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Results

Milwaukee played in Houston Sunday afternoon. I didn't listen to the game. I was in an NFL mood instead. Here's a boxscore recap:

This was the second meeting between these two teams in Houston this weekend. After a Friday night overtime victory, the Admirals enjoyed a Saturday off, while Houston played a game in San Antonio.

Mike Santorelli extended his streak to four straight games with a goal after getting a shorthanded marker early in the first period. He has also has a seven game point streak. However, Corey Locke tied the game up on that same Houston power play.

Kelsey Wilson put the Admirals back on top at the 7:37 mark in the first period with a power play goal. The score remained 2-1 until late in the second period when John Lammers tied it up.

Houston scored twice in the third period to make the final score 4-2. Starting Aeros goaltender Nolan Schaeffer left the game after 9:13. Barry Brust pitched a shutout in relief. Milwaukee goaltender Drew MacIntyre faced 36 shots in the loss.

The game featured three fights, with Milwaukee's Triston Grant, Hugh Jessiman, and Scott Ford each sitting for five minutes. Ford returned to the lineup after missing the last 11 games to injury.

By the way, here is a link to a few photos of Nolan Yonkman's fight Friday night.

Highlight

Former Admiral Scott Nichol's magical shot last night in Atlanta

This clip is from the Nashville broadcast, and so far it is the only one I can find online of this play.

The Atlanta telecast had several replays of this shot, which literally went through the net. Play continued for a few minutes until the whistle was blown. The play was reviewed in Toronto and was determined to be a goal. The Thrashers color man (Darren Eliot) did a great job in knowing that the play was going to be reviewed, and they showed every angle of the shot during the break in the action. From this clip on nhl.com, it seems that Bartles and James were in the dark until the play was about to resume.

(Barltes and James is a sarcastic nickname given by my brother to the Nashville broadcast team of Pete Weber and Terry Crisp)

Results

I tuned in to KNTH's streaming audio of the Admirals game in Houston Friday night. I didn't get any insider Admirals news from the pair of Houston announcers, but at least I was able to listen to the game.

Ryan Jones and Patric Hornqvist are still with the Admirals. When sent here on conditioning, it was mentioned they would be here at least three games. Tonight is game number four for the rookie forwards.

Geoff Peters and Teemu Laakso returned to the lineup. Robert Dietrich sat out for the first time this season, and Ian McKenzie sat out to make room for Peters. Laakso has missed the last four games, while Peters has been out of action since October 25.

The Admirals tried to give the game to Houston in the first period, giving the Aeros 10 minutes of power play time in the first 20 minutes. Fortunately, Drew MacIntyre did what he had to do, and weathered a scoreless first period in which Milwaukee was outshot 11-2.

A highlight early in the game was a super-heavyweight bout between 6'6" Milwaukee defenseman Nolan Yonkman against 6'7" Houston defenseman John Scott. Yonkman took exception to a cheap shot on Andreas Thuresson, but Scott got the best of Yonkman in the fight - according to the Houston play-by-play guys.

Milwaukee answered with a strong second period. An apparent goal late in the period was waved off by the referee, who did not see the puck pop in and out of the net. The red light came on, and the players celebrated, but the referee waved it off and did not approach the goal judge for a second opinion. Milwaukee outshot Houston 15-7 in the period, but the game remained scoreless going into the third period.

Houston opened the third period with a team record for the fastest goal in a period. Clayton Stoner launched the puck from center ice. It took an odd bounce high off of the side-board glass, fooling MacIntyre, who skated off as if it was going behind the net. Six seconds into the period, and Milwaukee was down 1-0.

The crowd was silenced as Mike Santorelli shot in a rebound to tie it up with 6 minutes left in the period, and he almost followed it up with another goal moments later, as the momentum seemed to shift in favor of Milwaukee as the game was winding down. Santorelli has scored in the last three games.

