Three was a magic number for the Admirals against San Antonio Saturday night.

The Ads scored three goals to win 3-1 over the Rampage for the third time this season and most importantly win their third consecutive game on this road trip.

For the third straight game, Milwaukee got on the board first, as Ryan Flynn snuck the puck through the legs of Jacob Markstrom 3:40 into the game. Kevin Henderson and Teemu Laakso assisted.

Kyle Wilson gave the Ads a 2-0 lead about eight minutes later, redirecting a Scott Ford slapper past Markstrom. Wilson has now scored at least a point in all three games since returning from an undisclosed injury, and four straight games overall.

Milwaukee had some trouble clearing the puck in the second period, leading to a Bracken Kearns goal cutting the lead to 2-1 with 1:24 left before intermission.

The Admiral defense stepped up in the third period, forcing the Rampage to pull Markstrom in the final moments. After a centering feed from Chris Mueller, Flynn picked up an empty-netter, his third goal in three games, to ice the win with 27 seconds left.

Notes:

-With the win, the Ads move to 10-6-0-2 in their last 18 and move up to ninth place.  They could have moved up more had the other teams in the conference cooperated a little bit more.  They go to sleep tonight two points out of 5th place, with games in hand over almost everybody.

-Milwaukee still controls its playoff destiny, and with the offense flowing the Admirals appear to be sailing closer and closer to a postseason berth.

-Jeremy Smith picked up his 30th victory of the season, keeping him in second place behind Norfolk’s Dustin Tokarski in the AHL wins column.  Anders Lindback left the Preds game prematurely due to injury, for the record.  Don’t know how serious it is, but hope they won’t need to call up Smitty to open the bench door this week.

Questions:

-Coach Herbers talked before the game about Ford-o’s veteran leadership and its importance to the team in its fight for the playoffs. What has stood out to you about Scott recently?

-Who else have you seen step their game up with the season on the line?

-Think we’ll see Matt Hackett in net tomorrow, playing his third game in three days?

This trip to Charlotte was a whole lot more pleasant than the last one.

Back at the end of November, the Admirals lost a pair of games and had their head coach poached.

This time, it was two solid wins against a very good Charlotte Checkers team.

Atte Engren recorded his first victory since February 29th, and the Admirals finally gave him some offensive support, as they dropped the Checkers 4-2 Thursday night.

Coming into tonight’s game, Engren had made 12 starts in calendar year 2012 (and relieved Smitty in Flickgate last week).  The Admirals had scored more than two goals in just two of those games.  So this was a nice change of pace for him.

Even with the offensive support, Engren needed to be sharp, and he turned aside 33 of 35 shots.

Brodie Dupont opened the scoring with a power play goal.  A Victor Bartley shot went off the glove of goaltender Justin Peters, and when the puck hit the ice, Dupont was there to put it home.

The Checkers answered back with a power play goal of their own, breaking the Ads’ streak of 31 straight successful penalty kills (they hadn’t allowed one since March 17th against Toronto!).  A Joe Sova shot was tipped by Zach Boychuk past Engren.

In the second period, Teemu Laakso scored his third of the year, and first since the day after Christmas.  After some good puck movement, Laakso’s shot from the top of the right circle beat Peters.

The Admirals extended their lead about five minutes later, when Chris Mueller finished a great offensive rush that featured some more good passing.  Jon Blum passed to Ryan Thang in the right circle, who fed Chris Mueller in the slot for his 29th of the season.

52 seconds later, the Checkers halved the lead, as Engren couldn’t cover a loose puck and Drayson Bowman buried it.

Taylor Beck scored an insurance goal at 17:14 of the second, jamming the puck under the left pad of Peters.

In the scoreless third period, the Checkers outshot the Ads 13-3, but Engren was good when he needed to be, the skaters did their best to minimize the chances on each Checkers rush.  As Aaron Sims said on the broadcast…there were “a lot of ones-and-dones”.

