The Milwaukee Admirals are playoff bound.

Controlling their own destiny, the Admirals put up a four-spot in the third period, on their way to a 6-1 win over the visiting Charlotte Checkers on Sunday evening.

As a result, the Admirals clinched the #5 spot in the conference, and will face-off against the Abbotsford Heat in the best-of-five first round of the Calder Cup playoffs.  The series will open in Milwaukee Friday and Sunday, with games three through five in Abbotsford next week.

Coach Herbers isn’t surprised that this team didn’t quit.

Both Milwaukee and Charlotte were playing their third game in three days, and went with the same goaltender for the third time in three days.

Ryan Thang opened the scoring with a power play goal, putting in a rebound of a shot from Kyle Wilson.

Brodie Dupont scored what would eventually be the game winning goal at 6:35 of the second period, skating into the zone on the left wing and firing a shot from the near circle that flat out beat Justin Peters.

Coach Herbers says it was huge to get that two-goal lead.

The Checkers got one back with a power play goal from Jerome Samson, who had a shot from a sharp angle on the far side that beat Smith.  It was such a sharp angle, we thought it hit the side of the net, but no, the red light went off.

Thang scored his second of the gmae with somewhat of a mirror image of Dupont’s goal.  After an icing call was waived off by the linesman, Scott Valentine fed a long pass to Thang on the right wing.  He skated into the zone, and his shot from the right wheel just flat out beat Peters.

Here’s Thang on the play.

I think that was really the back-breaker for the Checkers in this game.  Two out of those three Admiral goals were shots from far out that didn’t have any screens or real distractions.  Yes they were good shots.  But those are the kinds of saves that he needs to make.

Ryan Flynn got a goal about five minutes later, after his shot went in off of Checker D-man Rasmus Rissanen.  Jani Lajunen had an empty net goal nine seconds after the Checkers pulled Peters.  And then Taylor Beck banged home a power play goal with 1:32 to play to complete the scoring.

NOTES:

– Interesting scrum in the first period that sent three Admirals to the box and two Checkers to the box….and somehow, the Admirals got to go from a 5-4 power play to a 5-3 power play?  Mark Lemelin was the referee that called the penalties, and we’re not sure why there wasn’t more protest from the Checker bench.  Durno was assessed four minutes, but still, I’m pretty sure the Ads shouldn’t have had an extra power play there.

– Victor Bartley left the game after that first period scrum.  Day-to-day is the official word.  Hopefully he’ll be ready to go next Friday, because he’s a very important piece of the puzzle for this team.

– Thang opened the season with a pair of goals in Peoria, and closed the regular season with another two goals tonight.  Thang has been playing well recently, and Coach says that he’s going to need to keep that going.

QUESTIONS:

– Do you like the match-up against Abbotsford?

– Tell the truth…did you write this team off in early March?

– What was your regular season highlight?

The Admirals could have clinched tonight with a win over the Wolves, coupled with a Charlotte or Houston loss in their games.

Charlotte and Houston didn’t hold up their end of the donkey.

But the Admirals did.  Jon Blum created a turnover and led a 2-on-0 rush in overtime that Chris Mueller finished, to propel the Admirals to a 2-1 win over the Wolves.

Blummer describes the goal — and deserves a ton of credit for making a really smart play.

He knew exactly what Haydar was going to do, and was able to capitalize.

Coach Herbers says that yeah, it was a huge game, but really, they’ll all been pretty huge for awhile now.

After a scoreless first period, Ryan Thang was credited with a goal at 15:27 of the second.  I couldn’t tell if it was meant to be a shot or a pass towards the crease…but the puck was re-directed by Wolf defenseman Jordan Henry, and it went past Eddie Lack.

Anton Rodin tied it up with 6:33 left in the third period with a shot from just inside the far face-off circle that beat Smitty.  He may have been screened a bit on that shot.

The Ads outshot the Wolves 2-0 in the OT period, with Blum and Mueller being the heroes.  Blum actually figured in both Admiral goals, assisting on Thang’s tally, but wasn’t named one of the three stars.  (1. Lack, 2. Rodin, 3. Smith).

