“It’s heartbreaking.  You work so hard all year long and put it all on the line….game 7…..words can’t describe how bad you feel.  I hate losing.  I can’t believe it’s over.”

That’s a dejected Jeremy Smith after the Admirals fell short in game 7 of their playoff series with the Houston Aeros.

After some good chances in the offensive zone, Casey Wellman led a 2-on-1 rush, and beat Smitty with an NHL caliber shot with 1:21 left in the 3^rd period, giving the Aeros the game-winning goal in a 4-2 victory Tuesday night.

Coach Lambert seconds that emotion.

“Total dejection is what I’m feeling, and the guys fought hard all series.  That’s part of playoff hockey.  There’s only one team that can win, and when you don’t, it hurts.”

The Nashville bump was there, as Matt Halischuk and Blake Geoffrion  figured into both Admiral goals, along with Gabriel Bourque.  But the late rush by Wellman took the wind out of the sails of the Admirals and everyone in the building.

With less than two minutes to go in the 3^rd period the Admirals were attacking the offensive zone. They had about three great chances with the puck bouncing all over the place, inches from lighting the lamp. The Admirals were playing up trying to get the game winner when the puck was sent out to Wellman, who was then off to the races with the 2-on-1 rush.  Roman Josi gave chase along the near boards, blocked the passing lane and got a little piece of Wellman as he fired the shot on net. Smith was out to play the shot but missed it as it rang home to the top right of the cage.

“It was a fast break, 2-on-1,” Smitty said.  “Pretty much the same thing happened two shifts before that.  I thought I had the save, and he made a good shot.  Beat me clean.  That’s my shot – I got to make that save.  You got to give credit where credit is due, so I just got to learn from it.”

Transcribing those words doesn’t begin to illustrate the glumness in Smitty’s voice.  Sounded like we just told him Christmas has been cancelled, and replaced with a second Arbor Day.

Coach Lambert says it was a mistake to allow that rush.

“We had three or four good chances before they were able the break away from us.  We got a little eager, we gave up a 2-on-1 and that just can’t happen. “

The Admirals were the first to score in game 7 and it was a pair of the newly reassigned Admirals that were in on the score. Blake Geoffrion passed the puck to Matt Halischuk down low and then attempted a wrap around. The attempt bounced off Matt Hackett’s pads and right to a crashing Gabriel Bourque, who scored top shelf at the 8:02 mark in the first.

I’ll take momentum shifts for 300 Alex. With just 12 seconds left in the first period the Aeros’ Colton Gillies stuffed home a rebound to knot the game at 1 aside.  With a shot from the point, the puck found its way through traffic and on Jeremy Smith. It was a nice save but Smith couldn’t track down the rebound from his back, and with the loose puck in the paint it easily found a home on the other side of the goal line.

Ok, now I’ll take goals I’d like to have back for 1000. With Smith coming out of the net to play a puck behind the net, he mishandled a rotten bounce.  He took a couple more desperate stabs at it but had to leave it behind for the Aeros’ Carson McMillan, who gathered the puck and was able to get a quick shot in on the empty net as Smith couldn’t get back in time. That gave the Aeros their first lead of the game.

The Admirals would answer back at the 8:26 mark while on the Mountain Fury Power Play.  Geoffrion sent a puck down low to Bourque on the near side, who then sent a pass to Halischuk in the slot. Halischuk quickly sent the puck past Hackett to bring the match all square.

And then Wellman put the nail in the coffin, followed by an empty net goal from Warren Peters, who twisted the nail in the coffin while laughing and singing “Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow…..”*

*Do you need me to tell you that the last part didn’t happen?  Didn’t think so.

Good game.  Can’t blame the officials.  Great crowd, especially with the Brewers in town.  Exciting finish.  It’s what you want a game 7 to be.  Only thing I’d change would be the final score.  And the second Aeros goal.  I’d change that too.

We’ll close this with one more quote from Smitty, and then open up the post for your thoughts and comments on the game and the campaign.

“There’s no tomorrow now.  Your season is over.  There’s nothing…. You look forward to training this summer, but nobody….. Winning championships is fun.  That’s what you work so hard for.  And to be let down, and let your teammates down it’s just a terrible feeling and not one I want to have again.”