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– Jeremy Smith served his suspension tonight, and Chet Pickard got to open an AHL bench door watch the game from the corner because there isn’t room for the backup on the bench.

– So at press time….we’re waiting for the Texas Stars-Peoria Rivermen game to end.  If the Rivermen lose in regulation, the Admirals will go to sleep tonight in 8th place in the Western Conference.  The Rivermen scored a pair in the third period to break a 1-1 tie and ultimately win 3-2, and with the win they jump up to 6th place in the conference, and leave the Admirals in 9th.  If it had been the Stars that won, the Admirals would have been in 8th, and the Rivermen in 9th.  What a crazy finish this is going to be…

So a nice few days in Charlotte.  On to Texas now.

Kyle Wilson suited up for Milwaukee Tuesday night after a two-game absence and the time off looked like it certainly did him some good.

Wilson scored two goals in the second period to help the Ads Checkmate Charlotte 4-0, a crucial victory to kick off a seven-game road trip.

After Taylor Beck Furied the Fury to open the scoring for Milwaukee 2:56 into the second period, Wilson gave the Ads a 2-0 lead 52 seconds later. Thang blasted a shot above the right circle that deflected off Checkers’ goalie Mike Murphy then took a wild bounce off Wilson’s chest into the net.

Wilson’s second goal of the period involved less luck and more skill as Kyle feigned a look to center as he approached the net, only to wrist one right over Murphy’s left shoulder at the 13:55 mark. Assist went to newcomer Matthew Aubin, who made his first start for the Ads this season after getting the call-up from Cincy Sunday.

Ryan Flynn made it 4-0 when MVG found him in front of the net off a wraparound try, and after three solid whacks the puck finally squeaked through.

As if playing seven of their last eight on the road wasn’t a daunting enough task, the Ads are dealing with the suspensions of Michael Latta and Jeremy Smith after Sunday’s bench-clearing brawl.

Smith made the start, opting to serve his suspension Thursday, and was solid between the pipes recording his fifth shutout of the year.

Notes: 

-Jon Blum was a late scratch for Tuesday leaving the Ads with another hole in their roster for an unknown amount of time as of yet.

-With a Rochester regulation loss tonight, Milwaukee would climb to 10th place, just two points out of the playoffs.

Questions:

How big is it to have Wilson’s presence around the net back in the lineup as the Ads make a final press for the playoffs?

Do you think Sunday’s fight will be looked back upon as a rallying point come late April making the suspensions worth the price?

In the grand scheme of things, the news is the Admirals lost in a shootout to the Rockford IceHogs for the second straight Sunday.  The Admirals got a point in the standings, which is certainly better than none…but certainly is stunting their playoff run.

What the 5,838 in attendance today will all remember will be what happened at 10:08 of the 2nd period.

(Video courtesy of Ted Gruber.  Many thanks to you, sir!)

Maybe everyone had been watching the Pens/Flyers game earlier?

Michael Latta and Shawn Lalonde had a bout and went to the box.  Then there was a TV timeout (where it was Mark Van Guilder who was at Toner Sales and Service with Roscoe), and the faceoff was going to be at the Rockford blue line.  And all four officials somehow didn’t notice that Rob Flick was skating towards the Admiral goaltender.

What was Rob Flick doing there?  Great question.

But Flick engaged Smitty and then the benches cleared.  Even Latta and Lalonde left the penalty boxes to join the fray.

Here’s Coach Herbers on the incident.  We’ll string a few of his quotes together here…

The coaches even yelled at each other from the edge of their benches.  Rockford Coach Ted Dent may talk a tough game, but I’m pretty sure he’d regret it if he actually confronted Herbie face to face.  5’11 Dent vs 6’4 Herbers. That might not end well for him….

So the officials elected to send everyone off to their locker rooms to cool their heads, and so they could decide what on earth they were going to do.  Players joining altercations from all different directions…from the bench, from the crease, from the penalty box…

So after our mid-period break, the teams returned to hear what the penalties were going to be.  The net effect was that the Admirals got a two minute power play, as the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Flick was the only thing that wasn’t evened up on both sides.

