The Admirals got a big boost to their roster for tonight’s game against Chicago.
The Predators sent down Daniel Bang, Austin Watson and Mattias Ekholm today, just a day after after recalling Ekholm for a matchup with Vancouver.
Here’s the official statement from the Predators:
“Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced today that the club has reassigned forwards Daniel Bang and Austin Watson, in addition to defenseman Mattias Ekholm to Milwaukee (AHL).
Bang has played in Nashville’s last four games – his first four NHL contests – recording two points. Watson has gone without a point in his first five contests dating back to his NHL debut on April 7. Ekholm logged 16:05 in his first NHL game of the season on Monday night against Vancouver after being recalled earlier in the day.”
While all three players will likely be in the lineup tonight against Chicago, there’s more than a good chance they could all be sent right back up to Nashville after the game. At any rate, the Ads will be reloaded and ready to go in a huge game tonight against the Wolves.
So Roundtable are you excited to get three big pieces back?
What do you think motivated the Preds to send them down? With Nashville out of the NHL playoff hunt, do you think Milwaukee’s season becomes more important to the organization? There are plenty of guys on the Preds who could come down and see time in the AHL playoffs.
Do you think they’ll all head back up right after the game?
Predators defenseman Kevin Klein was sidelined with a “below the neck” injury last night, and as a result Mattias Ekholm has been called up to Nashville. He’ll play in tonight’s game against Vancouver.
Ekholm’s picked up 27 points in 55 games played for the Ads this season including six power play goals.
He joins Gabriel Bourque, Ryan Ellis, Taylor Beck and Craig Smith as the fifth member of Nashville’s 2009 draft class to play for the Preds in 2012-13.
Also, Milwaukee signed goaltender Ryan Zapolski to a pro tryout contract today. This will be the 26-year-old former Mercyhurst College standout’s first AHL stint, though he has 58 games of ECHL experience under his belt.
In 41 games for the South Carolina Stingrays this season, Zapolski compiled a record of 25-14-2, recording eight shutouts with an impressive .940 save percentage and a 1.39 goals against average.
In a crucial home contest against the IceHogs, the Ads came out a bit flat. Ten surrendered power play chances heavily contributed to a 3-1 loss that knocked Milwaukee down a spot to ninth place in the West.
Magnus Hellberg’s three-game winning streak came to an end as the big goalie stopped 33 of 36 shots he faced. He looked solid, but as coach Dean Evason reiterated in his postgame overview, two of the goals he allowed were last touched by Admirals.
Evason felt some of his team’s ten two-minute minors were earned and others weren’t, but as a whole they kept the Ads “chasing the game.”
The Ads went on the penalty kill for the first time just 2:12 into the game after a high sticking call on Ryan Ellis.
Brad Winchester had a great chance for a breakaway shorty, but Carter Hutton got a piece of the shot and sent it over the net.
Mike Liambas tried to bait Garret Ross into an unsportsmanlike conduct call, but the refs didn’t call it after Ross dropped his gloves. Instead both players dropped the gloves on the next faceoff and Liambas dominated the ensuing fight, knocking Ross to the ice twice. Liambas would play the rest of the first and the second period wearing No. 19 due to blood on his jersey.
The Ads got 1:10 of power play after a too many men on the ice call negated another Ellis high stick. The Winchester-Zach Hamill-Juuso Puustinen line got some good chances on net, but failed to score.
The Ads got another power play chance after a Martin St. Pierre slashing call, but the Ads PP unit again couldn’t capitalize despite some good puck movement.
At the end of a scoreless first period, Rockford led 10-7 in shots. The IceHogs would outshoot Milwaukee 18-6 in the second thanks to six Admiral penalties.
After a holding call on Anthony Bitetto, who filled in for an injured Mike Moore, gave Rockford another early power play chance, Adam Clendening’s long slapper found its way into the net. It looked like it may have bounced in off Ellis.
Rockford added to its lead at 14:08 with another power play goal. This one was tipped in to an empty net by Ben Smith after a Jeremy Morin shot was initially held out by Hellberg.
At 12:47 of the third period, Klas Dahlbeck’s redirected slapper beat Hellberg five-hole to give the IceHogs a three-goal cushion.
Juuso Puustinen finally got the Ads on the board with five minutes to play, backhanding in a Patrick Cehlin rebound for his seventh point in eight games.
That would be all for the Ads, however, as 32 shorthanded penalty minutes kept them from getting into a consistent offensive rhythm.
Notes:
Evason said he has no report or timetable on Moore’s return as he hasn’t been officially evaluated yet by team medical staff. He did, however, say we could see Joonas Rask as early as Tuesday. He hadn’t been cleared to play Saturday.
We caught up with Hamill and asked him about the experience of joining a team battling for a late playoff spot, and how he views his game.
