenes tonight a very tragic story unfolded in which a fan died of an apparent heart attack. I would like to personally extend my thoughts and prayers to the family and friends associated with this incident.
Thoughts on tonight’s game? What would you fix to make the Admirals power-play run better? Is this simply a matter of the offense running out of steam or are more issues at work during this losing streak?
Be sure to follow Admirals Roundtable on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and see our photos on Instagram.
Thankfully for Frederick Gaudreau – Scott Darling is currently in the NHL at the moment. (Photo Credit: Rockford IceHogs)
Rather than dig back into the IceHogs, a team we’ve seen four times in our last eleven games, I am going to look back specifically at our last meeting. That game was our worst performance all season and summed up the worst of the Milwaukee Admirals during this current five-game losing streak. When the Admirals were shutout 4-0 by the IceHogs last Thursday they had nothing to offer from the opening puck drop until the game mercifully came to an end.
Anthony Bitetto chucked a puck over the glass seventeen-seconds into the game. That would signal the start of a period where they only posted four shots on goal. The IceHogs scored off of a goal that ricocheted off the goaltending stick and glove of Magnus Hellberg, who was trying to push the puck to his left corner, before finding its way behind him and the goal line to make it 1-0.
The second goal scored by the IceHogs was another howler all-round. A real story from that game for the Admirals defense was the amount of times they were burned by watching the puck and not being as active as they typically are. Rather than applying pressure, they seemed to all focus on the puck carrier and lost sight of T.J. Brennan skating from the left point all the way into the left wing faceoff circle. All five Admirals skaters are balled up to the right side of the ice and, in panic to the puck carrier Brennan, concede the backdoor to Hellberg’s net for Matt Carey. While his finish on the one-timer was whiffed. He had forever and a day to secure any rebounds if there was one. Fortunately for him, Brennan’s pass was so firm that it banked off of his skate and managed to beat Hellberg’s post-to-post save.
With the third goal came another mistake from the Admirals. This go-round they won a faceoff in neutral and Garrett Noonan, a bit too eager to start up a long feed for Viktor Arvidsson, turned the puck right over to start a two-on-one breakaway. Noonan was the last man back after the poor turnover because Johan Alm flew up center ice to get in attack. Why? I’m not even sure he knows. The net result, similar to Carey’s goal, was so much time and space for the IceHogs to score that they could jam a rebound in without pressure if need be. It wasn’t needed for Carey’s goal. It was for Drew LeBlanc‘s goal however and three trailing Admirals couldn’t fend him off of Hellberg before he made it 3-0 just over a minute into the third period to kill any real hope of a third period comeback.
The fourth and final goal was really the only one where I feel the Admirals did just about everything they could have to prevented it from happening. Brennan was in acres of space on the left wing, again, but his shot was simply unstoppable to the high blocker side roof.
Simply put. It was a stinker and it was so due to repeated mistakes. The Admirals passing was a mess. The defense was caught napping or being overly aggressive. When you make mistakes as bad as they made them against a team as hot as the IceHogs, who still lead the Midwest Division, you’re going to get a game like last Thursday.
What happened in the following two games for the Admirals did feel like minor improvements with teams game. I still feel that Hellberg and the Ads are very unlucky to not have secured a shutout on Sunday to put down the Grand Rapids Griffins. Yet, even that ended with the uninspiring feeling of “here we go again” as soon as the Griffins scored in the final minute of regulation.
A win tonight is a must for the Admirals. The losing streak is at five games including three straight on home ice. They’ll need to play desperate because I guarantee that the IceHogs, who lost their last two games, will come out strong looking for a rebound of their own.
Rather than get into the traps that cost them last time out. The Admirals need to be smart and keep things simple. That philosophy should have earned them a shutout last game. And it could get them back to winning ways tonight.
Thoughts for tonight’s game? Can the Admirals get some revenge from last week’s loss to Rockford? Is it ironic that the Admirals have lost every single game since Rich Clune called the Chicago Wolves “soft” or is it just me worried about us annoying the hockey gods?
