The Admirals set a franchise record for wins to start a season with a 2-1 shootout win against the Lake Erie Monsters Saturday night. Magnus Hellberg won in his first start of the season, made 25-saves, and didn’t allow a goal in the shootout. Garrett Noonan’s first professional goal proved to be a streak-saver for the Admirals. He equalized with 7:21 left in regulation to give the Ads the opportunity that saw them win their sixth straight game to start the season.

“We’re going to ride it as long as we can,” said Triston Grant of the Admirals franchise best six-game winning streak to start a season. “We didn’t play up to our standards the last couple games but we have to take those wins because there’s going to be games that we play really well and we’re not going to win. That’s what happens in hockey.”

After a rather sluggish opening period – there were some real fireworks that spurted out of the second. The Monsters were awarded a penalty shot when Jimmy Oligny hauled down Andrew Agozzino. Magnus Hellberg, making his first start of the season, bailed out his rookie defenseman with a pad save on the penalty shot attempt to keep things scoreless.

Then some rough stuff. Joe Piskula and Colin Smith had a small scrap that only resulted in roughing calls for each. This was followed later in the second period by a fight of the year candidate between Triston Grant and Daniel Maggio. Both leveled one another to the point of patchwork. Grant, who I’d give the win to, had Quinten Tarantino level blood splatter on his helmet visor. His counterpart Maggio was handed a fresh jersey whilst in the penalty box.

After a puck was spilled by Hellberg in net, the Monsters broke the deadlock in the second period with a goal from Paul Carey. As soon as the puck left the clutches of Hellberg the battle in front of him became a mess. Carey picked up the loose puck, skated for a shot, and had the entire top shelf to hit for his second goal of the season.

Another scrum came in the third period as Austin Watson leapt to the defense of his linemate Brendan Leipsic after a solid check by Maxim Noreau. It wasn’t anything near the level or intensity of the previous Grant battle – but was a solid display of sticking up for your teammates from Watson nonetheless.

With 7:21 left in regulation, Garrett Noonan scored his first professional goal to level the game at 1-1. Noonan pump faked a slap shot and then zipped one towards traffic. Zach Budish jumped over the puck, Joe Pendenza set a screen in front of Calvin Pickard, and the Noonan shot flew past everyone and into the back of the net.

For the second consecutive night we were then treated to the new AHL overtime format. Prior to the three-on-three change over, the Admirals were awarded with a penalty shot as Viktor Arvidsson was chopped down by Stefan Elliott. Just like the previous penalty shot attempt. The five hole move wasn’t working. And this game lasted all the way into a shootout.

Leipsic was up first for the Admirals and beat Pickard with a barrage of moves. Mike Sgarbossa’s follow up for the Monsters belted the post and came right back out for a miss. Arvidsson stepped up next for the Ads and again failed on a five hole move. Smith was next for the Monsters and flipped his backhander high and wide. The game then fell on the stick of Pontus Aberg – who deked himself enough room to beat Pickard to the far post and in for the game-winner.

“For a lot of the weekend we didn’t play the way that we had in our first four,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “The league is going to get better, teams are going to get better, and we need to get better. We’ll continue to work at it.”

Ramblings: Patrick Cehlin was the lone player out with injury tonight for the Admirals as he recovers from a hip injury. Jonathan Diaby and Mike Liambas were both listed as healthy scratches. Tonight was Magnus Hellberg’s first competitive start since 4/13/14 with the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL – he stopped 21/22 in a 4-1 win. The Admirals remain the final unbeaten AHL team remaining with a franchise record 6-0-0-0 start to a season.

Thoughts and observations from tonight? How did Magnus Hellberg fair in his first start of the season? What did you make of the Admirals offense being, for the most part, shutdown tonight? And will this new AHL overtime format give you heart problems throughout the season? …because I think it will for me in the best of ways.

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The Admirals extended their unbeaten run to five games with a 3-2 overtime victory on the road against the Chicago Wolves on Friday night. Anthony Bitetto scored the game-winner as the Ads experienced the AHL’s three-on-three overtime format for the first time this season. Pontus Aberg and Austin Watson also tallied ahead of another fine performance in net, 26-saves, by Marek Mazanec.

The Admirals power-play unit continued doing damage by scoring tonight’s opening goal. After Petteri Lindbohm hauled down Brendan Leipsic – the Admirals were able to take advantage of the man-advantage and then some. Veteran Brent Sopel broke his stick on the Wolves penalty kill and allowed for even more space on the ice. Miikka Salomaki picked out Pontus Aberg for a one-timed effort that beat Matt Climie in net for the young Swede’s fourth goal of the season.

After the Admirals scored, the first period was heavily controlled by the Wolves both in puck possession and in shots. The first period ended with the Wolves outshooting the Admirals 9-3. As fast paced as the Ads have looked this season – the Amtrak Rivals were doing more than just step for step work. The Wolves, especially the combo of Ty Rattie and Terry Broadhurst, were by far the faster of the two teams through the opening twenty-minutes.

