The Admirals first ever game against the Oklahoma City  Barons was one they would prefer to forget.  Milwaukee fell 5-2 to the Barons.  It was the Admirals  worst loss of the season, giving up five goals for the first time.  It was also Milwaukee’s largest deficit in a loss so far.

Jeremy Smith suffered his first loss with the Admirals, picking up 24 saves on 29 shots. Milwaukee remains with just one win with a goaltender not named Mark Dekanich in net.

Three of the goals came on deflections, but the back breaker was a short handed goal by Jeff Petry early in the third.  It was a tally I’m sure Smith wishes he could have back.  Worse it was the goal that put the game out of reach at 4-1.

The Barons also picked up a pair of goals on the power play as Milwaukee’s struggling special teams again played a factor.

Linus Klasen buried his first goal in six games for the Admirals only tally of the first period.  Klasen’s team leading ninth goal of the season got Milwaukee back into the game after a horrid start.  The Admirals surrendered three goals on their first nine shots.

Milwaukee’s other goal came in the final minute, credited to Aaron Johnson.  Within the next few seconds two fights broke out, including a classic confrontation between Jake Taylor of the Barons and Kelsey Wilson.  Shortly after Ryan Flynn got in his first professional fight in the under card, matching up with Jordan Bendfeld.

The tussles were a final message sent by the Milwaukee that they will be ready for the rematch on Tuesday.

Final Notes:

-Blake Geoffrion remains out of the lineup.

-Klasen suffered an injury in the third period.  It’s unclear at this point if he will miss any games or if the injury was significant.

-Milwaukee drops to 9-5-1-3 on the season and has yet to win on southern swing of the franchise tying 10-game road trip.

-After enjoying a five game winning streak the Admirals have now lost three games in a row.

-Click here for the AHL’s score sheet.  Here is Milwaukee’s recap.  And Oklahoma City’s version.

Richard Bachman was Taking Care Of Business.

Richard Bachman gave the Admirals No Sugar Tonight.

Any other BTO or Guess Who jokes you want to make?

Bachman turned aside all 26 shots the Admirals attempted, and the Stars were victorious 2-0 Saturday night in suburban Austin, Texas.

I encourage you to read the recap of this game over at 100 Degree Hockey — they are a Roundtable-approved blog that does excellent work, and they were actually AT the game.  Follow them on twitter @100degreehockey, if you like.

This was the Admirals first regulation loss since October 30th in Abbotsford.

The Admirals offense sleepwalked through most of the first 40 minutes, as they registed just their 8th shot of the game when there was about five and a half minutes left in the 2nd.  The shots came a little more frequently from that point on with the aid of some 5-on-3 power play time, a Stars team content to play some of the dump and chase game, and almost three minutes with the extra attacker at the end of the game after pulling Mark Dekanich.  Coach Lambert shook the lines up a bit in the 3rd period and some better energy was a result,  but Bachman and his defense had all the answers.

Dekanich stopped 30 of 32 shots in the loss.  A lighter workload than last night in San Antonio.  I expect we’ll see Jeremy Smith in the crease tomorrow evening.

The only goal the Stars needed came with 34 seconds left in the first period, as Greg Rallo fired a wrister from the slot that clanged off the post and in the net past a screened Dekanich.  Ahh, the dreaded goal-scored-against-in-the-final-minute-of-a-period sequence.

Tonight’s glass-is-half-full moment is brought to you by Mountain Fury.  Make that half glass a full glass with Mountain Fury.  Fury the fury! 

Yeah, bummer about the last 48 hours….the game in San Antonio last night, and the shutout tonight….but friends, we’re halfway done with the 10-game road trip, and I think we should be pretty happy with a record of 3-1-0-1.

Tomorrow morning, the Admirals will fly to Oklahoma City to play their first ever game against the Barons.  5:05 is the scheduled faceoff time, provided there aren’t any zambonis that break prior.

ITEM FOR DISCUSSION:

At the 11:49 mark of the 1st period, Maxime Fortunus was called for tripping, and Gabriel Bourque was called for diving.  Obviously the Koharski-du-jour felt it was okay to call them both….but where do you stand?  Should it be just one or the other?  Or is it okay to call both on a play?

Both teams came into the game riding five game winning streaks.  The San Antonion Rampge were able to run it to six, as they defeated the Admirals 4-3 in a shootout.

Mark Dekanich was peppered with 51 shots in the game, including 25 in the 2nd period.   And then after stopping the opening shootout attempt, Dex let in the next three, while the Admirals didn’t put any past Rampage goalie Matt Climie in the shootout.

Dekanich deserved a better fate.  He is the reason that the Admirals were even in this game.  The game was scoreless through the first 38 minutes, but Pete MacArthur scored to give the Rampge the lead, and thus end Dekanich’s franchise record scoreless streak at 209:31 straight minutes.  He deserves quite the attaboy for that.