Still tied after 60 minutes, the game went to overtime. Former Aero Ryan Jones deked Houston goaltender Nolan Schaeffer to get the game winner at 3:49 of the extra session.

Milwaukee has won 4 of the 5 games which have gone beyond regulation this season. The Admirals have won 9 of the last 11 games, and start their five game road trip with a win.

Wendy's got off light this week.
Any time the Admirals score 4 goals at home, fans can exchange their ticket stub for a free Frosty © the next day. Wednesday night, Milwaukee lit the lamp four times. How many fans bothered to go to Wendy's on Thanksgiving?

Results

The Admirals pillaged and plundered the Peoria Rivermen on their way to a 4-1 victory on Thanksgiving Eve at the BC.

Milwaukee fans got their first look at forwards Patric Hornqvist and Ryan Jones, both of whom are with Milwaukee on a conditioning assignment from the Nashville Predators. Milwaukee used goaltender Drew MacIntyre against Peoria's Marek Schwarz.

The Rivermen struck first off of Jeff Cowan's first AHL goal since 2000. He's had a good excuse for the dry spell, as he has been in the NHL since then. Cowen capitalized on a rebound in the slot for an easy power play goal.

Hugh Jessiman snapped a shot to the top of Peoria's net on a power play minutes later to tie it up. It was his fourth goal of the season, with all of them coming in the last 7 games.

Stephen Werner also got his fourth of the year to get the game winner at 12:46 of the first period. He one-timed a rebound through Schwarz' five hole.

Defenseman Tim Ramholt got his first goal of the year early in the second period, and Mike Santorelli followed up with a power play goal minutes later to seal the game up for the Admirals.

Cal O'Reilly notched three assists for the second straight game. He has 10 assists in his current five game scoring streak. He has at least a point in all but 3 games this season.

MacIntyre faced only 16 shots against a lethargic Peoria team, who have lost their top two goal scorers (Chris Conner and Steven Regier) to the St. Louis Blues in the last week.

Results

Saturday's Admiral game in Iowa was SIEVE-Tastic!! If you like goal scoring, you got it in this barn burner.

Unfortunately, I was unable to hear Aaron paint the picture of this incredible game because WSSP's web feed once again cut out during the pregame and would not allow me to reconnect. I'll keep complaining about this until something... anything comes of this. SSP never responded to my message to their tech support weeks ago. Something tells me their tech nerd is busy tending to his three-way fantasy of Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre instead of doing his job. (That's what Packer nerds dream of, right?)

If any Admiral advertisters stumble across this rant, realize that I'm not hearing the catchy jingles you paid for. I love to support businesses which support the Admirals, but I'm in the dark here! Am I the only one having issues with this two-bit radio station? Unlikely. And to reiterate, my computer is fine - a dual core Athlon with plenty of memory. I stream audio and video from dozens of other sources every day without a hitch.

On to the box score recap...
Milwaukee got on the board first as Andreas Thuresson scored at 4:46 of the first period. His fourth goal of the season. Hurray!

Iowa then rattled off four uncontested goals to take a 4-1 lead early in the second period. Mark Santorelli got his first pro goal minutes later, but Iowa spoiled the celebration by scoring two more times to take a commanding 6-2 lead at 12:10 of the second period.

The Admirals pulled starting goaltender Drew MacIntyre in favor of Mark Dekanich after Iowa's 6th goal. The team rallied behind Dex, scoring four unanswered goals to tie it up!! Thuresson notched his second goal of the night, followed by Mike Santorelli, Patric Hornqvist, and Nolan Yonkman. With just over eight minutes left in the game, it was back to even with a load of Admiral momentum ready to take the lead!!

Well, it didn't happen. Iowa woke up after realizing Yonkman of all people tied the game, and they responded by scoring twice in the final six minutes to make the final score 8-6. Twelve different players scored in the game. Iowa only managed 7 shots in the final 27:50 of the game. Milwaukee fired 34 shots against Iowa veteran netminder David LeNeveu, who is familiar to Milwaukee fans from his seasons with Utah and San Antonio.

