In a back-and-forth contest, Rockford beat the Admirals for the second time in a row.

The 4-3 win tied the IceHogs and Admirals in points with 75 a piece and will make things a little more difficult down the stretch for the Ads’ playoff hopes.

Magnus Hellberg got his fifth straight loss against the IceHogs despite a solid 43-save performance.

Coach Dean Evason said the Ads struggled to win puck battles and that resulted in a whopping 47 shots from Rockford.

Just eight seconds into their first power play, the Ads got the lead courtesy of a great pass from Brad Winchester to Juuso Puustinen. Puusty was able to whip the one-timer past Henrik Karlsson from the left circle.

Puusty said the Ads tried something a little different on the power play that led to the quick score.

Martin St. Pierre tied the game at 12:39 after Hellberg held off the first two shot attempts of an IceHogs possession. St. Pierre was able to grab the rebound and slide it underneath Hellberg who couldn’t really see it through a crowd.

A long blast from Ryan Stanton deflected in off of Patrick Cehlin to give Rockford the 2-1 lead at 16:42. The Ads had a shot to tie it with just under a minute left in the period, but Brandon Svendsen made a great effort to lay out and block a Mattias Ekholm strike.

Milwaukee was outshot 18-8 in the first period, and needed  to respond quickly to turn the tide. It did just that in the first twelve minutes, outshooting Rockford 8-0.

The Ads couldn’t use their second power play to tie things up, but Austin Watson, Ekholm and Mark Van Guilder all fired off good opportunities.

Paul Crowder had a great chance for his first Admiral goal with eight minutes left. He came in contested on the rush, freed the puck up for Josh Shalla, and it came back to him, but he couldn’t steer the puck past a defender.

Milwaukee finally did get the equalizer with 2:54 left in the period when Watson grabbed a Rockford turnover deep in the IceHogs’ zone. He fed it to Puustinen who fired a sweet pass right to a wide-open Daniel Bang in the slot.

Bang almost gave the Ads the lead taking a pass from Watson on a 2-on-1 rush, but he couldn’t get quite get enough on the shot. The score remained tied at 2-2 heading into the third period.

Rostislav Olesz put the IceHogs back up 3-2, knuckling a shot from the slot through a defender and over Hellberg’s right shoulder. With the awkward flight of the puck, it was tough for Hellberg to get a read on it.

In his first night playing as a winger, Scott Valentine made it 3-3, putting in a Paul Crowder rebound. It was Crowder’s first point as an Admiral and Valentine’s fifth goal of the year.

Olesz quickly sucked the life out of the Bradley Center, and put Rockford back up 4-3 just 33 seconds later. Some sloppy Milwaukee defense led to his second goal that would become the game-winner.

Hellberg hit the bench with a minute remaining, and the Ads couldn’t poke an attempt home on a scramble in front with 39.3 to go. It stayed mostly at Rockford’s end for the remainder of the contest as the IceHogs ran out the clock.

Notes:

Brad Winchester played his first game with an “A” on his jersey after the Martin Erat and Michael Latta for Forsberg deal left the Ads an alternate captain short. Evason said Winchester and Scott Ford will share the “A” with Ford taking home games and Winchester taking the away and third jerseys.

In his first game for Milwaukee Zach Budish skated with Cam Reid and Michael Liambas on a pretty imposing line. Budish didn’t make much of an impact tonight, and the Minnesota Golden Gopher star said fitting in will be a gradual process.

Evason thought both newcomers made solid first impressions.

The coach said Jeremy Smith is nowhere near coming back or even getting back out onto the ice with an unspecified “lower body” injury. He said Kevin Henderson, however, will likely return soon though probably not this weekend.

Questions:

Valentine made a few big hits as a forward and scored that key goal to tie the game late. Evason thought he should’ve played Valentine more.

What did you think of him on the offensive end tonight?

What did you like or dislike about Crowder and Budish?

What’s the problem with Hellberg and Rockford? Tonight, to be fair, he got let down a few times by his defense, particularly on the St. Pierre goal and the Stanton goal.

The Predators signed Zach Budish to a two-year entry level tryout contract Wednesday. He’ll make his Admirals debut along with Paul Crowder tonight against Rockford.

The Minnesota Golden Gophers captain was drafted by Nashville with the 41st overall pick in 2009.

Budish played in 129 games at Minnestota recording 94 points, scoring 35 goals. He helped the Gophers to two consecutive MacNaughton Cups as Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) regular-season champions along with two NCAA tournament berths including a run to the Frozen Four in 2011-12.