Be sure to follow Admirals Roundtable on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and see our photos on Instagram.
Joe Piskula played in his 500th career game as a professional hockey player Sunday evening in the Milwaukee Admirals 2-1 shootout loss to the Grand Rapids Griffins. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
The Admirals began their season off with a franchise best start to a hockey season by winning six-straight games. Fast forward to tonight and the Admirals are in a run of no wins in their last five games with only two points to show for it from two shootout losses.
Certainly, Thursday’s game was the cream of the crop as far as the worst performance of the season. These last two this weekend have been improvements. Results based sport as it is – a loss isn’t great. And I truly feel that Magnus Hellberg and the Admirals deserved a far better fate in tonight’s 2-1 shootout loss.
They were fifty seconds away from not just a shutout but a complete, start to finish, game. It would have done them a world of confidence rather than let them stew until Wednesday’s game against the division leading Rockford IceHogs. Instead, it still feels as if their backs are against the wall. My hope is that desperation seeps into their game with the same tenacity that saw a snake-bitten team like the Iowa Wild come out firing against us not too long ago. The talent is there. The in-game consistency just isn’t at the moment.
After the game I spoke with Dean Evason, Pontus Åberg, Magnus Hellberg, Anthony Bitetto, and Joe Piskula. Here is what they all had to say following the Admirals fifth-consecutive loss.
Pontus Åberg scored his team leading ninth goal of the season but the Admirals couldn’t find more than that this evening. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
The Admirals lost 2-1 in a shootout against the Grand Rapids Griffins Saturday evening. With fifty seconds left in regulation Teemu Pulkkinen forced overtime for the Griffins and denied Magnus Hellberg from the shutout he deserved. The game lasted to a shootout where the Admirals saw their losing run extend to five games.
“The first fifteen-sixteen games those breaks were our’s,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “They got one tonight. So, we’ll use this as a step forward and put a positive spin on it for sure.”
Entering today’s game the Admirals record when scoring the opening goal was an impressive 9-1-0-1. During the Admirals four-game losing streak they only managed to score the opener once. That came from the 3-2 shootout loss to the Charlotte Checkers.
This afternoon the Admirals were able to get on the board first through Pontus Åberg’s team leading ninth goal of the season. Mark Van Guilder made a great play in neutral ice to force a turnover that fell kindly to Åberg breaking in off the right wing. The Swede aimed near post to the glove-side of Jared Coreau and beat him on the quick release shot.
After taking their timeout and emptying their net with 1:29 remaining in regulation – the Griffins scored an equalizer to force overtime. The toss on net was coughed up by Magnus Hellberg and spilled into the sprawl in front of him before getting pushed in by Teemu Pulkkinen. The tally by the Griffins ended Hellberg’s 123:17 shutout streak against them that dated back to last season when he conceded five goals against on 12/14/13 in Grand Rapids. For Pulkkinen it goes down as his team leading eleventh goal of the season.
“It was a cluster-[expletive] in front of me,” said Magnus Hellberg in regards to the equalizing goal for the Griffins. “I saved the first one and I don’t know how many guys it was but it was a lot of sticks just jamming my pads and everything. At that point it is so hard to see where the puck is because sticks everywhere. It’s frustrating.”
The game flew through the entirety of overtime and headed to the shootout. After two rounds the Admirals and Griffins were tied 1-1 but Miikka Salomaki’s third round chance was stopped and Mitch Callahan fired a shot to the blocker side of Hellberg to give the Griffins a 2-1 shootout victory. The Admirals losing streak has now reached five-games.
Hellberg may have taken the shootout loss but make no mistake – he was phenomenal today. He made thirty-three saves and only allowed the late frenzied goal from the Griffins with their goalie pulled and the extra attacker on in the final minute of regulation. If not for his play today – I question if the Admirals would have even picked up a point today.
“He’s been good all year,” said Admiral captain Joe Piskula of Hellberg. “It goes from the goalie to the defensemen to the forwards. It kind of builds our confidence and demeanor of the team. It’s huge.”
