The Admirals won their first game of the season 2-1 in a shootout on the road against Abbotsford Saturday night. Magnus Hellberg came up big in this one with 26 saves and stopping all four shootout attempts he faced. Ads youngster Colton Sissons managed to score his first professional goal in front of his friends and family in British Columbia, as well.

“We really did a lot of good things,” said assistant coach Stan Drulia after the game on Sports Radio 1250 WSSP. “It was good to see the guys continue to battle. We gave up that power-play goal early in the third and we didn’t sit back. We kept on pressing and playing the game we’re supposed to play.”

The opening period ended scoreless, but the Ads missed out on a solid chance to open the scoring early. At the 10:51 marker, Mike Liambas was taken down and on the backside of the play the Heat double up on minor penalties with a roughing call. The Ads had a full two-minutes of 5-on-3 power-play to work with. Not only didn’t they cash in. They didn’t even register a shot on goal. Chalk up another gritty performance to the Heat’s penalty kill.

Shots were much more frequent in the second period. The Ads mustered up a 15-8 shots advantage in the period. Yet, the deadlock remained and both goalies stood up well to the increased pressure poured in on net.

With an interference call being carried over to the start of the third period, the Heat broke the deadlock seconds into frame through Roman Horak. It took the Heat forty-one seconds into the period to cash in on the man-advantage. They managed to clean up off the face off and establish the Ads defensive zone fast. Horak, the Heat’s fourth best scorer last season, picked up his first goal of the season.

The Ads would equalize off of Colton Sissons first professional goal. The native of British Columbia, playing in front of family and friends in Abbotsford this weekend, deflected a shot on net by Taylor Beck that finally beat Heat goalie Reto Berra. Sissons recorded his first career point in the season opener last night with an assist. Tonight? It’s the goal that the family and friends were able to cheer.

Like the night before, this game was tightly contested and pushed its way into overtime. Unlike last night, there wasn’t solid chance to end it in overtime. The game was decided on a shootout with the Ads netting taking the win courtesy of Taylor Beck (glove side wrister), Patrick Cehlin (stick side slap shot), and Magnus Hellberg (who denied all four shootout attempts he faced).

The Ads take a hard earned three points in Abbotsford to start the season. Next up? A meeting on the road this coming Friday with last year’s Calder Cup champions the Grand Rapids Griffins. That will conclude the opening three game road stint to the season with the home opener against the Chicago Wolves taking place Saturday.

So Roundtable….Are you going to not dread shootouts anymore if Magnus keeps this up?  Including the pre-season game, he’s now 14/14 in shootout chances.  Sissons — so far so good, eh?  Are you concerned at all about the 0-8 start on the power play?

The Admirals lost the season opener in overtime 3-2 on the road against the Abbotsford Heat Friday night. Penalties were the big story of the contest. The two combined for thirteen penalties. The game-winner for the Heat just so happened to come come off of one of those penalties in OT by forward Corban Knight to put a damper on the Ads first game of the season.

“I felt we got ourselves into trouble in the second period,” said assistant coach Stan Drulia after the game on Sports Radio 1250 WSSP. “We tried to make too many plays through the middle of the ice. We know [the Abbotsford Heat] like to carve things up. [The Heat] do a real good job in the neutral zone. We got too cute in some of those areas and they were able to generate some opportunities due to that.”

The first period of the season went scoreless but saw the Ads fail to convert on three power-play chances. Slashing. Boarding. Hooking. None produced a goal and the Heat penalty kill improved to a 10-13 kill rate to that point.

The best chances of the opening frame went the way of the Heat. After serving his boarding penalty, the puck found Mark Cundari breaking from the box and his spinning back hand pass was nearly cashed in on the rush to the net. Moments later the Heat nearly capitalized on a mishap behind the net by Magnus Hellberg. Fortunately Hellberg bailed himself out on the play by making a big save and relieving the temporary pressure in his net.

Milwaukee’s breakthrough came shorthanded in the second period. The Ads went on their second penalty-kill of the night after Miikka Salomaki was called for boarding. A solid puck pursuit by Austin Watson set up Patrick Cehlin who netted the opening goal. It was Cehlin’s first career shorty.

[Cehlin] always gives you a great effort,” said Drulia. “If we’re going to have success this year we’re going to need [Cehlin] to provide a lot of offense for us.”