The game featured three fights. Ryan Jones, Kelsey Wilson, and Hugh Jessiman each traded punches with a Chop in the second period. Maybe we'll see highlights on YouTube or AHL Live.

Results

The Admirals win the first ever meeting against the Iowa Chops by a score of 3-0. The Chops were born after the Dallas Stars removed their affiliation from the Des Moines based franchise after last season. Anaheim moved their prospects from Portland, and the team became the Chops.

Antti Pihlstrom was the star of the night, scoring the game's first two goals - one in the second period and one in the third. Both goals were assisted by Patric Hornqvist. Ryan Jones capped off the night by scoring the third Admiral goal with just under five minutes left in the game.

Drew MacIntyre saved all 27 shots in the first shutout of the season by the team. Jean-Phillippe Levasseur faced 26 shots on the Iowa net.

The referee, Jeff Smith, kept his whistle quiet - calling only four penalties in the entire game. Each team went 0-for-2 on the power play.

Milwaukee improves their record to 9-6. The Admirals have won 7 of the last 8 games, but they have been outshot in 8 of the last 9. These two teams square off again in Des Moines Saturday night.

Note - the game was not aired live on WSSP, and Iowa's radio station does not offer an internet feed, so this report is based entirely off of what I read in the box score... kinda like what the Journal Sentinel does for road game stories.

Transactions

I cannot remember this ever happening before.

Nashville sent two healthy players to Milwaukee to get more ice time without calling up Admirals to take their place.

Rookie forwards Ryan Jones and Patric Hörnqvist will join the team in Iowa for this weekend's games. Indications from Nashville are that they will remain with the Admirals for at least a week, meaning that they will play in Milwaukee on Wednesday the 26th.

Jones is a product of Miami University (Ohio) and made his pro debut with the Houston Aeros at the end of last season. The 24 year old Canadian was drafted by Minnesota in 2004 and was acquired in the trade that sent defenseman Marek Zidlicky to the Wild. He has 3 goals and 3 assists with Nashville this season.

The 21 year old Hörnqvist was playing in the Swedish Elite League until this season. He was the last player selected in the 2005 NHL draft. With Nashville this season, he has 2 goals and 5 assists.

To make room on the roster for these two players, Ian McKenzie was assigned to Cincinnati.

Fight Clip

Former Admiral Josh Gratton getting his ass kicked by Georges Laraque last weekend

The linesmen stepped in too soon!!

Click here for the French broadcast of the clip with different camera angles.

Results

Stephen Werner scores twice to help the Admirals extend their winning streak over the Grand Rapids Griffins to 8 games.

The Admirals went with rookie goaltender Mark Dekanich for the second straight game, while the Griffins used Jimmy Howard. Scratched for Milwaukee were Teemu Laakso, Scott Ford, Ryan Maki, Andreas Thuresson, and Geoff Peters.

Milwaukee was given a prime opportunity to get an early lead when Landon Wilson was called for a double minor and a misconduct. The Admirals could not convert on the four minute power play, and the game remained scoreless deep into the second period.

Soon after getting out of the penalty box, Wilson gave Grand Rapids the 1-0 lead with a power play goal. Milwaukee's Hugh Jessiman answered with a tying goal a few minutes later. He snapped a long pass (shot?) towards the net as Antti Pihlstrom was flying down the slot. Howard reacted to Pihlstrom and Jessiman's pass snuck into the net. Jessiman has scored in three of the last four games and has proven to be a great addition to the team since arriving on October 30.

Stephen Werner put Milwaukee on top 2-1 with a power play goal early in the third period.... and as usual, the team began playing back on their heels with a small third period lead. Former Admiral Darren Haydar capitalized on this with the type of play he has been successful on for a long time - as his team works the puck in the offensive zone, he zips in from the blue line to an open area and one times a pass into the back of the net.