Ramblings: Today’s game marked the 500th game played in Joe Piskula’s professional playing career. The Antigo native has played in 488 career games at the AHL level including 12 games in the NHL. The scratches for the Admirals included Rich Clune (lower-body), Mike Liambas (healthy), and Johan Alm (upper-body). Clune did skate ahead of today’s game and Alm was a late decision for an upper-body injury. Both are expected to return to the lineup soon.
Thoughts on today’s game? Close but just not close enough? What would you change amidst this losing streak?
Be sure to follow Admirals Roundtable on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and see our photos on Instagram.
Ah-hah! You thought this would be a full throttle edition of Scouting the Enemy. Well, it is. But, with the Grand Rapids Griffins rolling in with one of the better prospects in hockey coming to town, I feel it necessary to do a spotlight.
Anthony Mantha was selected by the Detroit Red Wings with the twentieth overall selection in the 2013 NHL Draft. At the age of 20-years old this is his first season of professional hockey after a junior playing career that saw him record 260 points (129 goals, 131 assists) in 189 games with Val-d’Or Foreurs of the QMJHL. He missed the start to this season after fracturing a tibia in mid-September.
It was on 11/14/14 that Mantha made his pro-debut in a game that finished in a 3-2 home win for the Griffins over the Texas Stars. He has now played in 8 games with the Griffins this season and has 5 points (3 goals, 2 assists) – including a goal and an assist in last night’s Griffins 4-0 road shutout of the Rockford IceHogs.
If Teemu Pulkkinen wasn’t scary enough to deal with on the ice the addition of Mantha should be. They both possess similar high powered offensive qualities: deep shots, speed, strength, and a willingness to play contributor as well as sniper. To link those two up would mean rough times are in-store for the Midwest Division.
Since the debut of Mantha the Grand Rapids Griffins have gone 6-3-1-0 (13 points) in 10 games. Their overall record is 10-9-2-0 (22 points) and they sit behind the Admirals in the Midwest Division in fourth place. In Grand Rapids terms, their start to the season has been pretty lackluster. They’ve been playing some of their best hockey since the debut of Mantha and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. The better he gets as he acclimatizes to the pro-game – the better the Griffins will be in the AHL this season.
I think of him as the Red Wings version of Filip Forsberg a season ago. Mantha will probably spend the majority of his first pro-season at the AHL level as he gets over the speed bumps and gets a firm grasp of all elements, penalty kill included, that the AHL can provide him that wouldn’t otherwise be available to him in Detroit. We’re seeing him fresh this afternoon. He’ll be a whole different animal when we see them for the last time in the regular season on 4/8/15.
What will happen in today’s game? Which Admirals team will we be getting today: the early season winning streak version or the up-down-and-around losing streak version? Scoreline prediction?
Be sure to follow Admirals Roundtable on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and see our photos on Instagram.
Colton Sissons celebrates his teddy bear toss goal in the first period of the Milwaukee Admirals 5-3 loss to the Oklahoma City Barons on Saturday night. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
The Admirals fell 5-3 to the Oklahoma City Barons last night. Both teams are trending in different directions. Admirals, a season long four-game losing streak. Barons, a season best eight-game winning streak. It by no means wasn’t the greatest effort from the Admirals this season but was a boost out of their worst performance of the season on Thursday night when they were shutout 4-0 at home by the Rockford IceHogs.
I felt as if the Admirals had spurts of exactly who they are in last night’s game. Their opening five minutes to the game was a typical Admiral start with speed, tape to tape passing, sticks on the ice, and turning defense to offense quickly. After the goaltending change that saw Marek Mazanec get pulled for Magnus Hellberg – the team responded with hard-nosed plays to the net and getting the rewards for it with two-goals that put them back in the game before allowing the empty net goal late.
It’s a results based business, sure. This losing streak is something that is getting frustrating for the players. But, the talent is there and the ability to crash, burn, and learn is what came make a strong team even stronger in the long run. I doubt this will be the first losing skid of this season. It’s just a matter of making sure these runs are minimized and, most importantly, learned from by the team and its players so that mistakes are getting less and less common.