After he gained captaincy in 2012-13, Budish’s Gophers led the WCHA in scoring offense, scoring defense, power play and penalty kill while the program ranked in the top ten nationally in all four categories.

As we said in an earlier post, Crowder’s also coming off a successful 2011-12, as the 28-year old Victoria, BC native scored 23 goals and recorded 27 assists in 53 games played for the Wheeling Nailers.

Roundtable, what do you think of these signings, and which one do you see having the bigger impact both immediately and down the stretch?

On a night that Rockford used to celebrate being named the third most “Miserable City” in the U.S. by Forbes Magazine, the home fans got something to smile about.

In a sloppy game for both sides the IceHogs grabbed a 2-1 win over the Admirals Tuesday night in Rockford.

The loss dropped Milwaukee (75 points in 67 games) from seventh to ninth place in the Western Conference and moved Rockford (73 points in 67 games) to within closing distance of the Admirals in the division standings.

Magnus Hellberg got the start and had a decent night in net with 21 saves, and the Admirals’ offense outshot the IceHogs 32-23. Unfortunately, it didn’t add up to a win as Milwaukee missed some golden opportunities to tie the game in the third period.

Kyle Beach got Rockford on the board at 18:02 of the first period with his 15th goal of the season. Beach fired a low shot from the high slot that beat Hellberg stick side.

A too many men on the ice call late in the second period gave the Ads their third power play chance of the game, and Milwaukee would take advantage to tie the game 1-1 at 15:31.

Brad Winchester started a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play feeding Juuso Puustinen from the far dot. Puusty tipped the puck right to Michael Latta in the slot, and Latta put it past Henrik Karlsson.

Rockford came right back to retake the lead after a questionable turn of events. Scott Ford thought he had his stick knocked away by an IceHog and pleaded for a penalty.

Meanwhile, Rockford started a rush into the Admirals zone, and a furious Fordo looked on as Ryan Stanton scored on a snapshot from the top of the right circle at 18:47. Even Milwaukee assistant coach Stan Drulia said his team “thought they’d be going on the power play” after Ford lost his stick.

The Admirals responded with a good final push in the last twenty minutes, but Karlsson stopped all 14 shots he saw down the stretch to get his first win against Milwaukee.

At 9:23, Brad Mills ran into Hellberg knocking the big goalie to the ice. Magnus got right back up, Mills went to the box for goalie interference, but the Ads couldn’t captialize on their fifth and final power play chance.

With around five minutes to play, Josh Shalla had a great chance against a fallen Karlsson, but couldn’t find the puck.

Hellberg hit the bench with 1:44 to play, but the Ads couldn’t nab the equalizer despite two more good chances in the final minute.

Karlsson stopped a Winchester shot, but couldn’t handle the rebound cleanly resulting in a scramble in front that was eventually covered. Later, Mark Van Guilder had a wide open shot roll right off his stick.

From there, Rockford was able to clear twice and run out the clock.

Notes:

Kevin Henderson left the game right around the second intermission with an undisclosed injury, and Drulia said he will be reevaluated tomorrow.

Rockford continued a dominant trend improving its record when leading after two periods to 19-1-0. Milwaukee meanwhile has won just five games when trailing after two.

Latta’s goal was his ninth of the season, third power play goal and second in Milwaukee’s last three games.

Peeking up at Nashville, Taylor Beck grabbed two assists in the Predators’ 3-1 win over Colorado tonight.

Questions:

Things are pretty close in the bottom half of the Western Conference playoff picture. Just six points separate the fifth-place spot from the eleventh-place spot. Right now there are three teams (the Heat, the IceHogs and the Admirals) on the outside looking in but still in contention for postseason spots with Chicago currently holding the final spot with 75 points.

What advantages do you think the Admirals have over the teams left in the field, if any? Do you foresee the Ads reemerging from the pack? They are still 7-2-1 in their last 10.

A year and a day ago the Ads and IceHogs engaged in a massive, memorable bench-clearing brawl at the Bradley Center. Some saw it as a turning point for that Milwaukee team, others saw it as just two frustrated teams hashing things out.

Do you think the Ads need a similar sort of rallying point as the season winds down?

Where does Rockford rank on your list of “most miserable cities” in America? Was Forbes too harsh or too generous?