Smitty, I think I speak for all of us when I say that you were marvelous this season, and unworldly in this post-season.  Hang in there, bud, and we’ll see you next year.

The Houston Aeros had won 11 straight playoff games that had gone in to overtime.

A new streak has started, courtesy of a Kelsey Wilson deflection 1:01 into the extra session, as the Admirals forced a game seven after a 5-4 win over Houston Sunday evening.

Ryan Thang’s shot from the point was deflected by Wilson as he was being worked over by Drew Bagnall in front of Aero goaltender Matt Hackett.

“He’s a real important piece for our team in terms of his character and his leadership,” Coach Lambert said.  “Since he has come back in game 5 of the Texas series, he’s played good hockey for us.”

Wilson’s goal capped a rollercoaster of a game that saw the Admirals score the first three goals, Houston score the next four, and then the Admirals score the final two.

“The game is 60 minutes, and they’re a good a hockey team,” Coach said.  “We did a good job getting ourselves a lead.  I thought we made a couple little mistakes and the puck ended up in the back of our net, and we just had to focus and regroup.”

The Admirals scored their first two goals with a little help from Aeros goaltender Matt Hackett.  Ryan Ellis scored his first pro goal with a shot from the point that went off of Hackett’s pads and trickled in next to the near post.

Gabriel Bourque scored his sixth of the playoffs with a shot from the far face-off circle that Hackett saved, but he lost where it went, and ended up kicking it into the net with his skate.

The Admirals made it a 3-nil lead with a power play goal from Roman Josi early in the 2^nd period.  From the top of the near face-off circle, Mark Van Guilder had a wide open passing line, and fed a cross-ice pass to Kelsey Wilson.  He tapped it back just a touch to Josi who was pinching, and his shot beat Hackett top-right corner.

The rest of the period belonged to the Aeros, and the turning point seemed to be a bizarre play involving Roman Josi and the goalie Hackett.  During play, Josi was pushed into Hackett, and an Aeros defender and Hackett proceeded to take some shots at Josi.  Josi got back to his skates, only to be knocked down again.  Lots of chirping back and forth between the two teams.  While skating away Josi gave a soft shot to Hackett, who then followed Josi and an official to the far corner.  And Hackett gave a pretty hard shot back to Josi.  Leaving the crease to be part of an altercation?  Some goalies would be tossed for such an action.  Instead, Hackett and Maxim Noreau got two each for roughing, and Josi got two for goaltender interference and two for roughing.  We proceeded 5-on-5.

About four and half minutes later the Aeros put the first of three dents into the scoreboard in the period.  Taking advantage of an AWFUL long line change, Jarod Palmer had a shot from the slot that beat Jeremy Smith.  It was helpful that another Aero forward set a pick to take two Admirals out of the play, but it was a great shot by Palmer.

Noreau scored less than a minute later on a shot from the point that flat out beat Smitty, while there were five Admirals just standing around watching the play.

Jon DiSalvatore scored a power play goal amidst a lot of waving sticks, and Chris Mueller being a little late coming back to pick him up.  Nice pass by O’Sullivan and nice finish by DiSalvatore.

So we went to the third period, and the question was, who was going to come out with the most urgency?  The team on the verge of clinching, or the team on the verge of their season ending.

The Aeros ended up controlling most of the play, and were able to take the lead at the 9:32 mark of the period.  After a faceoff, there was a scramble in front of Jeremy Smith.  Smitty was on his belly, and the puck was sitting in the crease just to the right of his elbow.  Patrick O’Sullivan was there to tap it in.  The fourth unanswered goal for the Aeros.

“They gained momentum obviously, and they ended up taking the lead,” Coach Lambert said.  “We had a huge push from our guys.   I thought the Aaron Johnson hit helped turn things around a little bit in the third period.  We started getting back to playing physical like we were in the first period.”

And then with 4:44 left in the period, Chris Mueller was able to stop the bleeding.  Mueller picked off a clearing attempt in the offensive zone, but couldn’t control the puck.  Ryan Thang worked to get it, and then tapped it back over to Mueller, who had relocated to the slot.  His shot beat Hackett.

They allow 20 minutes for the overtime period, but the Admirals needed just the 61 seconds.  After controlling the first shift of overtime, the Admirals scored after the line change.