After the game I spoke with Dean Evason, Colton Sissons, and Frédérick Gaudreau. Here is what they had to say following the defeat to the Barons on Saturday night.
Colton Sissons scored the teddy bear toss goal in the first period. Yet, the tough times continued with a 5-3 loss to the Oklahoma City Barons. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
The Admirals lost 5-3 against the Oklahoma City Barons Saturday night. The word of the night is streak because it is now a four-game losing streak for the Admirals and a ten-game point streak for the Barons – including an eight-game winning streak.
“There will be positives to draw from,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “We talk all the time about learning from our adverse situations but we’ll draw some positives from tonight’s game.”
It was the Barons that scored the opening goal against the grain of some quality attacking hockey by the Admirals through the first five minutes of the game. Brad Hunt stepped up from the right point to hammer home a slap shot through Marek Mazanec for his sixth goal of the season.
Then came the Admirals first goal scored in 92:51 of ice time. Miikka Salomaki made an excellent push to goal breaking from the left wing. He dished off to Colton Sissons who was trailing off of Laurent Brossoit’s back post. It was a tap in effort for Sissons whose goal triggered the teddy bear toss festivities. He now has seven goals this season. Each and every point he has scored this campaign has come from goals.
“It was pretty fun,” said Colton Sissons on the experience of scoring the teddy bear toss goal. “We were kind of joking around before the game who was going to get it. I was happy to finish off a really nice play from [Miikka] Salomaki off the wing.”
In the second period the Barons regained the lead off the strength of their deadly power-play. Austin Watson took a slash to break up what would have been a back door tap in for the Barons. In the end, they scored on nearly the exact same play with the man-advantage. Hunt pass from the left wing over to the right wing for Barons captain Anton Lander. He didn’t get the shot off first time, which made have disrupted Mazanec in net, but still had plenty of the net to tally his sixth goal of the season.
The Barons were right back after it with another power-play goal and a second goal of the game for their rangy defenseman Hunt. The d-man had acres of space on the right wing and Mazanec squared him up, got low fast, and sent himself the wrong way as Hunt whipped a wrister high blocker side for his seventh goal of the season.
Then something that we didn’t see Thursday night – a fight. Jimmy Oligny paired up with Jujhar Khaira. Not many blows really landed but the resulting take down by Khaira was a heck of a thud. Score Khaira 10, Oligny 9 in your fight cards.
With the Admirals already down, and needing a quick start to the third period, the Barons added another goal just 1:03 into the last period of regulation. The Barons leading goal scorer Ryan Hamilton was cruising in the left wing and threw a wrister to the near post, glove-side, of Mazanec who never touched it. That went down as Hamilton’s tenth goal of the season and the final shot on goal that Mazanec would see in the game. Magnus Hellberg was brought on in place of him for the rest of the third period.
“Whenever you have a goalie change that really sparks your energy,” said Sissons. “It’s a wake up call. We feel terrible that that happened to [Mazanec]. We kind of hung him out to dry there.”
Frederick Gaudreau gave the Admirals a quick response after scoring his second goal of the season only 1:15 after the Hamilton goal. Joe Piskula’s point shot knuckled up on Brossoit and Gaudreau was in the right place at the right time to clean up the garbage.
Gaudreau was right back at it again a few minutes later from almost the exact same play. Anthony Bitetto’s shot from the point cleared through bodies and fell to the crease. Joe Pendenza made a brilliant kick pass with his skate to Gaudreau on the left side of the net for a thumping rebounded goal – his third goal of the season and second of the game.
The Admirals used their timeout and emptied their net for an extra attacker with 1:23 remaining. It would go for naught as Jason Williams tacked on an empty netter with a backhand on the left wing wall to score his ninth goal of the season and cap the game off at its 5-3 final.
“We’re in a tough spot right now,” said Sissons. “I think that a little bit of frustration has crept in and that’s not a good sign. So, hopefully we can turn things around.”
