The third period had all the makings of a sad story of collapse.  But a questionable Houston goal was answered in short order by an Admiral goal, and Milwaukee skated out of Toyota Center with a 5-3 win over the Aeros Tuesday night.

Let’s address the elephant in the room right away.  The AHL needs to have video replay in every arena.  There’s no excuse to not have it.  But since we don’t have it, how on earth can Mark Lemelin, in perfect position, waive off a Jarod Palmer goal, and then at the next whistle, be convinced that he waived it off in error?  The goal judge never turned on their light, so is he even supposed to be consulted?  If the replays on the video board had any impact at all on the reversal, Lemelin should be terminated.  Immediately.  Every team in the league had good goals waived off due to human error.  It’s the reality of the league.  Obviously, we aren’t privy to the conference of the zebras on the ice, but I don’t know how anybody could/should have been able to get him to over-rule himself.  Nobody was in better position, and even though the replays made it look to be the right call, he is not supposed to have the benefit of replays.  The Admirals should have gotten away with that one.

Fortunately for the Admirals, it didn’t matter.

After they awarded Palmer the goal to make the score 4-3, and after they put some time back on the clock, it took the Admirals 27 seconds to answer back.  Mike Bartlett put in a juicy rebound of a Steve Begin shot.

Jared Spurgeon opened the scoring with a power play goal, sneaking in the back door on the far side.  From the replay, it looked like it was Begin’s missed assignment.  But it was a great pass from Robbie Earl, and a nice finish that beat Jeremy Smith.

The Admirals would tie it at the end of the period, thanks to some nice passing as a power play was ending.  On one last rush, Aaron Johnson had a cross-ice pass to Ryan Thang on the far side.  He put the puck on net, and it was deflected by Van Guilder past Matt Hackett.  The goal came a second after the power play expired.

In the second period, the Admirals scored a pair more.  Ryan Thang converted a rebound of a Scott Ford shot into an open net.  And then about five minutes later, Andreas Thuresson reappeared, and cashed in after some great plays from Grant Lewis and Begin.  Lewis had a strong play bringing the puck down low towards the net.  The puck came to Begin behind the net, and his slick pass found Thuresson all alone in the slot.

Then there were four goals over a 2:17 span in the middle of the 3rd period.

Marco Scandella scored a power play goal from the bottom of the near circle that looked like it could have been waived off too.  Tough to tell from the one replay Toyota Center showed.  But okay, ref was there, it’s a good goal.  We move on.

Steve Begin answered 1:19 later finishing a 3-on-2 rush.  Thuresson, to Bartlett, to Begin in front of the crease.

Palmer somehow got behind everybody and his shot did beat Smith.  And that play led to Lemelin-Gate 2011.

NOTES:

First, the lines.

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

We’d like to give an extra special ‘welcome back to the playoffs’ to that 4th line, which I thought played very well as an energy line tonight.  High marks for all four lines, actually.  While the 1st line didn’t yield any goals, they had some nice moments too.

Biggest difference between game 2 and game 3?  Chaos in front of Hackett.  As in, there was none on Sunday, and the Admirals were able to drive to the net and be a bit more distracting tonight.

Both Smith and Hackett channeled their inner-Pekka Rinne, making some insane saves at times.  Both teams missed some open nets too.  There were rebounds aplenty on both ends, but the Admirals were the superior team tonight when it came to getting help from the defensemen clearing pucks out of danger.

Scott Ford was whistled for interference in the 2nd period.  But the clock kept running after the play stopped for about another 25 seconds.  Dean “The Dream” Zanoni would NEVER let that happen!

You can check out some thoughts from Andrew at The Third Intermission here.  There are some quotes from the Houston coach (who isn’t interested in giving the Admirals credit for the game).  Andrew points out that it was the same forward line out there when the Admirals answered back both times in the 3rd period.  It’s a good read, and I recommend that you give it a gander.

Admirals recap is here.  Aeros recap is here.  Box score is here.

“Compete.”

That’s the answer Coach Lane Lambert gave after the game, when asked about what kind of an adjustment he’d like to see from his team when the series resumes in Houston Tuesday.

The Admirals laid a bit of an egg at the Bradley Center Sunday evening, held scoreless by the Houston Aeros, evening the series at one game apiece.  2-0 was the final score.

Rather than cherry pick some Coach quotes, we’ll give you the full unedited raw audio.  You can’t get this stuff on pay per view, ya’ll.

