The story coming into the game was that it was going to be Atte Engren’s North American debut.

The story after the game was how fantastic IceHog netminder Hannu Toivonen was.

Toivonen made 44 saves as the IceHogs defeated the Admirals 3-2 in overtime.

“He was unbelievable,” Coach Lambert said after the game.  “He made the difference in the game.  Unbelievable.  And he’s been playing that way for them here for quite a few games now.  So hats off to him.  He stole the game for them.”

As for Engren, we asked Coach Lambert what kind of marks he would give Engren’s performance tonight.  He elected to avoid specifics.

“Average.  Average marks.”

So we’ll give some observations.  His athleticism seems to be his biggest asset, as he channeled his inner Hasek on a few occasions.  Rebound control could still use some work, and he seemed to have trouble tracking rebounds after making the save.  He likes to challenge shooters, but it seems like it’s a long way for him to get back to the crease to get ready for the follow-up shot.  And on his first goal, he may have underestimated how fast things happen in North American hockey.

Brandon Pirri will have the distinction of scoring the first ever North American professional goal against Engren.  After Engren made a nice pad save on a shot from the low slot, the play continued behind the net, and Pirri’s shot from just to the side of the crease beat Engren before he could seal up the far post.

Andreas Thuresson answered back 1:13 later with a power play marker.  Roman Josi passed to Kelsey Wilson in the slot.  Wilson ended up knocking it down with his hand, and couldn’t quite get a shot on net.  Instead he dished to Thuresson at the bottom of the circle for his 11^th of the year.

Pirri scored his second of the game on a 3-on-2-and-half rush.  I’ll give the Admirals the extra half as Brock McBride had almost caught up with the play.  Pirri brought the puck into the zone, made a quick move to shake off a defender, and his shot from just to the left of the far dot flat out beat Engren.

The Admirals tied it up in the third period with Thuresson’s second of the game.  It was one of 19 shots that frame for the Admirals, which was a season high for a period (46 was also a season high for a game).  Wilson had a shot on goal, and then there were about 6 guys surrounding the crease.  Lots of sticks playing for the rebound, but Thuresson’s stick was the one that put it past Toivonen.

The game went to overtime, and the IceHogs capitalized on a 3-1 rush to get the win.  After Grant Lewis pinched into the offensive zone, he was tripped, and that eventually sprung the odd-man rush.  Brian Connelly brought it down the right wing, and shot from about the same spot Pirri did for his 2^nd goal, and it beat Engren to end the game.

NOTES

The Mueller – Bourque- Thang line was the best tonight, mostly because they were often able to get sustained pressure in the offensive zone.   It wasn’t just one shot and done.  They were able to get three to five chances on lots of their shifts.  And that spread to some other lines, especially in the 3^rd period. Multiple times the Admirals would get the initial shot on Toivonen and then a couple more off of a rebound.  A lot of opportunities came from within a couple feet of the crease and Toivonen was able to stop enough to help get a win for his team.

The Admirals continued their streak of obtaining at least a point in 15 straight road games.  It ties an AHL league record.  They’ll have one more chance in the regular season to break it, because there’s just one road game left.

Houston, Peoria, Texas, and Chicago won.  San Antonio was shutout, so they’ll be grumpy in Milwaukee tomorrow afternoon, playing their third game in three days.    The Aeros and the Admirals both have 92 points, but Houston has played three more games.

There were questions going into tonight’s game versus Chicago. Such questions as, would Engren start in net, would Deveaux be a goon, or would the T-Mobile- AT&T merger disrupt my service at all? All these questions will eventually be answered.  Like right now.

The Admirals torched Wolves goaltender Edward Pasquale for four goals, Deveaux was a non-factor, Engren opened the bench door, and my cell phone service rocked in the Admirals 4-2 win over Chicago Friday night.

Here’s Coach Lambert:

The Admirals were the first to strike at the 9:42 of the first period as Grant Lewis put one past Pasquale. Gabriel Bourque at the near side boards sent a pass to Scott Ford at the middle point. Ford wound up and sent a slap shot towards the net but was redirected off of a Wolves’ defenseman and directly to a wide open Lewis on the far side. From that position he was able to put the shot on net for the goal and beat Pasquale stick side (that ended up being a theme). It was one of those “you couldn’t have planed that” goals for sure.  Right place right time.