Not to be phased, Werner answered with a beauty of a long snap shot 12 seconds later to give the Admirals a 3-2 lead. Milwaukee fended off an extra skater in the final minute and held on for the win.

Milwaukee has won 6 of their last 7 games. It will be a challenge to keep that run up, as they play 7 of the next 8 games on the road. Dekanich stopped 29 shots for his second win of the season. Mike Santorelli assisted on both of Werner's goals. On the down side, for the second straight game, the team set a new low in attendance for the season. Only 2873 tickets were sold.

Results

The Admirals came into this past weekend with a four game winning streak. Unfortunately, they could not extend it to a fifth.

Saturday afternoon, Milwaukee lost 5-2 to Rockford. The game was tied 2-2 after 40 minutes, but the Icehogs blew the game open in the third period. Andreas Thuresson and Triston Grant scored for the Admirals. Drew MacIntyre stopped 27 shots in the loss.

Sunday evening, the Admirals beat Grand Rapids 5-4. Milwaukee dominated the first period with goals by Triston Grant, Antti Pihlstrom, and Cody Franson. Franson's second goal of the game gave Milwaukee a 4-1 lead in the second period. The Griffins shocked the crowd by scoring three goals in 57 seconds to tie the game midway through the period, sending Milwaukee goaltender Mark Dekanich to the bench. Hugh Jessiman got the game winner a few minutes later. Dekanich returned to the game to start the third period and held on for the win. Milwaukee only recorded one shot in the third period.

The Admirals have been outshot in 6 of their last 7 games. Against Rockford this season, the home team has lost all three games. Against Grand Rapids, Milwaukee is 3-0 this season and 7-0 dating back to last season. The last Milwaukee loss to the Griffins was on December 29, 2007.

Transaction

Milwaukee called up forward Matt Beaudoin from Las Vegas (ECHL) yesterday. Beaudoin attended Milwaukee's training camp and was called up for one game last week by San Antonio.

This will be his 8th minor league hockey team he has played with since completing four years of college hockey at Ohio State in March 2007 - Arizona (CHL), Las Vegas, Dayton (ECHL), Iowa, Rochester, Hershey, and San Antonio. He scored 38 goals in 61 games last season in Dayton.

Highlights

Scenes from last night's game in Rockford.

Highlights

Former Admiral defenseman Ville Koistinen gets the overtime game winner last night in San Jose

Three wins in a row for Milwaukee after a late come from behind effort against league doormat San Antonio Friday night at the Bradley Center.

The Admiral fans welcomed back team captain Nolan Yonkman, who has had a late start to his season due to offseason knee surgery. On the other side of the rink, former Admiral Greg Classen suited up for the Rampage. He began the season in Providence, but was released after one game.

Milwaukee went with goaltender Drew MacIntyre for the fourth straight game. San Antonio went with Josh Tordjman (TOHRJ-man), who came into the game 3-5 against Milwaukee over the last two seasons.

Much of the game was a stout defensive battle with several under-appreciated plays in which defensemen on both teams tied up sticks or smothered the shooting lanes. Both goaltenders played well positionally and stopped what scoring chances came at them. Of course, many people in the crowd showed frustration at the lack of scoring.

Tempers flared several times in the first two periods. One of the highlights of the night was a great cruiserweight bout between Milwaukee's Triston Grant and San Antonio's Adam Keefe. Both players landed some decent blows, but Grant got the best of the Rampage goon.

About four minutes into the second period, Milwaukee was caught in a line change, allowing San Antonio an odd man rush. Milwaukee defeneman Mark Matheson had a chance to break up the play at the blue line, but didn't. Enver Lisin scored on the play - his second goal of the season - one in the AHL, one in the NHL.

