The Milwaukee Admirals had two games over the weekend. On Friday they played the Texas Stars; a team that they have struggled greatly with lately. Then on Saturday they faced the Grand Rapids Griffins for the second time in the last week. On Wednesday, the Admirals beat Grand Rapids at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena for the first time since 2017.
Friday December 14th vs. Texas Stars (Home)
The Milwaukee Admirals played a very similar game to the one that the Predators played against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night. The Admirals took the lead early in the first period and were then able to extend that lead in the second. The Stars mounted a comeback to tie the game late in the third and forced overtime. All for the Admirals to secure the victory early in overtime. Sound familiar?
The Admirals established control of the game pretty early and had possession in the offensive zone. Texas defenseman John Nyberg was attempting to clear the puck when Milwaukee’s Emil Pettersson took control and passed it up the boards to the point for newly acquired Duncan Siemens who fired a wrister that didn’t make it all the way to the net. Forward Anthony Richard took control and ricocheted a shot off the bar to beat Texas netminder Landon Bow. This was Richard’s ninth goal of the season and was Duncan Siemens’ first point as an Admiral since being signed to an AHL contract last week. Despite Milwaukee leading scoring in the first Texas led in shots on goal 9-5.
Scoring settled down until late in the second period when at 17:18 Nicholas Baptiste (6) gained control of the puck in the neutral zone and carried the puck wide right into the offensive zone. He dropped the puck back to Frederic Allard (2) at the top of the circle who fired another shot off the post an in to beat Bow. Milwaukee led in shots on goal 8-6 in the second period.
The third period started with a bang at 2:22 when Texas’James Phelan dropped the gloves with Milwaukee’s Jeremy Gregoire. Phelan had a pretty good hold on Gregoire and controlled most of the fight, but Gregoire’s helmet stayed on the entire time. They were both given five-minute fighting majors but Phelan also received a ten-minute game misconduct for allowing his jersey to come off during the fight.
There was a slew of other penalties for both teams in the third period. Since no scoring took place until the very last one, here they all were: Alexandre Carrier was called for interference at 2:57, Nicholas Baptiste was called for slashing at 6:42, Texas’ Colin Markison for high-sticking at9:08, Samuel Laberge and Milwaukee’s Garrett Ross for unsportsmanlike conduct at 11:34, and then finally Milwaukee’s Brian Cooper was called for boarding at 11:54. That last penalty gave Texas the powerplay opportunity they needed to get back into this game. Late into the powerplay at 13:21 Joel L’Esperance scored his 13th goal of the season off a slapshot from the middle of the circle that went right over the right shoulder of Milwaukee’s goaltender Troy Grosenick.
Not even two-minutes later, at 15:13 Texas was able to tied the game when Travis Morin (13) was able to pass the puck through traffic across the offensive zone to Justin Dowling (8) who was able to fire a shot over the left shoulder of Grosenick.
Neither team scored throughout the rest of the game, so to overtime they went. At 21 seconds into overtime Admirals’ defenseman Matt Donovan brought to puck to the goal line and passed it back to Anthony Richard who was able to push the puck past the right leg of Bow to win the game. Milwaukee wins 3-2.
Saturday December 15th vs. Grand Rapids Griffins (Away)
Saturday against the Griffins did not go the same way for the Admirals as Friday’s game. However, this matchup had a lot of similarities to the rest of the last week for the Predators organizations. The Admirals controlled play all the way until the third period and then allowed the other team to tie the game. The difference being that the Admirals dropped this one in the shootout.
Scoring started exactly one-minute into the game when team captain Jarred Tinordi scored his second goal of the season with assists from Yakov Trenin (6) and Alexandre Carrier (9) against Griffins netminder Harri Sateri. The Admirals extended their lead to two goals about a minute and a half later when Emil Pettersson scored his sixth goal of the season at 2:27. Tanner Jeannot (2) and Anthony Richard (8) had the assists on the play.
Grand Rapids was not to be outdone in this period. At 13:25, Trevor Hamilton scored his first goal of the season for the Griffins and then a minute and a half later Filip Zadina was able to beat Milwaukee goaltender Tom McCollum for his eighth goal of the season. Both had primary assists from Axel Holmstrom.
The second period was all Admirals. At 1:51 into the period Emil Pettersson scored his second goal of the game and his seventh of the season off an assist from Tanner Jeannot (3). Late into the second Anthony Richard scored his eleventh of the season for the Admirals at 11:04 with a primary assist from Eeli Tolvanen. The goal came on the powerplay after an interference penalty from Grand Rapids’ Colin Campbell.
The third period, unfortunately, was all Grand Rapids. At 1:01 Dylan Sadowy scored his first goal of the season against McCollum with an assist from Matthew Ford (7). McCollum was able to hold the Admirals lead until Sateri was pulled late in the period in favor of an extra attacker which allowed Joe Hicketts to score his first goal of the season to tie the game. If you’re keeping track, that was the third first goal that the Admirals allowed in this contest.
Three periods were not enough to settle this match. Neither team were able to capitalize during the overtime period. Grand Rapids only tallied 2 shots on goal while Milwaukee only tallied 1. So to a shootout it went.
Sateri was lights out for the Griffins during the shootout.He was able to stop Anthony Richard, shootout wizard Justin Kirkland, and Eeli Tolvanen. The lone shootout goal came during the third and final round when Grand Rapids Dominic Turgeon dangled the puck in front of McCollum before dumping it in right through him, ending the game.
Milwaukee lost to the Griffins 5-4, but were still able to pick up a point in the standings.
Game Notes:
These were a decent couple of games for the Admirals. The offensive power was on display, especially during the match with Grand Rapids. The problem seems to come in when it comes to Milwaukee’s defensive pairings and goaltending. From a spectator’s perspective, it appears that the defense would be more to blame for many of the goals allowed than the goaltenders.
The rest of the year could be challenging for the Admirals. They face Rockford on the 19th, Chicago on the 22nd and 26th, and then the Iowa Wild on the 29th. The Admirals have struggled against these three teams all season.
Despite having a few rough games coming up, the Admirals have re-established their hold on first place in the Central division. The Admirals have 37-points in the standings while second place Iowa has 35. First place has gone back and forth with the Wild for hold on first place in the Central for several weeks.
The Admirals play again on Wednesday December 19th at 7:00pm in Rockford, Il against the IceHogs. Game recaps can be found here on PenaltyBoxRadio.com