The Wolves were able to answer back at 10:50, off an equally fluky goal.  With Ryan Garbutt skating in just off the near side boards he had an Admirals defender on him the whole way. Garbutt put the shot on Smith just as he was shoved down the ice, the puck looked to have been stopped by Smith with the good ‘ole armpit save, however half a second later the puck trickled through and across the line to even the score.  That was definitely a goal that Smith would like to have back, and a goal that you just have to shake off for sure.

Just 1:44 later the Admirals once again took the lead off Dylan Hunter’s second goal of the season, moments after he was featured in the Subway Fact Or Fiction game.  With the puck in the neutral zone and the Admirals’ Mike Bartlett skating it along the near side boards, Bartlett sent a pass across ice and into the offensive zone to a wide open Hunter. Hunter was able to gather the leading pass, take a couple strides, and proceed to burn Pasquale for the Admirals second goal of the period.  Stick side.  Coach is happy to see Hunter cash in.

The Admirals extended their lead in the second as Kelsey Wilson lit the lamp for his 10^th on the year. The Admirals have been putting a clinic on passing all game and this goal was no exception, with Mark Van Guilder playing the instructor in this example.  With Andreas Thuresson carrying the puck into the offensive zone he passed it to Van Guilder who was skating in along the far boards. Van Guilder then sent a pass across ice and backwards to a crashing Wilson, who gathered the puck and put a wrister on net from just inside the near circle beating Pasquale short side (read:  stick side).

The third period would get off to a slow start as we have become accustomed to when the Admirals have the lead. Unlike the past however, the Admrials would eventually add to their lead with a great move by Gabriel Bourque.  Ryan Thang was along the near borads at center ice when he sent a pitch fork clearing shot off of the glass. The puck eventually came down just past the blue line and found a speeding Bourque. He skated down through the near circle and cut across to the middle, deeking Pasquale out of his jock strap and putting the rock in the net to give the Admirals the 4-1 lead. Due to AHL and world federation of ice hockey equipment rules, Mannino had to come in to relieve Pasquale, because you can’t play without a jock strap.

The Wolves, refusing to go away, got a goal past Smith at the 11:40 mark.  With the Wolves skating into the zone, the Admirals were baited into chasing the puck making it an easy choice for Michael Davies to dish the puck to a wide open Spencer Machacek, crashing down the back door.  The goal looked to be off his skate but all doubt was removed when he got his stick on it just before it crossed the line.  The goal halved the lead, but that was as close as the Wolves would get.

NOTES:

Pretty good crowd tonight, don’t you think?  I think it was because of the gamehost (I’m already sucking up in hopes to be invited back to write next season).

Pretty typical Jeff Smith game.  Just a pair of interference calls in the second period.  There obviously were other infractions, but they weren’t called.  And that’s fine.  You know what you get with Jeff Smith.  And the good teams adjust.  And it seems that the players know what to expect too.  Got cross checked into the boards?  It wasn’t a whine and cheese fest.  They got back up and got back into the play.  And Coach Lambert would rather play these guys 5-on-5.

I thought Pasquale looked shaky from the start.  Smith looked shaky early on too, but some good D got the puck out of danger.  Oh, three Wolves shots hit the pipes.  Some nights those go in.  Some nights you sacrifice goats to the hockey Gods and you get metal and dark goal lamps.  Here’s the coach on Smith’s night at the rink.

Coach Lambert said that we should expect Atte Engren to make his United States of North America professional American Hockey League ice hockey debut tomorrow night in Rockford, Illinois, home of the IceHogs, Cheap Trick, and Beef-A-Roo.  Ok, we’re paraphrasing a bit….but yeah, Coach says Engren should get the start in Rockford tomorrow night.

San Antonio, Texas, and Houston all won, so the Admirals will hold on to first place, one point ahead of the Aeros.

QUESTIONS:

Knowing Engren is likely to debut, does that make want to go to Rockford tomorrow?  Pre-game Beef-A-Roo, and then the big debut?