Juuso Puustinen scored a late power play goal to give the Admirals some breathing room.  And they needed every inch of it.

The Wolves answered with a score of their own after pulling their goalie, and then the Admirals found themselves killing a penalty in the final minute.  But Magnus Hellberg and the Admirals defense held on to knock off Chicago 4-3 Saturday night in Rosemont.

The win gives the Admirals sole possession of 7th place in the Western Conference, and was their EIGHTH of the year against the Wolves.

Puustinen’s goal made it a 4-2 lead with 3:35 left in the game, and Coach Evason says that it was a huge conversion.

It was the second power play goal on the night for the Admirals, as earlier in the game the Mattias Ekholm-Austin Watson connection scored again.  Ekholm with the shot from the point, Watson deflected it past Matt Climie.  I’d say it’s about the third time we’ve seen that scenario in the last few weeks.  Here’s Watson on their success.

That power play goal gave the Admirals a 1-0 lead 8:54 into the game.

Darren Haydar evened it up about five minutes later with a wrist shot from the top of the far circle that while well placed, I think Hellberg would want back.

In the second period, Daniel Bang got credit for a goal, but Patrick Cehlin did all the heavy lifting.  Moments after a Cam Reid penalty expired, Cehlin got around Brad Hunt on the left wing and made a strong move to the net.  He couldn’t get the shot on net once he got there, but the puck came right to Bang, who was there to finish.

I mentioned that there was a Cam Reid penalty.  That was the first of five Chicago power plays that the Admirals had to kill that period.  Reid for a hook.  Latta for a trip.  Jarvinen for a board.  Winchester for giving Brett Sterling what he deserved, but getting called for it.  And then Ford for a retaliation fist swing at the back of Guillaume Desbiens’ head (that one carried over into the third).

The Admirals killed off all of them but one.  A Kevin Connauton shot from the point that beat a screened Hellberg at 15:27 of the second.

Coach Evason was overall happy with the penalty kill, but not so happy about how often they were needed.

The Wolves dominated play early in the third, and the Admirals didn’t get their first shot on goal until the 7:25 mark.  But it was a goal.  Austin Watson intercepted a pass in the Wolves zone, and then sent the puck towards the net from the right wing.   It went off of Jeremie Blain’s skate and in the net.

An interference penalty on Jim Vandermeer set up the late Milwaukee power play, and Puustinen’s shot from the bottom of the far circle just dribbled past Climie.

——————-

Lines:

Henderson-Van Guilder-Latta
Winchester-Reid-Cehlin
Puustinen-Watson-Bang
Liamas-Various-Shalla

They dressed seven defensemen tonight.  Winchester was double shifting early on, but others took their turn to center that last line.

– The was a scare at the end of the game, as once again, our goaltender was at the bottom of a pile of hockey players.  As the final seconds ticked off, Brett Sterling took a healthy whack at Hellberg after a save with no rebound.   Then with the help of some Admiral defenders and the laws of physics, Sterling ended up on top of Hellberg.  And that little scrum is how the game ended.  It’s in the replay package below.

– Sterling was a pest all night, and was responsible for drawing multiple Admiral penalties.

– This was the Admirals’ 24th win against a division opponent.  That’s tops in the league.  They’re 8-1-1-0 in their last 10 games.

– We had a goaltender dress as #1 for the first time since….geez, I don’t know.  Drew MacIntyre?  Andrew D’Agostini was signed to an ATO today after Jeremy Smith was injured in Rockford last night.  D’Agostini was a former teammate of Austin Watson, and he was surprised when he heard that D’Agostini got the call today.

This will probably be D’Agostini’s only game with Milwaukee for now.  Here’s Coach Evason with an update on Smitty, and what they’re looking at for this week.

So this week?  It’s the Rockford and Charlotte show, is what it is.  A pair of games against each.  Home game Friday, and then fly to Charlotte for a game on Saturday.  One of the more unpleasant schedule quirks this season, but I’m sure there are some Western Conference teams that have those quirks a little more often….so we’ll just make it work.

Questions:

– What do you attribute this in-division success to?  Is it just rivalries giving them a little extra push in their compete levels?

– Do you think Magnus Hellberg is ready for it to be the Magnus Hellberg Show around here if Smitty is out for a long stretch?

– With the team playing so well right now, do you want to tell Nashville to just keep Mueller and Beck and Bartley?  We’re fine?

– Sterling is a nuisance….but do you think you could ever love him if he wore an Admirals uniform?