The Wolves found an equalizer off of a bad defensive change by the Admirals in the second period. Joe Piskula and Jonathan-Ismael Diaby were very slow to the bench. As they were coming off – the Wolves set Ty Rattie free on a breakaway. The man who tallied 31 goals as a rookie last season pulled a backhander to Marek Mazanec’s five hole to level the game up at 1-1. It was Rattie’s third goal of the season.

The Admirals reclaimed the lead in the third period after a great shift pulled by the line of Brendan Leipsic, Mark Van Guilder, and Austin Watson. Leipsic’s work around Climie’s net saw him pass out to the right side of the cage where Watson, draped by Jeremy Welsh, smacked home his fourth goal of the season to make it 2-1.

Welsh would factor back into the third period scoring with a goal of his own. After some quality defensive work by the Wolves behind their own net – they launched a counter attack on the right wing with Welsh. The 26-year old blazed past Diaby on the wing and whipped a shot past Mazanec to even things right back up at 2-2.

Then, what would an Amtrak Rivalry game be without some controversy? The Wolves had a late chance of a 4-3 power-play that would expand into a full forty-five seconds worth of 5-3 power-play time. Just as the two-man advantage expired – the Wolves had a goal disallowed by the officials. Pat Cannone rushed in on Mazanec, was tripped up by Felix Girard, and the puck kicked to Shane Harper who put it in the back of the net. There wasn’t a penalty for goaltender interference. The goal was waved off. And the Admirals would kill off a lengthy stay shorthanded.

Next came our first look at the new AHL overtime format. It is a seven minute time frame in which the first three minutes are four-on-four. After the first whistle past the four minute mark in the overtime – it goes to three-on-three until the final horn. It’s all in an effort to avoid the dreaded shootout which has also gone under some tweaking: it is now a best of three format this season as opposed to years past in the AHL where it was a best of five.

The Amtrak Rivalry’s first game of the season would go all the way into the new three-on-three format. With twenty-nine seconds remaining before the game turned to a shootout – Anthony Bitetto was able to step up off the left wing side and snap a wrister past Climie for the overtime winner and his first goal of the season. The Admirals have remained unbeaten in their first five games of the season and have won four-straight road games.

Ramblings: The line combinations tonight were a continuation of what we saw in Iowa: Salomaki-Sissons-Aberg, Leipsic-Van Guilder-Watson, Arvidsson-Girard-Grant, Pendenza-Gaudreau-Budish, Diaby-Piskula, Bitetto-Noonan, and Alm-Aronson. Patrick Cehlin and Mike Liambas remained out due to injury. And Jimmy Oligny was a healthy scratch. As for the Wolves, the St. Louis Blues recalled Dmitrij Jaskin after placing Paul Stastny on injured reserved this afternoon. The Texas Stars loss tonight against the Oklahoma City Barons means that the Milwaukee Admirals are now the last remaining unbeaten team in the AHL. It is the second time in team history the the Admirals have won five straight games to open a season. It is a record for most consecutive road wins to start a season, with four.

Thoughts from tonight’s game? Was this the true test for the Admirals start to the season? What did you make of the brand new AHL overtime format? Is three-on-three overtime hockey any less laughable than ending the game in a shootout? Can the Admirals keep the winning streak going on home ice tomorrow night against the Lake Erie Monsters?

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The Admirals won 4-0 on the road against the Iowa Wild Saturday night. It is only the third time in team history that the Milwaukee Admirals will have started the season off with four-consecutive wins. You’d have to go back to the 1988-89 and 1982-83 seasons to find the other two.

Tonight’s standout performers were highlighted with man in net shutting the door and another picking up a natural hat trick. Marek Mazanec earned his first career AHL shutout by stopping all twenty-nine shots he faced in net tonight. And rookie winger Viktor Arvidsson scored the Admirals first road hat trick since 3/29/09 when Mike Santorelli did so in Chicago.

The Admirals fourth line kept their solid start to the season going by scoring tonight’s opening goal. Zach Budish fired a low-wrister from the right wing that netminder Johan Gustafsson kicked back into the slot. Joe Pendenza’s center-lane drive saw him get to the rebound before Gustafsson could spot the puck. It was a tap in for Pendenza – his second goal of the season.

After a frantic night for the penalty box last night there was only one penalty called in the first period. The Wild’s captain Stephane Veilleux was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct as he was on the bench.

The resulting power-play saw Viktor Arvidsson score his second goal of the season. The Wild’s penalty kill was pressuring the puck carrier heavily and the Admirals cycled along the wall to escape the thick puck pursuit. Garrett Noonan jumped up on the play and stationed himself behind the net before laying a pass off to Arvidsson that was taken first-time. The shot would have missed the net completely if not for the unintentional assistance of ex-Admiral Jonathon Blum. The puck hit his leg and flew past his goaltender to give the Ads a 2-0 lead in the first period.