Which line was the best one tonight in your opinion?  I think the Hunter – Bartlett – Flynn line was pretty sharp.

When did Bourque get so nifty with his stick?  He was a goal scoring machine on the roadtrip, his shootout goal on Tuesday was pretty badass, and he had that nice move to end Pasquale’s night tonight.

Do you like the whole Amtrak rivalry thing?  We don’t seem to be very good at winning the trophy….but can you live with that?

When the schedule comes out every year, teams skim through it and they can immediately recognize the bum dates that will be awful for travel.

The last 24 hours for the Admirals have been rough.  They did get the big win in San Antonio last night, followed by a pre-dawn wake-up call, delayed flights, and then capped it off with their fourth game in five days.  Every team goes through these things, and it was the Admirals’ turn.  That’s life in the AHL.

The day ended with a 3-2 loss to the Cleveland Lake Erie Monsters, in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the score suggests, as the Admirals didn’t get their two goals until the last minute of the game.

“I think we showed a lot of character at the end,” Coach Lambert said after the game.   “I know there was some fatigue involved.  You try not to make excuses, but it can factor in, there’s no question about it.  I’m proud of the guys and the way they battled.  But it was too little too late.  We needed to do more, on a more consistent basis.”

The Admirals came up dry on three power play chances in the first 12 minutes of the game, and then proceeded to give up two power play goals on five Monster chances.

The Monsters got on the board twice in the second period.  David Van der Gulik brought the puck in along the left wing, and his shot on Jeremy Smith was deflected by Greg Mauldin at the 14:49 mark of the period.  Roman Josi had Mauldin tied up, but not well enough to prevent him from getting a stick on the puck.

With 59 seconds left in the period, the Monsters tallied a power play goal.  Took them just 17 seconds of Dylan Hunter’s holding penalty to do it.  Justin Mercier tried to center a pass to a wide open Mauldin on the other side of the crease, but the pass was blocked by Scott Ford….right back to Mercier.  Smith had already committed to the pass, and was unable to get back in position to stop Mercier’s shot.

Julien Brouillette (who was in Admirals training camp this year) scored his first of the year, and it ended up being the game winner.  On a power play, Jeremy Smith made a great left skate save, and an Admiral defenseman (Laakso?) cleared the puck out of danger with a hand pass.  The puck went to Brouillette at the far point, and he put the puck right back on net, and it had eyes.  Or maybe Smith didn’t, as there were still a ton of bodies in front of him, and he hadn’t returned to his feet yet.

“The third goal they scored, I had a clear view of it from the bench, I still don’t know how it got through,” coach Lambert said.

It stayed 3-0 until the last minute of the game.  Brock McBride got his first goal as an Admiral with 49.9 seconds left, tipping a Jamie Bates shot past John Grahame.

The Ads got some puck-luck with 13.2 seconds left, as Chris Mueller had a shot go off of Cameron Gaunce and into the net, after a strong move from the left wing boards towards the net.

“I’m not going to freak out over this game whatsoever,” said the Coach.  “Because I knew there would be some fatigue involved, and we didn’t get much puck luck tonight either.”  (the 2nd Admirals goal, notwithstanding….)

NOTES:

I don’t think any of lines played particularly well tonight, but I thought Brock McBride had a pretty solid game, even before he scored his goal.  I thought Shields’ speed helped create some chances, and he shifted into another gear on a chance in the 2nd period.  Too bad his shot missed the mark.

Thuresson and Wilson didn’t play like 4th year players tonight.

In other news…..Goaltender Atte Engren arrived in Milwaukee tonight.  He watched the game from press row.  Now, it’s not unusual for young goalies to hang around the club on ATO contracts, after their seasons are done.  Dekanich was around and didn’t play, Chet Pickard was around but didn’t play when his junior season concluded.  So there’s no guarantee that we’ll ever see Engren in action this season.

But it sure might be nice.  And we asked Coach Lambert if there was a chance.  Here was his answer:

“There is a chance yeah, definitely.”