Down 1-0 for much of the game, it appeared that the Admirals would get shutout. In the final minute, Milwaukee pulled MacIntyre for an extra skater. A shot by Cody Franson rebounded to defenseman Alexander Sulzer, who poked it in from the left side of the goal mouth with 10.9 seconds left in regulation. Cal O'Reilly assisted on the play to extend his point scoring streak to eight games.

After a scoreless overtime, the teams went to the sudden death shootout. Mike Santorelli scored in the first round, and Andreas Thuresson scored in the fourth round to get the win. MacIntrye stopped all four shootout attempts he faced and earned the #1 star of the game.

Results

So much for expecting a sluggish game from two teams that made overnight trips from Milwaukee to Grand Rapids for the back end of a two game home & away series.

Drew MacIntrye played between the pipes for the second straight night, but Grand Rapids went with a different netminder - Daniel Larsson, a Swede who is in his first season playing in North America. Milwaukee called up forward Matt Syroczynski from Cincinnati and used him in the game. Scratched from the game were Antti Pihlstrom, Geoff Peters, T.J. McElroy, Scott Ford, and Nolan Yonkman.

The Griffins got an early 1-0 lead, but Milwaukee came back with two quick goals by Robert Dietrich and Andreas Thuresson to take a 2-1 lead less than four minutes into the game. The Griffins tied it midway through the period, but Nick Spaling scored a pair of goals to send Larsson to the bench having given up 4 goals in 7 shots. Jimmy Howard came into the game, and he gave up a goal to Cal O'Reilly less than three minutes later.

With a 5-2 first intermission lead, the Admirals may have gotten overconfident. Landon Wilson scored a pair of power play goals for Grand Rapids in the second period to make it a one goal game.

Despite being outshot 14-5 in the final period, the Admirals held on to win 5-4, and with that is the first two game winning streak of the season for the Admirals, who improve their season record to 4-5.

By the way, for the third time this season, I've lost the online web feed of WSSP SportsRadio 1250's broadcast of the Admirals game. One minute, I'm listening to Aaron's excitable outbursts... and then, silence. I refresh the screen... nothing. I close and reopen my browser... nothing. I reboot my system... nothing. My computer is new - plenty of RAM and bandwidth - and I have absolutely no problems streaming audio from other sources (FSR and XM Online). This is FRUSTRATING!

Tonight, I lost the feed during the first intermission... so I flipped on the Penguins - Blues game to see how former Admirals goaltender Chris Mason would do against Crosby and Malkin. So far, not bad for Mace... 2-1 Blues after one period, allowing a goal by Satan.

My summary of the last 40 minutes of the Admirals game comes from the box score. I noticed a Griffin was whistled for kneeing... hopefully no one was hurt... but I'm in the dark thanks to SSP's lack of a reliable stream. And god damn, I cannot expect the Milwaukee Journal to write anything about a road game that isn't in the box score.

Results

The Admirals stole two points in a come from behind 3-2 overtime victory over the Grand Rapids Griffins Friday night at the Bradley Center.

Grand Rapids took a 1-0 lead just 44 seconds into the contest on a goal by Landon Wilson. Early in the second period, Stephen Werner scored his first goal as an Admiral to tie it up. The Griffins retook the lead in the third period off of Justin Abdelkader's seventh goal of the season.

As some "fans" began filing out of the building with under six minutes remaining, Cody Franson shot one past a sprawling Jimmy Howard to tie it up and send it to overtime.

Robert Dietrich was the hero of the night, scoring his first North American goal - a top shelf beauty which knocked the water bottle off the net.

The teams have a rematch Saturday night in Michigan.

Transactions

The Nashville Predators traded Admirals forward Josh Gratton to Philadelphia for defenseman Tim Ramholt, and acquired forward Hugh Jessiman from the New York Rangers for future considerations. Both players will report to Milwaukee.