Arvidsson’s scoring would continue in the second period as he tallied two more timed to complete a natural hat trick. For his second goal of the night he was leading a two-on-one rush with Triston Grant on the left wing side of him. Rather than slip a pass, Arvidsson faked a slap shot and threw a change-up along the ice and past Gustafsson’s five hole to make it 3-0.

On the Admirals second power-play of the night – Arvidsson would complete his first North American hat trick with an absolute howitzer. His slap shot was borderline violent and resulted in his fourth goal of the season, third goal of the night, and third power-play goal of this young season.

The third period was really cruise mode for the Admirals. The defending stayed strong and allowed for a first career AHL shutout for Marek Mazanec. The 23-year old Czech never looked rattled for a moment in tonight’s game. He stopped all twenty-nine shots he faced tonight. It’s the fourth time in two seasons that Admirals have shutout the Wild.

Ramblings: The defensive shuffling continued tonight with Taylor Aronson being brought back into the lineup at the expense of Jimmy Oligny. Jonathan-Ismael Diaby kept his place in the team-sheet for his second appearance of the season. Scratches outside of Oligny included the injured pair of Patrick Cehlin and Mike Liambas. The hat trick by Viktor Arvidsson was the first by an Admiral since Austin Watson’s teddy bear toss night performance on 4/12/14 against the Chicago Wolves. Raphael Bussieres of the Iowa Wild was injured late in the second period and did not return to the contest. The Admirals have scored 17 goals in 4 games this season. The next closest in the AHL are the Bridgeport Sound Tigers with 15 goals.

Thoughts from tonight’s game? Is Marek Mazanec becoming a rock for a young Admirals defense? Is there something wrong with Colton Sissons and Miikka Salomaki offensively or are the rookies just looking that much better through four games? How long can this unbeaten run to start the season last for the Milwaukee Admirals?

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The Admirals won 4-3 on the road against the Iowa Wild on Friday night. Austin Watson’s hot start to the season continued as he became the first Admiral since Alexander Radulov (2006-07) to score a goal in each of the first three games of the season. The Admirals have won their opening three games for the first time since the 2011-12 season.

After the two team captains collided along the boards, the Admirals took the game’s first power-play and quieted the opening night crowd in Iowa with a goal. The wing-play of the Admirals on their power-play unit is strong enough to open up space right down the slot. That means setting up for rebounds or wing-to-wing passes such as Brendan Leipsic to Pontus Aberg. The young Swede picked up his second goal of the season off the power-play to make it 1-0 Admirals.

Then the first period seemed to tilt the way of the Wild. The first period ended with a hefty 14-5 shots advantage for the home team that stormed back after conceding with a goal of their own. Zach Mitchell managed to score his first professional goal. He did it by camping out in front of Marek Mazanec and backhanding a juicy rebound to make it a 1-1 game.

The Admirals answered back late in the first period following a successful penalty kill. It appeared as if Wild goaltender Johan Gustafsson overplayed a puck and Aberg caught him out of position. He managed to leap back from behind the net and backhand a shot past the scrambling goalie for his second goal of the game.

Iowa took a roughing penalty with 0.3 seconds remaining in the first period. That meant the Ads effectively had a full power-play to work with from the second period puck drop. Just two minutes into the second period and the Admirals found themselves two goals richer.

On the opening second period power-play, Colton Sissons scored his first goal of the season after a poor turnover by the Wild behind their own net. A minute and eleven seconds following Sissons goal and Austin Watson scored – his third in three games this season. Leipsic hit Watson with a pass as he barreled down the slot. It was Leipsic’s third primary assist of the game. The Watson goal was enough for the Wild to swap goalies and bring in John Curry.

Watson would go to the box for a hooking call midway through the second period. His role on the PK was substituted with Aberg who seemed to get lost in the Wild’s puck shuffle. When the puck got to Zach Phillips it left Aberg and Anthony Bitetto scrambling to the right wing. Phillips’ pass across the penalty kill would result in a tap in for Curt Gogol to make it a 4-2 contest.

This game stayed at that two goal margin until the Wild scored with their net empty and the extra attacker on. With 46.6 seconds remaining, Danny Syvret’s point shot ricocheted through traffic and past Mazanec to make it a one-goal game. The goal was credited to Brett Sutter for his first goal as a member of the Wild.

Despite the late tally and a strong push against Mazanec and the Admirals late. The Wild ended up dropping their home opener and the Ads continue their hot start to the season with their third regulation win from three games.

Ramblings: The scratches tonight included Patrick Cehlin (hip), Mike Liambas (undisclosed injury), and Taylor Aronson (healthy scratch). It meant we saw the all left-handed defense for the Admirals this season – with an introduction to Jonathan-Ismael Diaby in place of Aronson. The Admirals and Wild combined for 15 total penalties tonight. The Ads PP went 2/7 while the Wild’s PP went 1/8.

Thoughts on tonight’s effort? Are you at all worried over the Admirals defense? Would you start Marek Mazanec again tomorrow night or give Magnus Hellberg his first start of the season? Which young forward has impressed you more, Brendan Leipsic or Pontus Aberg?

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