Ramblings: Prior to this game both Joe Pendenza and Jonathan Diaby were recalled from the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. Both were assigned together this past Tuesday. Tonight’s scratches included Mr. Diaby. It also included the Bash Brothers, Mike Liambas (healthy) and Rich Clune (lower-body). In tonight’s “Teddy Bear Toss” it was announced that fans threw 1,082 total teddy bears.
Thoughts on tonight’s game? What has been happening to the Admirals during this losing streak?
Be sure to follow Admirals Roundtable on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and see our photos on Instagram.
This is Richard Bachman. In net this season he hasn’t been too shabby. (Photo Credit: OKC Barons // Facebook)
Get that last game dusted off of you yet? Great, because the Milwaukee Admirals are back at it for the first of a two-in-two this weekend. Tonight we get to see an Oklahoma City Barons team that tops the West Division with a record of 13-4-2-2 (30 points). From one division leader to the next, right?
~OKC Rewind~
As mentioned, the Barons are leading the West Division. What should come as big a scare as the last Admirals game is just how hot they are rolling into Milwaukee tonight. The Barons have 9-game point streak currently and are 8-0-0-1 during that time including a 7-game winning streak.
During this point streak they have endured 5 games that have gone to overtime or a shootout including a stretch that saw them win 4-straight games in OT. That run of OT games finally came to an end last night with a 4-1 road win against the Grand Rapids Griffins.
With their 72 goals scored on the season, which ties them with their divisional foes the San Antonio Rampage, they only trail the Springfield Falcons (79) and Rockford IceHogs (74) for best offensive output in the AHL. The Barons have the second best power-play in the league: 24.7 % success rate… only the Bridgeport Sound Tigers ridiculous 29% rate is better.
~The Who & What~
Leading the team in scoring is veteran forward Jason Williams with 23 points (8 goals, 15 assists) in 19 games. He spent his last two seasons playing pro-hockey in Switzerland with HC Ambrì-Piotta. Prior to his stint overseas he was a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization where he played the bulk of his 2011-12 season with Wilkes-Barre Scranton. He currently has 267 games of AHL playing experience.
Other men leading the way in scoring for the Barons are Brad Hunt, Anton Lander, Ryan Hamilton, and Iiro Pakarinen. Both Hunt and Lander are tallying up the assists this season with a combined 25 assists between them. As for Hamilton and Pakarinen, those two have each been tearing things up in the goal department. Hamilton has a team best 9 goals this season while Pakarinen’s 8 goals ties him with Williams.
The man shouldering the load in net for the Barons this season, just like last season, is Richard Bachman. He is currently putting together his best season since his 2009-10 as a member of the Texas Stars and Idaho Steelheads. He has played in 11 games this season, won 7 games, and has a 2.27 goals against average with a 0.921 save percentage.
As far as any rough stuff goes. The man you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled for is #22, Kale Kessy. This season he has 61 penalty minutes on the strength of 5 fighting majors – including a game misconduct for fighting Charlotte Checkers defenseman Keegan Lowe twice in a game on 11/21/14.
~Milwaukee Admirals Make A Roster Move~
Let’s talk about us for a moment because there was a move made last night that saw Joe Pendenza getting recalled from the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL before their game against the Fort Wayne Komets. Pendenza only played one game after his loan move down on Tuesday. This move is made as a direct result of the injury picked up by Rich Clune on Thursday night that, according to Dean Evason, should sideline Clune for the weekend.
BREAKING: That other lad involved in the roster move on Tuesday, Jonathan Diaby, has also been reassigned to the Admirals.
What are your expectations for tonight’s game after the horror show Thursday night? Should the Admirals be aggressive right out of the gate to show some fight or do they need to remain conservative with such an attacking force in the Oklahoma City Barons on the ice?
Be sure to follow Admirals Roundtable on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and see our photos on Instagram.
News & Discussion Site For Your Milwaukee Admirals
Admirals Roundtable 