So we’ll see.  He didn’t rule it out, and he certainly had the opportunity to, or at the very least downplay the chance.  I think he’s excited to see what the kid can do.  Or I may just be projecting that.

Anyway….Engren is here.  That’s the news.  We’ll do a profile piece on him this week to let you know how his season was in Europe.

Dex is out for awhile.  He has a boot on his foot.  Van Guilder is day to day with an injury of some kind….couldn’t even get the usual upper-or-lower body description from anyone.

Scoreboard watching:  Houston and Oklahoma City won tonight.  Chicago, Peoria, and San Antonio lost (the Rampage had just 15 shots against Houston…)  The Admirals retain first place, now with a one point lead over the Aeros.  The Lake Erie win puts them in 2nd place in the North, two points out of 1st.

Questions:

Did you like Huey Lewis & The News?

Are you with the Coach, and not going to freak out about this game?

Was the power play working better than their oh-fer would suggest?

Did anybody stand out to you as being particularly good or particularly awful tonight?

In a 2:02 span of the second period, the Admirals scored thrice, and 66 minutes of penalties were dealt out by referee Koharski-du-jour.

The rest of the game?  Not nearly as exciting, but the bottom line is that it was a 4-1 Admiral victory over the San Antonio Rampage Friday night.

With the win, the Admirals extend their lead on the Houston Aeros in the standings to three points, with two extra games to play.

After the scoreless first period, former Admiral Bracken Kearns scored his second goal in as many games against the Admirals, tipping in a pass from Matt Watkins 3:12 into the second period.

The Admirals answered back later in the period with three goals in 98 seconds.

The power play got the first one on the tail end of an Alexandre Picard roughing penalty.  An Aaron Johnson shot went off the stick of Matt Watkins and past Joe Fallon — who wasn’t originally supposed to play here today.  Matt Climie was a last-minute scratch.

The Admirals dominated play after the ensuing faceoff, and were rewarded with a goal after Randy Robitaille couldn’t clear the puck out of the zone.  Mueller played the puck back to Teemu Laakso, and his blast from the slot went over Fallon’s glove.

24 seconds after Laakso’s goal, Andreas Thuresson scored his tenth of the year from the near circle over the shoulder of Fallon.  Mark Santorelli deserves a lot of credit for his play with the puck and his vision, finding Thuresson going to the net.

And then 24 seconds after THAT goal, we got a slew of penalty minutes.

It started with Scott Ford and Dane Byers.  Lots of the other players on the ice started chirping at each other.  There was dancing.  And eventually Nolan Yonkman and Kelsey Wilson dropped the gloves.  Yonkman had a lot of swings and misses.  Wilson did a lot of clutching.  They both connected for one shot, pretty much at the same time, but Wilson’s may have been the better one.

Wilson and Yonkman were given game misconducts.

With all the gloves and sticks scattered everywhere, Aaron Sims said it looked like a 9-year-old’s bedroom on the ice.

I’m not going to go through all the penalties…you can check the box score if you want to see the damage.  But when you do check it out, note the people who were involved — the new guys.  New guys making a statement.  Think Coach Lambert liked seeing that?  I’d wager.

Chris Mueller added an empty net goal with 7.7 seconds to play — his third point of the night.

The Admirals benefited from some quick whistles towards the end of the game, as scrambles were blown dead before pucks were actually covered by Smith.

It’s now 14 straight road games with at least a point for the Admirals.

NOTES:

Chris Mueller has turned into an assist machine this month, with nine helpers in nine March games, and he had a part in six of the seven Admirals goals scored on this three game road trip.

Jeremy Smith was solid in net, stopping 29 of 30 shots.  He didn’t get any of the 3 stars of the game, but I think he should have been in the conversation.

Mark Dekanich joined Aaron Sims on his broadcast during the second intermission.  And he said the following:

“We’re not quite sure yet exactly what it is, or how long it’s going to take.  But I’m looking forward to getting back out there soon and I’ll try and rehab it as fast as I can.”

We are men of action.  Lies do not become us.  You don’t have to tell us what it is.  But don’t give us that weak sauce.

I’d like to apologize now, for using the phrase “weak sauce”.