Ramholt is from Switzerland and was a 2nd round draft pick by Calgary in 2003. He came to North America in 2006 and played a full season that year with the Omaha Knights, scoring 2 goals and 10 assists. He doubled his production last season in Quad City, with 4 goals and 20 assists. He was called up for one game by Calgary last season. He was traded to the Flyers this summer, and spent this season in the AHL with the Phantoms.

Jessiman is a New York City native and was the 12th overall pick by the Rangers in 2003. He played three seasons at Dartmouth before going pro in 2005. For the past 3+ seasons, he spent most of his time with Hartford and played parts of two seasons in the ECHL with Charlotte. His three year total in the AHL is 32 goals and 42 assists in 166 games.

At the Admirals pumpkin carving event last night in Whitefish Bay, Gratton was quite rude with at least one Admiral fan. He returns to a city that embraces that attitude, where he played in 2004-06.

Results

Milwaukee loses to Chicago 5-3 Saturday night at the Bradley Center. It's the fifth Admirals loss in the first seven games of the season.

One hundred seconds into the game, 2004 Hobey Baker Award winner Junior Lessard scored the first of three long shot goals that Milwaukee goaltender Drew MacIntyre would allow in the game. It was his first goal in 20 shots taken this season.

Admirals forward Nick Spaling tied it up with his first pro goal. He scored on an easy one-timer from the far side of the slot on a power play.

Chicago's Chad Denny put the Wolves back on top on long shot #2 that got past MacIntyre. He fired a beauty from the blue line along the left side boards that soared into the far upper corner of the net.

In a rare scene, a goal scorer was sent to the penalty box. Josh Gratton tied the game up on a shot while streaking down the left side of the rink in the final moments of the first period. He was taken down by a Chicago defensemen, and both men crashed into the endboards as the puck slipped past Chicago netminder Ondrej Pavelec. Gratton threw several jabs at the defenseman, drawing a roughing penalty in the aftermath of the goal. Before the second period began, Gratton and the referee were laughing about it.

The Admirals took their only lead of the night early in the second period, as defenseman Scott Ford fired a long shot which bounced off the endboards and found Geoff Peters for an easy goal. However, Lessard tied it up with long shot #3 late in the second period. After 40 minutes, the Wolves had outshot the Admirals 23-10.

The Wolves got the game winner in the first minute of the third period on a power play goal by Joe Motzko. Milwaukee had two power plays late in the game for a chance to tie it up, but came up empty-handed. Grant Stevenson added an empty-netter in the final seconds of the game to send the Milwaukee fans home disappointed.

Results

Just a quickie tonight... my alarm clock goes off at 4:45am. I'll update the site after Saturday night's game.

Friday night, a pathetically small crowd enjoyed a 6-3 Admirals victory over Peoria. Did the rain scare all of the "sports fans" in the Milwaukee metro area away from the BC? Next to nothing was going on tonight in the local sports scene... no high school football games... no college sports... Bucks had a preseason game in Chicago... No excuses Milwaukee.

Transaction

The Admirals called up Stephen Werner from Cincinnati (ECHL) and released forward Mark Van Guilder on Thursday. Werner appeared in Milwaukee's training camp and recorded a goal and three assists in two ECHL games this season. Van Guilder played in all five Admiral games this season.

Werner has 68 games of AHL experience over the last three seasons with Hershey and Springfield. He also spent parts of the last two seasons with South Carolina (ECHL). The Chevy Chase, Maryland, native was a teammate of Milwaukee's Mark Matheson at UMass-Amherst.

Results

Wednesday evening, the Admirals travelled to Cleveland for the first ever regular season meeting with the Lake Erie Monsters. The Admirals lost to the Monsters 4-2 in a preseason game last year.

This is the third different Cleveland team to square off against the Admirals. The Lunberjacks were a rival in the IHL from 1992-2001, and the Barons were an AHL team from 2001-06. The Barons moved to Worcester after the 2006 season. After one year without hockey in the Mistake By the Lake, the Monsters team was formed in 2007, winning just 26 games in their inaugural season.