With 4.6 left in the second period the Heat managed to equalize through Turner Elson’s first professional goal. A frenzy in the Heat’s offensive zone lead to a missed poke check by Hellberg that resulted in the equalizer for Elson.

Penalty killing was a major factor in this game. The Admirals managed to endure a lengthy 5-on-3 kill midway through the third period, but the impact of that opportunity charged the Heat’s attack. While they couldn’t solve the Ads penalty kill, the Heat took the lead through a Ben Hanowski goal with just over seven minutes left in the game. Persistence paid off.

However, Taylor Beck wouldn’t allow that Heat advantage stand for long. Beck was Johnny on the spot after work from Anthony Bitetto and Colton Sissons put him open for his first goal of the season. Fun Fact: the assist for Sissons goes down as his first professional point.

The game would go to OT and, as was the story of the game, another penalty put the Ads shorthanded. This time the Heat were able to cash in on the man-advantage after centerman Knight lifted a shot over a sliding Joe Piskula and past Hellberg to win it for the Heat.

First outing of the season was a tight one against a scrappy team. Unfortunately some rust may have shown through at points of this game leading to an OT loss. Still, the Ads pick up a tough earned point on their 2013-14 season opener. The rematch between these two takes place in no less than 24 hours later in the same barn.

With Magnus Hellberg and Marek Mazanec playing great hockey, the Admirals were nursing a 1-0 lead late in third period.  But the Iowa Wild finished strong, scoring the equalizer with 4:14 left in regulation, and a power play winner in overtime to give the home(ish) team the 2-1 victory on Friday afternoon in beautiful Moline, Illinois.

Scott Ford scored the lone Admiral goal just 1:45 into the game, after a nice pass from Miikka Salomaki.

Salomaki also played into the last goal in the game as well, for he was the one sitting in the penalty box for a boarding penalty, to give the Wild the 4-on-3 chance.

For the game winning goal, the Wild went ‘around the key’, with point-man Jon Blum passing to Zack Phillips at the left circle for a one-timer that beat Mazanec.

Hellberg saved all nine shots he faced in the first half of the game.  Mazanec was sharp as well, despite allowing the two goals.

FORWARD LINES:

Henderson-Sissons-Beck
Salomaki-Watson-Cehlin
Shalla-Van Guilder-Rask
Liambas-Tousignant-Budish

Simon Moser did not make the trip.

Pessimists will say they are concerned about offense, with the Admirals just scoring two goals in three pre-season games.  Optimists will point to the sample size and the fact that it’s just pre-season.  Optimists will also point out the Admirals goalies gave up just five goals in three season games (plus one empty netter).  Early reviews on Mazanec have been positive.  And Hellberg seems to be picking up right where he left off.

Let’s also hope that Fordo didn’t use up all of his goals for this season in the pre-season…

So Roundtable…how will you be passing the time until OUR opening night next Friday?  Watching the NHL Center Ice preview?  Camping out at Major Goolsby’s to get a good spot for the viewing party on Friday?  Figuring out how much it would cost to get to Abbotsford for a quick weekend getaway? (Guy Lafleur will be making a special appearance on opening night over there)  Counting lucky stars that Krys Kolanos isn’t with the Heat anymore?  

Chicago goaltender Jake Allen turned aside all 27 shots he faced, and a short-handed Corey Locke goal was the only offense the Wolves needed, en route to a 3-0 victory over the Admirals Saturday night in pre-season action.

Magnus Hellberg played the first 30:38, before yielding to Scott Darling.  Hellberg was responsible for Locke’s goal at 1:30 of the second period, while the Wolves were killing off a Dmitrij Jaskin boarding penalty.  Sprung on a breakaway, the former AHL MVP beat Hellberg glove-side.

Darling gave up just one goal as well, a late score from Sergey Andronov on a rebound at 14:16 in the third period.  Kyle Davies added the empty netter with 1:08 left in the game.

Hellberg stopped 10 of 11, while Darling stopped 18 of 19, and both teams were 0-2 on the power play.

The Admirals will be playing a THIRD pre-season game this Friday the 4th against the Iowa Wild.  Both the Admirals and Wild are idle during the opening weekend of the AHL season, so that’ll give them the chance to hit someone in a different colored jersey while they wait for their trip to Abbotsford.  That game will be in Moline, Illinois at 2:30pm on Friday.

So Roundtable…anyone make the trip to beautiful Hoffman Estates, Illinois?  Any observations about the game that you’d like to share?