——-

Notes:

Here’s how the lines started out…

Henderson – Van Guilder – Flynn
Dupont – Mueller – Beck
Thang – Wilson – Latta
Ryan – Lajunen – Stortini

In the second period, coach flip-flopped Ben Ryan and Taylor Beck.  Here was the rationale behind the switch.

It seemed light a bit of a fire under Beck, as his play was noticeably better after the change. And Ryan more than held his own on the Mueller line too.

The Ads outshot the Wolves 14-5 in the second period, and really did seem to dominate much of the play, getting some extended time in the offensive zone.

The Wolves did decide to rest some of their regular players for tonight’s game.  Some of them are a bit banged up, and why put them out there in a game that meant very little to the home team?  Scratched were Nolan Baumgartner, Kevin Connauton, Andrew Gordon, Dustin Friesen, Mike Duco, Mark Mancari, Mark Matheson, Steve Reinprecht, Victor Oreskovich, and Matt Climie.  So they were a bit short of their usual firepower.

Meanwhile in Rockford, the IceHogs decided to start Kent Simpson.  Who?  Exactly.  Thanks guys.  And the Charlotte Checkers were able to skate out of the land of Roo with a 4-3 shootout win.

The Houston Aeros put up a 4-spot in the first half of the 2nd period of their game against the San Antonio Rampage, and they kept their post-season hopes alive with a 5-3 victory.

So going into tomorrow, here’s how it looks…

5.  Rochester 86 points
6.  Milwaukee 85 points
7.  San Antonio 85 points
8.  Charlotte 85 points
9.  Houston 84 points

Lake Erie and Peoria are mathematically eliminated.

Tomorrow it’ll be…..

Charlotte @ Milwaukee
Rochester @ Lake Erie
Texas @ Houston
Oklahoma City @ San Antonio

– We get a point, we clinch.
– If Houston loses, we clinch.
-If San Antonio loses in regulation, we clinch.

It’s nice being able to control your own destiny.  Hope to see you at the Bradley Center tomorrow.

No Carter Hutton was out there for Rockford, but it was a lack of quality scoring chances that stymied the Admirals in their first game against the IceHogs since the ‘Brawl at the BC”.

The Ads picked up a crucial point and decreased their magic number to X (not sure…the tiebreakers need to be calculated…but it’ll probably be 3), but Rockford used its last man, Peter LeBlanc, to beat Milwaukee in a shootout.  Final score was 2-1.

One team out-shot the other team 35-16 in the 105 minutes of play (according to the local shot counter). Which one do you suppose was the team in the thick of a frantic run to the playoffs?

The Ads could attribute much of their struggle to put the puck on net to Rockford’s 1-3-1 trap. Neutral ice was tough to cross cleanly, as for every Milwaukee forward there seemed to be two IceHogs ready to shut down passing lanes and force bad turnovers. There were plenty of the latter tonight.

Actually…Don’t call it a trap.  Here’s Coach Herbers.

Our eye in the sky, Ryan Miller, pegged frustrating giveaways at about six key points in the contest, but luckily Smitty was there to clean up the mess for most of them.

Smith stopped 34 of the 35 shots he faced in regulation and overtime.

Michael Latta got a little revenge, putting the Ads up 1-0 with 2:56 left in the second period. Latta got behind both Rockford defensemen and received a perfect cross-ice pass from the top of the left circle courtesy of Ryan Thang.  The pass was re-directed right in off Latta’s stick.

Here’s Coach Herbers on Latta’s game.

The IceHogs tied it up after a mad scramble in front of Jeremy Smith.  Victor Bartley broke his stick shooting the puck, and that prompted a breakaway in the other direction.  Smith made the initial save, but couldn’t cover the puck and the Admirals couldn’t clear it.  After a centering pass, Lady Byng Humanitarian of the year runner-up Rob Flick put the puck into an open net.

Here’s Smith talking about the goal from his perspective.

————

NOTES:

– The best line tonight was the Van Flynderson line, as they were the only ones that were able to get some sustained pressure for any length of time in the offensive zone.

– Michael Latta.  Not a great fight against Flick.  More Rocky V than Rocky IV.  This was his first game back after serving his suspension and missing a couple other games.