Teams played nice….and tired the rest of the way.  The IceHogs were playing their third game in three days, and in the third period, it started to show.  After some sustained offensive pressure, Mark Van Guilder got the home team on the board with a nice shot after a nice pass from Ryan Flynn.  We’ve seen this goal a couple of times before, with Flynn passing the puck from behind the goal-line to Van Guilder in the slot for the bang-bang goal.

The one the Smith did allow earlier in the game before doing his best (insert your favorite Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out character here) impression seemed like a harmless shot from near the right wing boards by Kyle Beach.  That’s a save that Smitty needs to make.

Smith did speak with reporters after the game.  Truth be told, I’m a big Smitty fan.  He usually gives honest, thoughtful, and candid answers when he talks to the media.  But I kind of get the feeling he may have been ‘prepped’ a bit before this one.  Listen for yourself.

Suspensions?  I think Latta may get one for leaving the penalty box to join the fray.  Smith?  Tough to say.  Depends on how badly the league wants to make an example out of the incident.  From a roster management standpoint, suspensions would kind of be a big deal.  If Kyle Wilson is not ready to go, they may have to sign someone to a PTO….or maybe the Preds can loan us Bourque for a game or two.

But it’s road trip time now.  Two huge games in Charlotte during the week.  Would be great to sweep them both.  Here’s the coach once more.

0 for 10.

That’s really the only stat you need to know about this game.

The Admirals went 0-10 with the man-advantage, had a four minute power play and a two-man advantage for a whole two minutes late in the third period, but couldn’t get anything past Barons’ goaltender Yann Danis. Danis led OKC between the pipes to a 3-2 victory over the Ads stopping 36 of the 38 shots he faced.

It’s easy for an opposing coach to heap praise on the bad guy’s goalie after a loss, as coach Herbers gave Danis a lot of credit.

The shots wide of the net, the whiffs and mishandled pucks and the ringing of the goal posts throughout the night were all a little harder to explain.

Oklahoma city struck first when Anton Lander centered to Antti Tyrvainen who beat Smith top right shelf 13:46 into the first period.

Tanner House extended the Barons’ lead with 8:02 into the second, collecting a near Lander turnover and snapping it past Smitty.

The Ads showed some signs of life 23 seconds into the third period, with a Kevin Henderson goal that cut the deficit to one goal. Van Guilder started a 2 on 1 rush and fed Kevin who put it right over Danis’ left shoulder.

The Barons sucked the energy out of the Bradley Center less than a minute later when Mark Arcobello slipped the puck right through the defense to Tyler Pitlick. The puck was in the back of the net before Smith could even turn his head.

Ryan Flynn made it a one-goal game again at 12:29, tapping home a Henderson assist shortly after an Alex Plante penalty expired.

Plante then went back to the box for a four minute high sticking penalty, and Hunter Tremblay followed up with a hooking penalty to give the Admirals a golden opportunity to get the equalizer. But Danis and the OKC PK stood tall, while the Ads flailed and nearly missed any shot they had.

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NOTES:

– Kyle Wilson was scratched, and boy, could we have used him on the power play.  Sloan left the game with an injury and Kevin Henderson left the game after being the four-minute high-stickee.

-Coach Herbers didn’t give us many specifics on any of the injuries, but noted that Sloan and Wilson were day-to-day.

-The Western Conference-leading Barons finished the season series with the Ads in a 2-2 tie after dropping their first two matchups against Milwaukee.

Questions:

Do you still have hair on your head after the Ads’ imperfect 0-10 power play effort?

With Wilson day-to-day, do you think the team has enough firepower minus his recent scoring boost?

Do you think the Baron’s PK was just that good, or were the Ads just that unlucky and disorganized?

With the loss, how big in your eyes is a win in Sunday’s matchup with Rockford, before the Ads play 7 of their last 8 on the road?