Former Admirals Chris Durno and Matt Hendricks dressed for Lake Erie. Goaltender Jason Bacashihua made his 13th career start against Milwaukee (3-8-0-1). Drew MacIntyre played between the pipes for Milwaukee. Mark Matheson and Mark Santorelli were scratched from the lineup.

Milwaukee scored first with a power play goal at 13:52 of the first period. Alexander Sulzer fired a long shot that was redirected by Antti Pihlstrom - his fourth goal of the season. T.J. Galiardi tied the game less than two minutes later.

Lake Erie dominated the second period. Defenseman Derek Peltier put the Monsters up 2-1. Brian Willsie then scored his 5th goal in five games to make the score 3-1 in the middle of the period. After Chris Durno scored to put the Admirals down 4-1, Kelsey Wilson and Chris Stewart dropped the gloves and had a spirited fight at center ice. After 40 minutes, the Admirals were outshot 32-17.

The third period belonged to Milwaukee. With 6:32 remaining in the game, Kelsey Wilson scored to cut the deficit to 4-2. With a 6-on-4 power play in the final minute, Cal O'Reilly scored in the final seconds to make the final score 4-3. Milwaukee outshot the Monsters 15-7 in the final frame in a comeback effort that fell short.

The Admirals finish out the month with a three game homestand - hosting Peoria on Friday and Chicago on Saturday.

Results

The Admirals blew a 3-2 lead over Rockford in the final seconds of regulation and lost 4-3 in a shootout in the team's home opener Saturday night.

The goaltender matchup featured Milwaukee's Drew MacIntyre against Antti Niemi. The 25-year old Niemi spent the last three seasons playing in his native Finland and was signed by the Blackhawks as a free agent in the offseason.

Rockford's Bryan Bickell gave the Icehogs the initial lead, but Cal O'Reilly answered with a power play goal late in the first period. Rockford retook the lead on Cam Barker's second period goal, but Antti Pihlstrom capitalized on a two man advantage power play to tie it up late in the second period.

Cody Franson scored his first goal of the season on another two man advantage power play with less than 12 minutes left in regulation. A few minutes later, the Admirals successfully killed off a 1:42 two man disadvantage to hold onto their slim lead.

A marginal hooking penalty on Robert Dietrich with 1:12 left in the game gave Rockford a golden opportunity to tie it up. After winning a key faceoff in their own end, the Admirals failed to clear the puck, and Petri Kontiola tied it up with 15.7 seconds left on the clock.

Niether team wouild score in overtime, sending the game to a shootout. Mike Santorelli scored on Milwaukee's first attempt, but the other four shooters were stopped by Niemi. Kontiola and Pascal Pelletier were successful in the shootout to give Rockford the win.

In addition to seeing several new players, the home fans got their first look at the Admirals new third jersey - primarily light blue with the full-bodied version of the team logo patch on the chest.

My thoughts on some of the new gameday experiences...

- The new intro video was decent. As expected, it featured many of last season's greatest plays. I believe the song in the clip is the Foo Fighter's "The Pretender".

- I also liked the idea of the video clip of how "Chicks dig the Admirals" - showing female fans having fun at the games. Perhaps more versions are in the works - kids, old people, fat dudes, etc.

- They also showed a few videos of Admirals employee Charlie Larson "coaching" Roscoe and the Merkt's Cheeses into game shape for this season. Now, I've given Charlie some grief in the past when he acted as the gameday host at the BC, but I didn't have a problem with these clips. Sure, the punchline of "Who cut the cheese?" caused many groans in the crowd, but it's my kind of humor.

- Speaking of Roscoe, he has a new toy to play with. A large ship is now driven around the rink on which Roscoe fires T-shirts into the crowd. The cannon he uses is a little weak, but it beats the old T-shirt tosses that almost always landed in rows A-E.

