(Photo credits:  Stephanie Sutton/HockeyInPictures.com, used with permission)

Going into Milwaukee’s Saturday night game at Charlotte, the Admirals streak of gaining at least a point in road games stood at an AHL record 23 and counting.

The evening affair also marked a notable moment in the history books as Milwaukee played the franchise’s first ever AHL game in North Carolina’s largest city.

Perhaps that meant too much history collided on one night because the Checkers proved to be unwelcoming hosts by ending Milwaukee’s run at 24 in row with a 3-2 win.

Chris Mueller scored a pair of goals for Milwaukee in the loss, but his first and third period power play tallies were sandwiched around two goals by the always dangerous Zach Boychuk of Charlotte and a single score effort from Checkers winger Chris Terry.

Admirals netminder Jeremy Smith was handed the loss making 21 saves on 24 shots, while the Checkers Mike Murphy goes into the record books as the goaltender who ended the streak with 28 saves on 30 shots.

Milwaukee will not get much time to sulk about the loss. The Admirals will rematch against Charlotte Sunday afternoon at 1 P.M. after 6,516 people at Time Warner Cable Arena witnessed the history breaking/making night.

For quotes from the Charlotte side, check out the Checkers’ website game recap here. The AHL’s game summery is here. To read post game thoughts at ChasingCheckers.com, click here.

So Roundtable . . . In your humble opinion, what went wrong Saturday night? Does this loss get the streak monkey off Milwaukee’s backs? Can the Admirals put together another run of this nature?

(You can see the full set here.  Thanks Stephanie!)

If the Admirals come out of every 3-in-3 set this year with four points, that’ll bode well for the team.

Both the Admirals and San Antonio Rampage were playing their third game in three days Sunday evening, but a pair of first period Admiral goals created a hill that was too steep for the Rampage to climb, as the Admirals were victorious 3-1.

Coach Muller says the last two games have been some of the most complete hockey the team has played this year.

Why has the team been good so far closing out the three-in-three sets?

At 10:04 of the first period, Kyle Wilson gathered the puck along the near side boards and sent a pass to Juuso ” I’d like to buy a U” Puustinen. Juuso fired a slapper that beat Brian Foster top left to give the Ads the early lead. Puusitinen did a great job of getting into the open area, but full credit goes to Wilson who got the pass right on the tape while fighting for the puck along the boards.

Just over 5 minutes later Chris Mueller got a great feed from Taylor Beck to give the Ads the 2-0 lead. With Beck behind the net he fought off a defender and sent a nifty “no look” pass to the slot where a crashing Mueller got his stick on it and put it towards Foster.  It looked like Foster had it covered up, but either through a helping attempt by his own D-man or just sheer determination the puck squeezed though Foster’s 5 hole and trickled across the line for the goal.

The Rampage struck back at 14:30 of the second period with Bracken Kearns getting the tally. Kearns was skating in and attempted a shot on net when Victor Bartley went to the ice and deflected the shot. The puck bounced off of Bartley and was re-aquired by Kearns who fluttered a shot that beat Smith. It was a great second effort by Kearns to finish the play.

The Admirals went back on the attack right away.  This time it was Ryan Ellis who found himself on the GOOD side of a scoring play giving the Ads the 3-1 lead. Just as Nolan Yonkman’s two minute sentence ended at the Penalty Box Penitentiary, Gabriel Bourque dished a pass from behind the net into the slot where it found Ellis’ stick. Ellis wasted no time in sending the puck towards the net, beating Foster, who looked like he was over-committed on Bourque.

And that would be all of the scoring for this game as the Admirals cruised to the 3-1 victory.

NOTES:

– As aforementioned, it was very nice to see Ellis find a way to help his team offensively especially since he has been the center of many discussions around our water cooler on his recent string of bad turnovers and their direct correlation to goals against.  An improved game from him tonight, so Ryan Ellis — EYE Salute You.

– The Admirals again held their opponent to a low number of shots….it was 15 shots on goal tonight.  We asked Coach what he credits for that.

– Joel Champagne returned to the lineup as Ben Ryan sat out.  And this was the second straight game that Coach Muller went with Taylor Aronson instead of Scott Valentine on the D.  Here are Coach’s thoughts on the lineup changes.

– Good cheese race tonight.

– So the week ahead.  They’ll probably do what the rest of the hockey world will be doing….watch the griping reality television that will be Sidney Crosby’s return to action.  It’ll be a TV event not unlike the first time they put a man on the moon.  Everyone will remember where they were the night that Cindy Criesby was cleared to play an NHL game.  Of course they saved it for November sweeps!!!

So that’ll happen.  And then they’ll prepare for a pair of weekend games against the Charlotte Checkers after Thanksgiving.