– Holy turnovers, Batman!  Latta, Beck, Wilson, Blum, Valentine, Henderson, (flipping sheet of paper over) and Wilson and Beck some more.  Yeah, the ice wasn’t great, but still.

– IceHogs finish season series against Milwaukee going 10-1-0-1.  Also known as pwnd.

– Ads slip to 8th in the conference with two games to go.  What needs to be different tomorrow in Rosemont?

Here are Coach’s thoughts on the matchup tomorrow against the Wolves.

I think most people probably would have said that if the Admirals could finish the NC and TX portion of the 7-game road trip with a 4-1 record, it’d be viewed as a success.

That’s exactly what they did, but that one loss was tonight against the San Antonio Rampage.  It was a 4-1 decision that jumpstarted the Rampage’s playoff hopes.

The Rampage moved up to 5th place in the conference with the win, moving one point ahead of Milwaukee, Houston, Peoria, Lake Erie, and Rochester, who all have 82 points.

Nuts and bolts are here, and the Admirals recap is here.

The Rampage jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period with goals 58 seconds apart late in the frame.  Chris Mueller made it a 2-1 game with a power play goal off of the leg of Nolan Yonkman 7:17 into the second period, but Bill Thomas got that one back 1:36 later after Atte Engren didn’t make a clean save.

The Admirals didn’t have any success on any other power plays, and gave up a 5-on-3 power play goal 4:52 into the third period to really take the wind out of the sails.

Engren was not as sharp has he had been recently.  But again, he can’t be expected to win all that often when the Admirals can’t get more than one goal of support for him.  The Admirals didn’t get an even strength goal in his last two starts.  They got away from their gameplan, spent too much time in the box, and tried to be a little too cute on some bad ice.

This game wrapped up the regular season schedule against the West Division, and it’s too bad.  The Ads finish 14-5-0-1 against the West.

So the team will fly back tomorrow, and then have a couple of days to get ready for the final stretch — Rockford on Friday, the Wolves on Saturday, and then Charlotte on Sunday.

Be advised that there will be a viewing party at Major Goolsby’s on Friday the 13th if you can’t make it to the land of Beef-A-Roo for the game against the IceHogs.

The Admirals are going to sleep tonight in the 5th spot in the conference standings.

Seems pretty improbable, doesn’t it?

The Admirals remained perfect on their road trip by winning their fourth straight, this time a 2-1 shootout win over the Houston Aeros.

While it’s nice to sit INSIDE the top 8 for the first time in a long time, it should be noted that 5th place through 8th place all sit with 82 points.  And then 9th and 10th are just a point behind that.  But the Admirals have done it in less games and have a better winning percentage, so they jump to the top.

After a scoreless first period and a mostly scoreless second period, Chris Mueller knocked Aero defenseman Kris Fredheim off the puck while killing a penalty, and Mueller went in on Matt Hackett for a shorthanded breakaway chance.  He scored his 30th goal of the season — the first Admiral to reach that milestone since Rich Peverley.

The Aeros tied it up at 7:14 of the third period, after a Jon Blum clear went off a skate, and a shot from Brett Bulmer went off the post and in.

The posts…..The Admirals hit metal three times over regulation and overtime.  But the posts, not wanting to be partial, returned the favor in the shootout, as a pair of Aeros shots went “ping” and bounced out.

Jeff Taffe scored in the shootout for the Aeros.  Jon Blum and Ryan Thang scored for the Admirals and this was Atte Engren’s first shootout win of the year.

Engren, again, was solid in net despite a lack of offense in front of him, and he picked up his second straight win.  He stopped 22 of 23 shots.

Notes:

– While Jeremy Smith got the call-up before the game, the Aeros got some reinforcements as the Minnesota Wild season ended yesterday.  Three out of those four defensemen suited up tonight.

– The Admirals end the season series with a perfect 4-0 record against Houston.  Which is nice, but it doesn’t take the sting out of Game 7 last May.

– Michael Latta’s suspension is over, but he didn’t dress.  (Insert joke about how he was jersey-less during “Flick-gate” last week…)

– Off-day tomorrow for the Admirals (for the entire league, actually) and then a rematch against the Rampage on Tuesday to either create some separation or muddy the playoff picture even more.