Mark Van Guilder missed the game with an undisclosed injury.  He seemed to go out of his way to be unspecific too, when on the air with Aaron in the 1st intermission.

So the Admirals will wake up early to catch their flight back to Milwaukee, to play the Cleveland Lake Erie Monsters Saturday night.  The Monsters were terrible guests in Grand Rapids Friday night, scoring five goals in the 2nd period, on their way to a 7-2 win.  Let’s hope they got everything out of their system in that game.

Is everyone ready for Huey Lewis & The News?

Another road game, and another point for the Admirals (now in 13 straight road games).  But they couldn’t get the win, losing to the San Antonio Rampage 2-1 in a shootout.

Mark Dekanich’s bizarre week in Texas continued, as he left the game with 2:08 remaining in overtime.  Dex made the save on a Randy Robitaille shot that came up high on him.  But when he left the ice, he was favoring his right leg.  Assistant Coach Ian Herbers had no comment on Dex’s status on the radio after the game.

Jeremy Smith came in cold, and saved all three shots he faced the rest of the overtime period, which included 30 seconds on the penalty kill after a Mike Bartlett high-sticking call.  But he gave up shootout goals to Viktor Tikhonov, Ned Lukacevic, and Matt Beaudoin, while the Admirals were only able to get a score from Gabriel Bourque in the shootout.

They could only get a score from Bourque in regulation too.  Bourque was the recipient of another great pass after a great play from Chris Mueller.  Mueller used a spin move to get around the defenseman, and after falling to his knees, he still was able to feed Bourque for the goal.

Bracken Kearns had the only regulation goal for San Antonio.  It was a power play goal in the first period, deflecting a wrist shot from Viktor Tikhonov.

The Milwaukee power play had been performing well lately, but the unit went 0-6 tonight, often times passing up shots and getting a little too cute with the puck.  Bourque did have a power play goal waived off, as the officials ruled that he kicked it in.  Add this to our case study of reasons why the league needs video replay!

No game and no travel on Thursday, and then the Admirals will have a rematch with the Rampage on Friday night.  The point gained from the shootout does put the Admirals back in sole possession of first place, as the Houston Aeros are grounded until Saturday.

Another game against the Aeros, and another one-goal game.  The Aeros came away with the W this time, a 3-2 win in overtime over the Admirals.

(Here is a link to the highlights from AHLLIVE)

Aaron Johnson coughed up the puck in the defensive zone, and the Admirals couldn’t control it in front of their net.  But former Badger Robbie Earl could, and he scored 1:25 into overtime, beating Mark Dekanich to pull the Aeros even with the Admirals in the points column of the standings.

But that goal wasn’t the most remarkable goal of the game.

15 seconds after Gabriel Bourque scored his second power play goal of the game to give the Admirals a one-goal lead in the 3rd period, Dex let it in a softy.  From 100 feet away.

Patrick O’Sullivan put the puck on net from the center ice dot, and it flew by Dex’s right elbow.  He never saw it.  And you just hope that he’s going to be strong enough mentally to wipe it from his psyche as soon as possible.

Dex had a weird moment earlier in the game too, channelling his inner Jan Lasak and skating away from the crease to play the puck.  Scott Ford bailed him out, preventing a Brandon Buck shot from going into the vacated net.

Outside of the those two plays, Dex was pretty good overall.  Matt Hackett was even better, especially in the 2nd period when the Admirals put 14 shots on net.

The Admirals were 2-for-3 on the power play, with the two aforementioned scores from Bourque.  Both of them came after strong plays to the net by Chris Mueller.  Bourque followed up a Mueller shot for his first goal, and cashed in on a great pass from Mueller for his second.

Peoria beat Oklahoma City in a shootout, so your West Division standings look like this…

1. Milwaukee 84 (66 games)
2. Houston 84 (70)
3.  Peoria 81 (69)
4.  Texas 80 (68)
5.  Chicago 79 (69)
6.  San Antonio 76 (65)
7. Oklahoma City 76 (67)
8.  Rockford 63 (66)

Short memory time.  The good guys are back in action Wednesday night in San Antonio.