The Ads are now two points behind Rockford for the eighth spot with four games left to play next week.
Questions:
Saturday felt like it could have been a turning point either way for Milwaukee. After some really solid outings on the road, this one felt like a reversion. How big a blow is this to the team’s postseason hopes (if any at all)?
How many of those calls did you feel the Ads deserved? How much do you think it affected their rhythm as the game progressed?
Zach Hamill and Magnus Hellberg helped Milwaukee cling to the eighth spot in the Western conference, pacing the Ads to a 4-1 win in Grand Rapids.
Hamill, the newest member of the Admirals, helped the Ads’ longest-tenured member celebrate a special night with the victory.
Scott Ford played his 295th game with Milwaukee, which pushed him past Kelsey Wilson for the most games played for the Admirals in the team’s AHL history.
In his first game in an Admirals jersey, Hamill made an immediate impression with two points, while Hellberg stopped 31 of the 32 shots he faced in another solid start.
Griffins goalie Tom McCollum committed a delay of game penalty just 1:49 into the game, giving the Ads an early power play chance. Hamill Furied the Fury and got Milwaukee on the board with his 17th goal of the season. After a good pass from Patrick Cehlin to Mike Moore, Hamill deflected in Moore’s wide-open slapper.
At 17:41 Brad Winchester gave the Ads a two-goal cushion with the eventual game-winner. Josh Shalla took away a pass along the boards and started a quick rush into the Grand Rapids zone. He hit Winchester in stride at the top of the right circle and his hard wrister beat McCollum glove side.
The Griffins cut it to a one-goal deficit 2:09 into the second period, as Brett Skinner scored right off a faceoff win. It was a bouncing shot that trickled in and caught Hellberg off guard, but it was the only one that found its way past the big goalie.
Hellberg would make 13 saves to keep Milwaukee up 2-1 heading into the third period, where the Ads would regain the two-goal cushion.
In his first game back from recent injury, Kevin Henderson let loose a blazing slapper from high between the circles that bounced in off McCollum.
A critical late slashing call on Luke Glendening put the Griffins in a deeper hole at 17:35 and Mattias Ekholm’s empty-netter just over a minute later sealed the Milwaukee win.
Here are the highlights courtesy of grifvision.
Notes:
Juuso Puustinen’s six-game point streak came to an end.
The victory was the Admirals’ 500th win in the franchise’s AHL history.
Fordo had a couple shots on net with nothing doing on his big night. Valentine also registered two shots in his fourth game at wing.
Moore ended up leaving the game with an injury. We’ll keep you posted on his status as we find out more.
Questions:
The new guys continue to fill in nicely for the Ads. While Moore did most of the work on Hamill’s goal, and his assist came on an empty-netter, it was nice to see Hamill position himself nicely to pick up some points.
What did you hear about or see in his game tonight that stood out to you? How big will his presence be should the Ads get into the playoffs?
What do these last three wins against Charlotte and Grand Rapids (the current fourth and third seeds respectively) mean for the team?
By battling to get in against higher caliber teams, do you think this recent run might give Milwaukee a competitive edge in the postseason (knock on wood)?
The new faces continue to pop up on the Admirals’ roster as the team has added Finnish forward Joonas Rask.
Rask was drafted by Nashville with the 198th overall pick in the seventh round of the 2010 NHL draft and today the club assigned him to Milwaukee.
The 23-year old has seen action in 211 games in Sweden’s SM-liiga, playing 159 of those games for the Ilves club. He was lent to Jokerit this season where he’s scored five goals and dished five assists in 52 games. For his career, Rask has recorded 75 SM-liiga points including 34 goals.
Eliteprospects.com’s Matias Strozyk describes Rask as “a left-handed forward who can play as both a center and winger. A very good skater. Useful on both power play and penalty kill. Not very good physically.”
He’s listed at 5’11” 181 pounds, and (if you haven’t already heard or guessed) he’s the younger brother of Boston Bruins netminder Tuukka Rask.
Here’s some highlights from his Ilves days.
So Roundtable, what do you think about this move? He’s looking like Milwaukee’s replacement for Daniel Bang, who was recalled by the Preds earlier this week. With his perceived speed and smaller stature who would you put him on a line with? How cool is it having two guys on the same roster with the first name Joonas?
Perhaps expecting another four guys being called up to the Predators at some point this week (I kid, I kid), the Admirals have acquired Zach Hamill, on loan from the Florida Panthers.
Hamill is a 24 year old center who was drafted 8th overall by the Bruins in 2007.
This is his third AHL team this season, as he was previously traded from Washington to Florida for forward Casey Wellman.
In 66 games this season between Hershey and San Antonio, he was good for 16 goals and 24 assists, with six of those goals coming on the power play. Those six power play goals make him now the team leader in that category for the Admirals. And those 40 points are one off the team lead of Taylor Beck.