His subsequent scoreless streak was stopped after 15 seconds, as Mikkel Boedker scored to give the Rampage a two goal lead.

But the Admirals answered back 47 seconds later with Mike Bartlett’s first of the year.  Ryan Flynn was playing the puck behind the net, and passed to Roman Josi at the point.  His shot was stopped by Matt Climie’s pads, but Bartlett was there to put the rebound in.  It was Flynn’s first professional point.

So after being outshot 36 to 11 over the first two periods, the Admirals found themselves only down one goal, and on a power play to start the 3rd period, thanks to an Oliver Ekman-Larsson interference penalty.

The Admirals didn’t score on that power play, but did tie the game up nine seconds after it expired.  Matt Halischuk scored his 6th goal of the season — a wrister that went between Climie’s legs.

Chris Mueller gave the Admirals the lead 2:08 later with his third shorthanded goal of the season.  (Last season, the Admirals had three shorties all year!)  Mueller went in a breakaway after Maxim Goncharov turned the puck over, and he beat Climie glove side.

San Antonio was able to tie the game while Kelsey Wilson was serving a tripping minor.  Admirals nemesis Tim Stapleton had the power play goal just 12 seconds into the advantage, and with 5:20 left in the game.

In overtime, the Admirals thought they had scored the game winner after a puck went off of Mueller’s body towards the net.  Climie appeared to make the save, but was pushed back into the net as part of a pileup.  The goal judge never turned their light on, and after the officials discussed the play, it was officially ruled no goal.

Dekanich came up huge on a Tim Stapleton breakaway moments later.

Steve Begin took another late game penalty — this one a hooking minor with 1:11 left in OT.  After withstanding the early pressure on the 4-3 power play, the man-advantage was negated after Brett MacLean was called for goaltender interference with 14 seconds left in OT.

NOTES:

– The start of the game was delayed after one of the zambonis started leaking hydrolic fluid onto the ice.   Apparently, this guy got a new job.

– While it’s great to get a point out of this one, especially a game where the ice seemed to be slanted at times, it’s still an extra point that a division rival ended up getting in the standings.  Hopefully, it won’t come back to haunt the team once we get to April.

– For our glass-is-half-full readers…that was 7th straight game the Admirals have received at least one point. Sure beats the alternative.

– On to Austin to take on the Stars Saturday night — a team coming off a shootout win at Oklahoma City on Friday night. They have a longer way to travel than the Ads do.

Chet Pickard is now on a winning streak of one game.

Ok, maybe that’s not a streak.  But it’s a win, and that’s awesome.

Chet was in net this afternoon for the Cyclones as they visted the Toledo Walleye, and made 31 saves on 32 shots, as the Cyclones held on to win 2-1.

I say “held on” because they were outshot 17-4 in the 3rd period.  But Chet stopped them all.

So please join me in congratulating Chet on removing that ugly-ass monkey from his back.

What a weekend for Chris Mueller.

Playing against his former team (he played in 59 games for Lake Erie in the 08-09 season), Mueller had a five point weekend.  Two goals and an assist last night, and the first and last goal this afternoon.  The last goal was a shorthanded tally with 1:07 left in the game, giving the Admirals a thrilling 3-2 win over the Monsters.

Admirals recap is here, Lake Erie “recap” and photos are here, the box score is here, the updated standings are here, and Waldo is here.

How did we get shorthanded so late in the game?  Steve Begin was called for a boarding penalty, and then he got a stick up in his face.  Begin took exception to that, as did Kelsey Wilson.  All dance partners got two minutes for roughing, but no high stick call to even out the Begin boarding call.

At that point, the philosophy might be to just get the game to overtime, get at least a point, and then see what happens.

Gabriel Bourque was able to clear the puck from the defensive zone, and then Mueller picked the pocket of Monster center Ryan Stoa.  Breaking in on rookie goaltender Trevor Cann, Mueller scored on the backhand to give the Admirals the lead.

Speaking of rookie goaltenders, Jeremy Smith made his first AHL start in net for the Ads.  He turned aside 25 of 27 shots to earn his first AHL win.  The only shots that beat him…a shorthanded goal from Mike Carmen found the back of the net through Smith’s five-hole, and a Justin Mercier shot from the slot that Smith was screened on.  He also made some spectacular saves that showed off his athleticism.

I asked Aaron Sims after the game how comfortable Smith looked in net.  “For a kid making his first start, he just seemed real sure about himself.  Willing to challenge.”  Back in pre-season, there were some concerns about rebound control, and he let a few big ones out there this afternoon.  But on some of those rebound chances, Aaron says that Smith “flashed a glove that was just unreal-quick.”  Very encouraging.

