The Milwaukee Admirals fell in Tuesday’s rematch against the Manitoba Moose after their 4-1 win this past Saturday. Milwaukee still earned one point after their 2-1 overtime loss.
If three words could sum up Tuesday’s game, they would be: “drop the puck!” Regulation play began at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena in Milwaukee, WI and went for nearly three full hours. On ice officials repeatedly removed skaters from the faceoff circle throughout the contest. It seemed as if there were more whistles blown during the game than there were shots on goal.
Manitoba, looking to come back from their loss on Saturday to the Admirals, started scoring out in the second period when Sami Niku scored his first goal of the season from the face off circle over the right shoulder of Milwaukee netminder Tom McCollum. Niku’s goal came at the 10:13 mark of the period. Milwaukee wasn’t too far behind, when (after a Tye McGinn tripping minor at 12:23) at 14:14 Nicholas Baptiste lit the lamp for his fourth goal of the season after Emil Pettersson shot from the blue line into traffic. Baptiste was able to take control of the puck and put it into the Manitoba net through goaltender Mikhail Berdin. Baptiste’s goal also ended a 0 and 16 power play drought for the Admirals and was his second power play goal of the season. Pettersson (5) and Filip Pyrochta (2) were awarded the assists.
That wasn’t the only action during the second period. Yakov Trenin dropped the gloves toward the beginning of the period ready to exchange jabs with a Manitoba Moose skater. He landed several punches to the back but was quickly pulled away by the linesmen. No penalties were given. Later in the period at 19:20 all the players on the ice started pushing and shoving. Team captain Jarred Tinordi got several hits in on Manitoba left winger Skyler McKenzie. Tinordi was given a two-minute roughing minor. Baptiste had former Admiral Felix Girard in a headlock. This brawl seemed to stem from a Girard slashing penalty, which he served consecutively to the Tinordi roughing minor.
Basically, nothing took place during the first and third periods of this match. At 2:05 in the first, Manitoba left winger Jansen Harkins was sent to the box for slashing. In the third, Admiral Frederic Allard took a slashing penalty at 11:18 into the period. Three periods were not enough to determine this one.
Overtime started at roughly 10pm and ended after 2:06 when Manitoba’s 40th shot on goal for the night was put in by Mason Appleton (5) off of a gorgeous pass by Michael Spacek across the crease to beat Tom McCollum’s left side.
Milwaukee tallied 30 shots on goal through three periods. The Appleton goal was the only shot on goal by either club during overtime.
Game Notes:
The Admirals’ power play seems to be having similar struggles to that of the Nashville Predators. As mentioned earlier, before Baptiste’s powerplay goal in the second period the Admirals were 0 and 16 on the power play. This struggle seems to coincide with Rocco Grimaldi’s recall to Nashville. Milwaukee is now 22% on the power play. On a positive note, the Admirals are 90% on the penalty kill, which is one of the better percentages in the AHL.
There was also a lack of shots on goal for the night compared to the onslaught of shots from Manitoba. Baptiste and Jeremy Gregoire led the team with 5 shots on goal each. Matt Donovan had 4. Eeli Tolvanen only tallied one shot.
The Admirals have still only lost one game in regulation this season and move to 8-1-2-0 for the season. The team will look to start a new winning streak this Friday (November 6th) at 7pm against the Rockford Icehogs in Milwaukee.