“I think our guys rose to that challenge and made sure that we stayed focused,” Coach said.

NOTES & QUESTIONS

Flynn – Bartlett – Begin
Wilson – Mueller – Thang
Bourque – Van Guilder – Thuresson
Ryan – Hunter – Santorelli

Teemu Laakso did indeed return to the ice, and Grant Lewis was scratched in his stead.

Ryan Ellis’ head was the recipient of a demonstration of Newton’s 3^rd law of physics.  Andreas Thuresson had a big hit on Justin Falk along the boards.   Ellis was pinching down, tried to also hit Falk, and 6’5 Falk’s shoulder met 5’10 Ellis’ noggin. Ellis stayed on the ice for about half a minute, but skated to the bench on his own power, and after a trip to the locker room, hit the ice again later in the 3^rd period.

Speaking of Ellis, I thought he played a pretty good game.  He looked a little more comfortable in the offensive zone, and was able to bail himself and some teammates out on some rushes against Smitty.

There was lots of Aero contact with Smitty, but I think he did his fair share of hamming it up too.  Still, he did get peppered a few times.

The three stars were all messed up.  They presented Wilson, Josi, and Mueller….and the box score says Wilson, O’Sullivan and Smitty.  DiSalvatore had a great game, and had a goal and two assists.  Noreau was sharp.  Thang had four assists.  Meh.  There are worse things to pick on.

Who stood out for you tonight?

Did you think they had it in them?

Happy to see Laakso back?  Bummed that Lewis was the odd man out?

Thoughts on the power play performance?  2 for 4 for the good guys.  Anyone toasting some Mountain Fury right now?  Weren’t we supposed to do some kind of giveaways for that stuff?  I’ll have a word with Sutty….he’s our fake director of corporate sponsorship.

Admirals still outshot….33-23 tonight.  For the series, Admirals have been outshot 203-128 in the six games.  Nice save % numbers for Smitty….but that’s really the only silver lining to that.

Anything else you’d like to share about the game?

See you Tuesday.

The highs in playoff hockey are like nothing else in professional sports.

The lows in playoff hockey?  Just as dramatic.

Jeremy Smith stood on his head, the Admirals survived a first period that looked like a continuation from a previous game, and had some puck luck to get to a 2-0 lead.

And then the captain, did what captains before him have done so very many times before.

Puck over glass.  Delay of game.  Two minutes for “Yonking”.

That put the Admirals down two men with 4:55 left in the game.  Grant Lewis was already in the box for setting a pick (a penalty that should have had an Aero player accompany him to the box after a shot to Lewis’ face).

It took the Aeros 33 seconds to score.  Robbie Earl’s shot low stick side beat Smith.

Chad Rau tied the game with 1:21 left, as Matt Hackett was heading to the bench for the extra attacker.

Robbie Earl was the man in overtime as well, jamming the puck past Smith at the near post, while Casey Wellman was in the crease.  He was engaged with a defenseman, but it may have been enough to distract Smith on the game winning goal.

Houston outshot the Admirals 19-6 in the opening period, thanks in part to four Aero power plays in the frame.  Smith was outstanding, making some saves that Pekka Rinne might not have.

Ryan Thang continued his strong play, scoring his fifth of the playoffs on a fluky goal.  A Thanger shot went off of Hackett’s blocker, popped in the air, landed on Hackett’s shoulder, rolled off, hit the crossbar, then fell down to the goalline, where Thang finished the job.  Put the puck on net, stuff happens.  What a concept!

The Admirals second goal had a little bit of puck luck too, as the ice shavings in front of the bench slowed down a puck just enough on a shorthanded clear that Mike Bartlett was able to scoop it up.  While he couldn’t get a shot off, Steve Begin did, and scored with 5 seconds left in the period.

The Admirals failed to convert two power play chances in the 3rd period before their time on the 5-on-3 penalty kill.  A goal there may have been just enough to put the game out of reach.

Smitty ended the night with 50 saves on 53 shots.  Hackett had 23 saves on 25 shots.  (Shot counter isn’t doing Hackett any favors!)

Patrick O’Sullivan (12), Chad Rau (9), and Robbie Earl (6) combined had two more shots than the full Admirals roster.