On the radio broadcast after the game, Ian Herbers told Aaron that it was a tough call regarding who was going to get the start today.  That original plan was to start Smith, but with Dekanich doing his best brick wall impersonation in the last two games, they weren’t sure.  Word is that Dex “tweeked” an injury at the rink in the morning, and was held out as a pre-caution.  Aaron later clarified with Ian that the injury was not anything serious.  May be just soreness.  And with the team off until next Friday, I think Dex should be ready to go down in Texas, when they begin their next 3-in-3 stretch of games.

But Ian used the word “maintenance” when talking about Dex.  The red flag that waves is that while Dex has been nothing short of outstanding, he may be starting to feel the wear-and-tear that comes with being the #1 goalie.

Somewhat overshadowed with the Mueller and Smith stories….Roman Josi scored his first North American goal in the 2nd period while the teams were playing 4×4.  A shot from the slot that went over Cann’s glove.

Coach Lambert said last week that pretty soon, fans are going to be seeing that Josi may be the most talented defenseman that we’ve had in Milwaukee.  And that says A LOT, considering how many defenseman playing in Nashville have spent some time here.

NOTES:

Mark Van Guilder — suffered a broken thumb in practice on Thursday.  So he’ll be out for awhile.  With Geoffrion out too, the Admirals lost two centers this week.  Mueller and Mike Bartlett are picking up the center slack.  Maybe Mueller stays there for awhile.

– That line of Mark Santorelli, Chris Mueller, and Gabriel Bourque was by far the best line this weekend.  You’ve got two guys with great speed and tenacity, and then you’ve got Mark Santorelli, who’s got some skill and is starting to play a little more physically than he has in the past.  So it’s kind of a melting pot of a line.  And those three guys have 11 of the 35-non-Klasen goals the team has scored this year.

Questions for discussion:

– Just going to keep it general.  We’re 15 games in.  The team has won five in a row, including the first 3 on this 10 game trip.  How are you feeling about this team?  Cautiously optimistic?  Tickled pink?  Think the best is yet to come?  Think we’re getting way ahead of ourselves?  Give me a player (other than Klasen) who has really impressed you with his game.

Back at the end of September, Mark Dekanich was reassigned to the Milwaukee Admirals.  And he offered us this tweet:

“Disappointed on my way back to MKE. Will dominate there and be back soon.”

Very prophetic, that Dexshow.

Dex recorded his second straight shutout Friday night, as the Admirals defeated the Cleveland Lake Erie Monsters 4-0.  He made 21 saves, and his scoreless streak is up to 172:34 minutes.

Not to take anything away from Dekanich’s game, but the defense did its thing too.  Just four shots got through to Dekanich in each of the final two periods, even with two penalties to kill in the 3rd.

Chris Mueller opened the scoring with about 5 and a half minutes left in the first period while Mark Santorelli was serving a holding penalty.  He gained control of the puck, went around a Monster defender, and beat Jason Bacashihua through the five-hole.

Mueller (getting some ice time at center), also assisted on the Ads second goal.  He won an offensive zone faceoff back to Aaron Johnson who just put the puck on net.  And into the net.  Goalie was screened and the puck found its way behind him.

And check this out:  I’m going to say something nice about Aaron Johnson, and it’s not a backhanded compliment or anything like that.  He is not afraid to shoot the puck.  While the home crowds get restless sometimes when the defensemen just pass the puck back and forth across the point, waiting for an open shot, Johnson doesn’t seem to be as picky as the others.  And it creates chances for himself and everyone else.  He’s third on the team in shots on goal, behind Klasen and Thuresson.

Ok, back to the game.  Great way to avoid a 3rd period collapse?  Get Matt Halischuk to score 2 minutes into the period.  Well, it’s not that easy.  Get Jamie Lundmark to shoot on net, Bacashihua to kick a save to Halischuk, and then get Halischuk to score 2 minutes into the period.

And then Mueller got his 2nd goal of the game, scoring into an empty net.  That’s not a metaphor for scoring on a bad goalie.  No really, they pulled the goalie down 3-0.

The last time the Admirals won with shutouts in back-to-back games was October 26th and 27th in 2007.  First game was a 2-0 win over the Quad City Flames, with Maxime Daigneault making all 27 saves.  Cal O’Reilly and Mike Santorelli scored in the last 10 minutes to give the Admirals the win.  And then the next night back in Milwaukee, the Pekka Rinne closed the door on the Chicago Wolves, with the only goal of the game courtesy of Matt Ellison in overtime.

Chet Pickard watch — Cincy won 2-0 on Friday night.  Chet dressed as the backup.

Programming note — the Lake Erie rematch tomorrow is another matinee.  Faceoff is scheduled for noon.

QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION:

Just one question.  If Dekanich gets the start tomorrow, that’d be his third game in four days.  Should the team ride the hot goalie Saturday afternoon, or give Jeremy Smith his first start as an Admiral?