After a rough outing last night against Chicago, the Admirals rebounded with a big win on the road.  Timely scoring, solid goaltending, and good special teams play late in the game were key in the Ads 3-1 victory over the Grand Rapids Griffins Saturday night.

The win marked the 23rd straight regular season road game with at least a point in the standings for the Admirals.

The Ads trailed after one period, thanks to a Gustav Nyquist power play goal 3:24 into the game.  But productive start of the second period changed the momentum in a hurry.

After Juuso Puustinen created a turnover at the Admiral blue line, Michael Latta was able to beat Jordan Pearce glove side just 1:05 into the second period.

Ben Ryan scored his first AHL goal 1:26 later,.  Ryan Flynn was doing some hard work behind the net, and fed Mark Van Guilder in the slot.  MVG’s shot was saved, but the rebound went to Ryan at the left post.

A little less than 3 minutes later, the Griffins were awarded a penalty shot after Chris Conner picked Roman Josi’s pocket, and Josi stymied the breakaway in an illegal kind of way.  On the attempt, Conner tried to go five-hole on Jeremy Smith, but the shot ended up going off of Smitty’s knee and stayed out of the net.  The Admirals ended the period with the 2-1 lead.

The Ads had a slow start to the third period, as they didn’t get their first shot until they were on a power play just over 7 minutes into the game.  And much like last night, that power play was negated early thanks to a Chris Mueller interference penalty in the offensive zone.  19 seconds later, Ryan Thang was called for a hooking penalty.

While on that 4-on-3 penalty kill, the Griffins were awarded their second penalty shot attempt of the game (first time in team history they had two in a game).  The call was that Kyle Wilson gloved the puck in the crease.

Smitty came up huge again, stopping Tomas Tatar on his attempt.

59 seconds after the Mueller and Thang penalties were killed off, the Admirals went on the power play thanks to a slash Taylor Beck drew from Gleason Fournier.  And Roman Josi scored his first of the year to make it a 3-1 lead.  His shot from the top of the right circle beat Pearce.

The Griffins took another penalty as the third period was winding down, so there wasn’t much of a last minute offensive flurry.

——

Stortini was back, Champagne was scratched.  Taylor Aronson returned to the lineup, replacing Scott Valentine.

Smitty was named the #1 star of the game, and deservedly so….do you think he’ll start Sunday against San Antonio?

Last weekend, turnovers were the ultimate culprit of an Admirals 6-3 loss to the Wolves.

It was a similar story tonight.

The Admirals spotted the Wolves a 5-0 lead before losing again by a 6-3 score.  The win was the 4th in a row for the Wolves, who are playing some pretty good hockey right now.

Credit the Wolves for finishing.  But the Admirals can’t make things so easy for them.  Here’s Coach Muller.

– Sloan had the first turnover that led to a goal.
– Ellis had a pair of turnovers that turned into goals.
– Bartley with the yonking penalty to create a 5-on-3 power play for Chicago that they ended up converting on.
– Engren?  Had so little faith in leaving the puck for Ellis, he played it himself and passed right to Duco for a shorthanded goal.  Okay, it wasn’t exactly like that….we’ll let Atte describe what happened.

Coach Muller in his pre-game chalk talk with the season ticket holders talked about how a lot more mistakes are made on the ice in the AHL, and they don’t always cost you like they would at the NHL level.  Tonight, they certainly did.

The Admirals outshot the Wolves 13-5 in the third period (according to the shot counter), ad carried most of the play. Juuso Puustinen had a pair of goals.  After I made fun about the Hockey’s Future writer earlier this week for saying that Puustinen plays a Hornqvist kind of game, there he was down in front of the crease for both of his goals.

So it’s going to be a long bus-ride to Grand Rapids tonight.  You may recall that the day before the Griffins made their BC debut this year, thay had a rough one at home against Abbotsford.  Then they came into our barn and pretty much dominated the Admirals.  Milwaukee now has the chance to return the favor.  Here’s the message to the team from the coach.

———–

Lines started out:

Bourque – Mueller – Thang
Beck – Latta – Puustinen
Flynn – Van Guilder – Wilson
Champagne – Lajunen – Ryan

Smitty in goal, relieved shortly after his fourth goal against by Atte Engren.

Stortini’s arm was sliced in the Oklahoma City game last weekend.  Needed some stitches, and needs a little time to heal.  That’s why he wasn’t out there tonight.

Discussion:

-For those of you that were at the chalk talk, what did you think of the Coach?  Did you like his style better than Lane’s?
– Ready to not see the Wolves for another three weeks?
-Think the Admirals will rebound well tomorrow?