The Aeros were first to strike while Michael Latta and Grant Lewis were getting cozy in the sin bin, giving the Aeros the 5 on 3 advantage.  At 11:47 it was Warren Peters that beat Jeremy Smith off a juicy rebound to give the Aeros the lead.  The play started with the Aeros sending the puck around the point from station to station when they found Casey Wellman down low. Wellman tried a stuff attempt from point blank, resulting in the puck to coming out to the slot, and ending in a very easy goal for Peters.

The second goal for the Aeros was an odd man rush in the 3rd period created by a sloppy turnover just inside the offensive blue line.  With 3 Aeros players on the break out against two defensemen, the Aeros made one pass to the near side circle, where Colton Gillies fired a shot that beat Smith top right.  Ryan and I were trying to figure out what the Admirals’ forwards were doing.  The only thing we could figure was that they were checking out the out-of-town scoreboard on the corner matrix boards, maybe checking out the Caps vs Bolts game. The turnover at the blue line is what caused the rush, but the forwards didn’t seem all that interested in getting back to help.

The Admirals finished 0-6 on the power play, and were whistled for a couple of minor penalties down the stretch to further thwart any kind of flow or momentum.

Notes and Questions:

We would give you the lines but they were shuffled more than a paying dealer at Potowatomi.

How about the ‘ATO line’ of Watson, Conacher, and Latta?

Ellis:  Buying or selling after two games? Or, too early to tell?

How would you grade Smiths performance from 1-10?  With 1 being the backup goalie for the Islanders and 10 being ‘The Pekka’…

We did enjoy watching him scamper back on to the ice after starting a shift on the bench.  Don’t think I had ever seen a line change bringing the goalie back on.

What was the most frustrating part of this game for you?  Were the Ads that bad or were Hackett and Company that good today?  Did this look anything like the team that took care of the Texas Stars?

A quick start, some puck luck, and the offensive re-appearance of Steve Begin were all keys in the Admirals 3-1 victory over the Houston Aeros in Game 1 of their playoff series Friday night.

Quick start:  The Admirals were up 2-0 before the game was 11 minutes old.

Puck luck:  The Aeros heard the sound “ping” after their shots on multiple occasions.

Begin:  Scored his first goal since November 28^th against San Antonio, on that 10 game road trip way back when.

Begin recorded the first goal of the game at the 9:49 mark, starting the play with a big hit in the defensive zone, and then had all the time in the world after receiving a pass in the high slot while there was a delayed penalty.  Begin’s shot hit the top left corner of the net, and gave the Admirals the lead.

Taylor Beck scored 41 seconds later on a play that looked like a trick shot you might see at an All-star game.  From the top of the near circle, he flipped/floated the puck over Nate Prosser, went around Prosser, and met the puck in front of the crease when it came back down.  His backhander beat Matt Hackett.

On a power play later in the 1^st period, the Aeros hit iron a couple of times, the loudest ping coming on a shot from Marco Scandella.

The second period was scoreless, but the team received a scare when Casey Wellman’s skate collided with Jeremy Smith’s helmet on a play.  Wellman was being worked over by Kelsey Wilson, lost his balance, and that’s how it happened.  Not a dirty play….just hockey play.  And boy, were we thankful Smitty was okay.

The Admirals were outshot 12-5 in the 3^rd period, but their first one went in.  Ryan Thang had a shot on a play that resembled his OT winner in the Texas series.  He came in along the right wing, and a shot from the faceoff circle just flat out beat the goaltender.  No screen, no deflection.  Begin created the turnover in the neutral zone that sprung Thang on the rush.

Here’s the recap from The Third Intermission.  Interesting discussion going on about roster management.

Let’s talk about Ryan Ellis’ debut.  You could tell there were a few moments where he looked like he needed to adjust to the timing of things up here.  But there were other times where he looked like he belonged, and hadn’t just been playing a full season in Windsor.  Ellis also got his first professional point, assisting on Beck’s 1^st period goal.

Here’s the coach on Ellis’ night.

What kind of marks would you give his performance?

Game of inches sometimes.  Game would have looked a whole lot different if even one of those shots that hit iron went in.

Do you buy the whole “rust” thing, or do you find it a convenient excuse for a slow start?  This isn’t meant to be an attack on Houston, but rather a philosophical question.  When the Admirals have had slow starts after long layoffs, we’re heard the “R” word used.  What do you think?

Great to see Begin on the scoresheet again.  Gives us a chance to put a microphone in front of his face and let him wax poetic for awhile.

Did you even know that Watson and Latta dressed tonight?

Care to comment on the Mueller-Noreau pay-per-view heavyweight bout at the end of the second period?

Who would you give the hard-hat award to tonight?  Who played a great game, but didn’t get credit for it in the box score?  Call it for either team.

And what do the Admirals need to do to be better on Sunday?