Tony Uminski, from the AHL beat of the My San Antonio blog, called him a “career set the table guy with a pass first mentality.” So maybe he’s a playmaker kind of guy that will give us flashbacks to Cal O’Reilly.
Boston fans? Don’t remember him nearly as fondly.
For a scathing report card grade from the 2011-12 season, and equally scathing reader comments, here’s an article from Boston’s version of the On The Forecheck blog….it’s on SBNation and it’s called Stanley Cup Of Chowder.
Tough crowd. To give a guy an F-…..wow….how bad does a player have to be to get an F-? I don’t think we’ve ever given out an F- in our mid-season report cards! (Although Jamie Lundmark sure was tempting….quitter). Hamill split time with Providence and Boston in the 11-12 season. Good enough to earn an NHL paycheck for a chunk of the year. And the evaluation puts, I think, an extraordinarily high emphasis on points per game. Counting stats are counting stats, and I’m sure expectations were super high for him as a high draft pick….but unless he steals candy from babies in his free time, I get the sense that the failing grade was more drafter’s remorse than season evaluation. Maybe the rest of his game was dreadful? I don’t know. Never seen him play. But I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Dan Weiss, the play-by-play guy from the San Antonio Rampage offered this insight via twitter: “Good on the PP. Creates a lot working off the half wall. Not as effective 5-on-5 as we thought he would be.”
So he’s here now. He’s a healthy body, a former WHL scoring champ, with 322 games of AHL experience, who can hopefully provide a bit of an offensive spark for this team down the stretch. We’ll take it.
Daniel Bang will get his first chance in the NHL. Multiple sources reported via Twitter today that the winger is headed up to Nashville.
Mike Fisher, Paul Gaustad, Brandon Yip and Gabriel Bourque all missed this morning’s skate for Nashville, and Bang will likely make his NHL debut tonight against St. Louis.
The recent string of Predator injuries and a big move at the trade deadline have already depleted the Admirals’ offense. Now, still in the hunt for the postseason and just two days after losing Austin Watson, Milwaukee loses another key piece.
Bang’s recorded eight goals and 12 assists in 50 games played this season, but he’s been especially hot of late with six points in his last six games. He’s also one of the fastest guys in the AHL, and coach Dean Evason has previously mentioned the “speed element” he brings to the roster.
So Roundtable, how much will this loss hurt? So far, the Ads have been able to step up in the wake of these moves, but Bang was one of the main guys who’d recently elevated his game. On the flipside, are you happy to see Bang get a shot at the big leagues?
Another early April trip to North Carolina might’ve been just what the Ads needed to get rolling.
Ryan Ellis’ fifth goal of the season gave his team the edge in a close contest decided in overtime.
Milwaukee kept its postseason hopes alive and kicking, as the 3-2 win got the Admirals back into the playoff picture. With OKC’s win over Chicago today, the Ads currently own the eighth spot after starting the day in ninth place.
Despite losing yet another huge piece in Austin Watson, Milwaukee’s offense had a nice showing with 34 total shots, but Magnus Hellberg was even more impressive in net.
In his third start in three days the big goalie stopped 34 of 36 Charlotte shots, improving his record to 17-12-0.
Milwaukee needed him to stand tall right out of the gates as the Checkers outshot the Ads 15-6 in the first period.
Hellberg made some huge saves to keep Charlotte off the board for the first 28 minutes, but the Checkers finally got one past him at 8:54 of the second. Eric Baier scored his first goal of the season, firing a wrister from the right circle after taking a great pass from Zach Boychuk.
Milwaukee would quickly help out Hellberg, however, rallying back to take the lead before the end of the period.
Scott Valentine skated in along the boards to the left dot and beat John Muse between his glove and the right post with a slapper. It was Valentine’s sixth of the season and second in his third game at left wing.
Daniel Bang scored the go-ahead goal at 16:35, shooting, rather than passing, from the left circle on a 2-on-1 rush with Brad Winchester. The shot beat Muse between his legs for Bang’s eighth goal of the season.
After Milwaukee won the shots battle 13-8 in the second period, both teams combined for 23 shots in the final 20 minutes.
Hellberg tried valiantly to hold on to the 2-1 lead, but Charlotte tied the game at 12:30. Brody Sutter was able to put a rebound through Hellberg’s legs to eventually send the game to the extra period.
Despite losing the lead, the Admirals finished strong in overtime, outshooting Charlotte 4-1. Ellis’ goal came at 3:20 after he took a pass from Mark Van Guilder.
He pulled off a beautiful move in front of the Charlotte netminder and slid the puck right across the goal line to light both the green and red lamps.
Notes:
Scott Ford played his 294th game with Milwaukee, which tied Kelsey Wilson for the most games played for the Admirals in the team’s AHL history. Good on Fordo, as he’ll likely set the team record this Friday in Grand Rapids.
