The Milwaukee Admirals have ended a four game losing streak after defeating the Texas Stars in a 2-1 shootout victory on Friday night.
The Admirals have had a rough start to the season when it comes to the shootout. Before Friday night they had two previous shootout appearances. They lost both of those contests without registering a single successful shot. Troy Grosenick also had not stopped a single shot in the shootout. That changed on Friday.
Milwaukee had a nice start to the game, registering 11 shots on goal. The only goal of the period came from Laurent Dauphin (2) at 15:48. Dauphin fired a shot and was able to create some confusion in front of the net and eventually bumped the puck behind Texas net-minder Jake Oettinger. The goal was reviewed, but the call stood. Mathieu Olivier (2) and Josh Wilkins (4) had the assists.
Halfway through the second period (11:03) Joel L’Esperance scored on an otherwise red hot Troy Grosenick to tie the game. L’Esperance’s goal came during a Matt Donovan high-sticking minor that took place at 10:08.
The Admirals’ shot attempts slowed down severely during the first half of the period, but the second half of the second period saw them get their shot total up to 13.
The third period and an overtime period saw nothing change. Both Grosenick and Oettinger were on fire. The Admirals dominated time of possession during the overtime period, but only registered four shots on net. So the Admirals went to the shootout for the third time in four games.
Colin Blackwell went first and had a beautiful shot to put the Admirals up in the shootout. Grosenick was able to stop Tanner Kero. Oettinger stopped Josh Wilkins and Grosenick made the stop on Joel L’Esperance’s shot. Frederick Gaudreau was held off after waiting too long to shoot the puck, but Jason Robertson tied it for Texas.
Pitlick and Tolvanen were both stopped for the Admirals and Adam Mascherin and Brad McClure were stopped by Grosenick.
Daniel Carr took his turn and went wide left and shot from the inside of the circle to beat Oettinger. Troy Grosenick was able to make an easy save on Ben Gleason to win the game for the Admirals.
Game Notes
Another low scoring game for the Admirals, which is the opposite of what a lot of fans were expecting given the offensive talent present on this roster. Tolvanen and Richard are still only sitting at one goal a piece. Rem Pitlick has yet to score his first AHL goal. Yakov Trenin still leads the Admirals in goals with four despite not having appeared for the Admirals since October 12th vs. Laval.
Goaltending, on the other hand, has been outstanding. I cannot overstate how impressive Troy Grosenick’s play has been so far this season. He had another highlight reel goal last night. He’s come up huge for a struggling Admirals offense.
Yakov Trenin, Anthony Richard, and Jarred Tinordi did not appear in Friday night’s game. Trenin may be nursing an injury. Anthony Richard was likely told he wasn’t playing as he was recalled to Nashville for Saturday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Jarred Tinordi was finishing a three game suspension due to some theatrics that took place last Saturday versus Colorado.
The number one question I’ve been getting asked lately is “what is going on with Eeli Tolvanen?” He’s not getting lucky. He leads the Admirals in shots on goal. He has 25 SOG, which is five more than second place Anthony Richard. Alternatively, Yakov Trenin has 6 SOG and 4 goals. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a good AHL heat map, but from the eye test his shots don’t seem to be coming from high danger spots. A lot of shots from the top of the circle, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts.
The Admirals will face off again with the Texas Stars on Tuesday October 29th at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena at 7:00PM Central time. Stay up to date with the Admirals here on PenaltyBoxRadio.com.
