Despite having back-to-back goals from Frederick Gaudreau, the Admirals lost their fourth game in a row tonight 5-3 to the Oklahoma City Barons at the BMO Harris Bradley Center on Saturday night.
Joe Pendenza tallied a pair of assists tonight, his first AHL assist.
Oklahoma City was the first to get on the board with a goal from Brad Hunt at 5:49. Hunt blasted the puck in to beat Marek Mazanec stick side. Colton Sissons scored the teddy bear toss goal for the Ads and tied up the game. Sissons caught a pass from Patrick Cehlin in the slot and shot it in.
The Barons took over the second period with back-to-back power play goals. Anton Lander with a shot from the far post that went in at 15:44 and just about two minutes later Hunt gets one in up high over the near shoulder of Mazanec, strengthening their lead 3-1.
Just one minute into the third period, Ryan Hamilton got one past Mazanec glove side. Frederick Gaudreau answered back with a pair of goals. Joe Piskula took a shot that went wide. Gaudreau picked up the rebound and tapped it in at 2:18. Gaudreau’s second goal came at 4:52 when Anthony Bitetto’s shot was deflected into the slot and Gaudreau buried the puck from the bottom of the near circle and tightened the spread to 4-3. The third period came to an end with an empty net goal from Jason Williams, giving the final score of 5-3.
This is the fourth loss in a row for the Ads.
“We’re in a tough spot right now and a little frustration has crept in,” said Colton Sissons. “Hopefully we can turn things around. I think we had a good start tonight but our undisciplined penalties just killed our momentum and killed our energy. We came back hard, just a little bit too late.”
“Oklahoma City having the second best power play in the league made our penalty kill crucial for our success tonight,” said head coach Dean Evason. “You look at our penalties. Slash, hook, hold. We talk about our guys getting stick-on-puck all the time. There’s no reason for hooks and holds and slashes. There’s no reason to have your stick anywhere off of the ice. Those are frustrating penalties and it’s frustrating for us because it is something that we have talked about and preached on for three years.”
“It’s great that we have an early turnaround, that’s the best thing for us. There’s just come to the rink and lets play hockey. Lets get it right out there and play hard,” said Evason.
The Ads look to break this streak tomorrow afternoon as they take on the Grand Rapids Griffins.