The Ads played a disciplined game allowing just one power play, but they meanwhile couldn’t score on five such attempts.
With an assist on Bang’s goal, Juuso Puustinen extended his point streak to six games. Ellis’ goal was his first since returning the Admirals’ roster Saturday.
Questions:
What did the second period rally say to you about this team’s sense of urgency? It’s been called into question often this season, but did the Ads show they’re locked in and ready to make a serious run at this thing?
Valentine continues to impress at wing, but with the loss of Watson who else needs to rise up on the offensive end in this final push?
As we said, last season’s team won two big games in Charlotte last spring, but this team did it faced with the added adversity of a constantly changing roster. What impresses you about this team’s ability to step up compared to 2011-12’s playoff squad?
Austin Watson didn’t play in last night’s 3-0 shutout over the Checkers. Today, we officially found out why.
Watson has been recalled to Nashville, and will make his NHL debut tonight against the Blackhawks.
The blogworld and twitterverse are in the process of exploding over this news, so there isn’t too much more for me to add. Everyone who reads this blog knows how good Watson has been this season overall. Officially, 20 goals, 16 assists. Goes to the net, especially on the power play, and is a tremendous shot blocker.
Is this long term or just a cup of coffee? If this is technically an ’emergency call-up’, then once one of the injured Preds can play again (Gaustad was hurt last night), we should expect Watson sent back. An NHL team is able to make 4 non-emergency call-ups after the trade deadline. I don’t know if the paper transactions that took place on the 3rd count, or whether the Ellis and Mueller transactions this week were emergency or otherwise. Will do some digging on that…
But congrats to Austin Watson, and we hope it’ll be a productive debut tonight.
Ads and Checkers at 2pm. Preds and Blackhawks play at 6pm.
Milwaukee bounced back from Friday’s home loss to Rockford, as it knocked off the Checkers 3-0 in Charlotte Saturday.
Magnus Hellberg picked up his fourth shutout of the season, stopping all 18 shots he faced. The Ads did a good job keeping the pressure off the big goalie registering 26 shots of their own.
The performance hearkened back to last season’s Admiral squad, which traveled to Charlotte for a pair of road contests in the midst of a playoff push with eight games to play. The first game of that trip was a shutout as well, as Milwaukee won 4-0.
The Admirals got off to a great start thanks to Charlotte’s five first period two-minute minors. The steady stream of power play chances helped Milwaukee outshoot the Checkers 16-5 in the opening 20 minutes.
Mike Liambas and Nicolas Blanchard kicked things off with a bang, dropping the gloves at 5:40. After an even start Liambas finished strong to put Blanchard on the ice and grab some momentum for Milwaukee.
Mattias Ekholm’s seventh goal of the season and second power play goal gave the Ads the lead at 13:30. Patrick Cehlin made a nice entry into the Charlotte zone and fed Brad Winchester. Winchester hit Ekholm with a solid pass to the left circle, and Ekkie’s wrister beat Rob Madore between his legs.
The teams combined for just 11 shots in the second period as Milwaukee’s penalty kill unit killed off Charlotte’s only two power play chances of the game. The PK’s now killed 47 of its last 50 (94 percent).
Both teams would get six shots a piece in the final period, but Milwaukee was able to turn two into insurance goals within two minutes.
At 1:46, with a delay of game penalty upcoming, Joe Piskula’s shot bounced off Madore and caused a mad scramble in front. Daniel Bang and Winchester tried to hack the puck home before it finally came to Juuso Puustinen who put it into the empty net. Puusty’s third goal in four games brought his point streak to five games.
A hooking call on Chris Terry set up Paul Crowder’s first goal as an Admiral at 2:54. He took a pass from Mike Moore at the right circle and put his shot over the left shoulder of Madore.
With the cushion in place, the Ads defense clamped down and Milwaukee skated away with a relatively easy victory.
Notes:
Ryan Ellis was back in the starting lineup after getting sent down by Nashville earlier today. He got a shot on net, but otherwise wasn’t heard from much.
Scott Valentine didn’t show up on the score sheet either, but he looked good again at forward. Evason’s been really impressed with his ability on offense in the two games he’s played at wing.
Zach Budish got the start tonight, skating with Liambas and Van Guilder this time out. Coach is still trying to find a good place to fit him in and while he didn’t do much, putting him on a line with MVG is a good place to start.
Questions:
In the aftermath of the Latta trade, the Ads have been trying some new things with the lineup, and they’re getting production from some different places (namely Valentine last night and Crowder tonight.)
What does that say to you about a team trying to make a final push sans a guy like Latta?
What do you think of Budish getting the start tonight? He mentioned the transition from the college to the AHL game. Do you think it’s an attempt to get him more accustomed?
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