So now what?  The Admirals will face their first elimination game of the playoffs Sunday evening at the Bradley Center.  If the Predators lose Saturday night in Vancouver, there may be some reinforcements coming to Milwaukee.  And boy, could we use them about now.  I think we’ve seen enough ATO guys for awhile.

If Houston’s players were disappointed about their effort in a Game 3 loss to Milwaukee, they sure took out their frustration on the Admirals in Game 4.

Despite a final score sheet reading a 3-2 overtime victory for the Aeros, Thursday night’s only AHL game had no business being that close.  Milwaukee was out shot 33-13, leaving goaltender Jeremy Smith as perhaps the only reason why the Admirals were just a sudden death goal away from taking a commanding 3-1 series lead.

“(Houston) played like a desperate team,” Milwaukee assistant coach Ian Herbers told Aaron Smith after the game.  “We bent, but had a chance to pull it out in the end.  (Unfortunately) we came out on the short end of the stick.”

Carson McMillan’s second goal of the playoffs at 3:35 over the extra session competed the series tying victory for Houston after Milwaukee came back from an early 2-0 deficit.

“We gave ourselves a chance to win,” Herbers said. “But we couldn’t get it going in overtime.”

It took less than two minutes into the game for Houston to open the scoring.  After Jed Ortmeyer’s innocent shot from the right corner was mishandled by Smith, Colton Gilles buried the rebound.

The play came off of a turnover by Milwaukee defenseman Scott Ford.  Tuesday night, it was the Admirals forcing all of the turnovers.  Game 4 was obviously a different story.

Eight minutes later, the Aeros version of Steve Begin, Patrick O’Sullivan, made it 2-0, scoring a power play goal after a fortunate bounce of the end boards from Chad Rau’s initial shot.

“We weren’t pleased with how were playing after the first period,” Herbers said.  “We needed to be sharper.  It easily could have been three or four to zero there.”

A resilient Admirals squad managed to claw back to the tie the game by making the most of their limited opportunities.

Andreas Thuresson showed some veteran smarts by scoring the Admirals first goal at 14:28, finding a dead spot in the high slot and taking a pass from Kelsey Wilson.  Thuresson’s snipe found nothing but net above the right shoulder of Aeros goaltender Matt Hackett.

Milwaukee made it a 2-2 game by finally scoring a power play goal, their first of the series after an 0-16 run.  Aaron Johnson picked up his first tally of the playoffs when his slap shot deflected in off Warren Peters.

But Houston never quit, dominating the limited overtime session to tie the West Division final at two games a piece.

Credit on this night goes to Aeros coach Mike Yeo, who was verbally frustrated with his club after Game 4.  Much like the seachange for Milwaukee from Game 2 to Game 3, Yeo managed the same turnaround for Houston from Game 3 to Game 4.  Strangely, there has yet to be a game in this series where both teams played great.

Hackett need just 11 saves for the win, hardly breaking a sweat.  Maxim Noreau was Houston’s best player on the night, controlling the play from his own blueline and finishing with two assists.

Smith finished with 30 saves on 33 shots to finish as the tough luck loser.  However, Milwaukee did managed to keep their incredible streak of 21 straight road games without a regulation loss still in tact.

Overall, it was a terrible night for the Nashville Predators organization.  The Predators dropped a 4-2 home decision to Vancouver to slip to a 3-1 deficit to the Canucks.

Nashville played without Steve Sullivan due to injury, and one of the heroes of the Anaheim series, Jerred Smithson, got only six and half minutes of ice time.  The Predators managed just 21 shots on Roberto Luongo, making a grand total of 34 for Nashville and Milwaukee combined.

So Roundtable: 

It was miserable night for a lot of Admirals.  Other than Smith was there was there anyone else worth noting for Milwaukee that had a decent game? 

What can we expect for tomorrow’s Game 5?  Can Milwaukee turn a near miss after a poor effort into a positive like they did last series against Texas in Games 3 and 4?

Which team will the short turnaround benefit?  How fast do you think the Admirals can shake off this dismal performance?

With Milwaukee struggling in Games 2 & 4 and Houston in 1 & 3, will the real Admirals and real Aeros finally show up in Game 5?  Will the top of the West Division duel we have all been waiting for in this series finally occur on short rest?