Quick Note

Friday night's Admirals game is still in progress as I type this (losing in Peoria 2-0 in the 2nd intermission). My alarm clock goes off at 4:45 in the morning, so I'm calling it a night. I'll probably update things on the site on Sunday.

Results

Houston goaltender Nolan Schaefer earned a shutout against the Admirals Monday evening by a 3-0 score.

Ryan Hamilton capitalized on a power play in the first period to get the game winner. Krys Kolanos impressed Admirals radio announcer Aaron Sims with an impressive play, carrying the puck into the zone and beating MacIntyre high glove side on a shot from the top of the circle, making it 2-0 early in the third period. Kolanos added an empty net power play goal in the final minute. The Admirals outshot the Aeros 28-26.

I had the webcast on in the background as I watched the Predators in Chicago along with the Monday Night football game. It sounded like a rather uneventful Admirals game, as Sims rarely raised his voice.

The highlight of the Predators game (in progress as I type this...) was former Admiral Kevin Klein's goal. He came out of the penalty box just as the puck came his way. Going one on one against Huet, he beat him high glove side on a beauty of a shot, giving Nashville a 2-1 lead. (2-2 in the third right now).

Results

The Admirals' 40th season got underway Saturday night in San Antonio with a 3-1 win.

New Admirals goaltender Drew MacIntyre started the game opposite the Rampage's Al Montoya. Entering the night, the former Michigan Wolverine and Chicago native was 2-0 in his career against Milwaukee, with both wins coming in April.

After giving the Rampage four power play opportunites in the first 15 minutes of the game, the Admirals found themselves fortunate to hold a 1-0 first intermission lead thanks to Antti Pihlstrom's goal with 1:04 left in the period.

Things got chippy in the second period, as several altercations between Milwaukee's Geoff Peters and San Antonio's Adam Keefe brewed resulting in the season's first fight. San Antonio tied the game on a goal by Garth Murray, but a shorthanded tally by Josh Gratton put the Admirals back on top minutes later.

Mike Santorelli redirected a shot by Andreas Thuresson to give Milwaukee a 3-1 lead with less than 8 minutes left in the game. The Admirals survived a game ending penalty kill for 1:12 to get the victory. San Antonio outshot the Admirals in every period, ending with a 40-26 shot differential.

The Admirals stay in Texas this weekend, travelling to Houston for a game on Monday night.

Game notes
- T.J. McElroy, Ryan Maki, and Nolan Yonkman were scratched. Yonkman will be out about another month as he recovers from offseason knee surgery. He was named the team's captain earlier this week.
- Cal O'Reilly, Alexander Sulzer, and Geoff Peters wore the alternate captain patches.

News

The Admirals unveiled the team's third jersey at a season ticket holder event Thursday evening. For the first time in team history, the Admirals will wear an alternate jersey throughout the season.

The primary color of the jersey is 'ice blue', the same shade of blue featured in the current color scheme. The logo on the front of the sweater will feature the full-bodied version of the Admirals skeleton logo.

The alternate jersey will be used at least ten times... five home games (including the home opener), and five road games. Fans can purchase the third jersey on the team's web site.

News

The Admirals submitted their season opening roster today.

Goaltenders
1 - Drew MacIntrye - AHL All Star last year with Manitoba
39 - Mike Dekanich - rookie from Colgate

Defensemen
2 - Teemu Laakso - 21 year old rookie from Finland
3 - T.J. McElroy - 3rd year pro, played 5 games in Milwaukee last year
4 - Scott Ford - 5th year pro, 101 AHL games of experience
6 - Cody Franson - returns for his 2nd pro season in Milwaukee
20 - Mark Matheson - returns to Milwaukee for his 3rd season
25 - Robert Dietrich - 22 year old rookie from Germany
43 - Nolan Yonkman - lumberjack in his 8th season returns for his 3rd year with Milwaukee
52 - Alexander Sulzer - 24 year old German returns for his 2nd season with Milwaukee

Forwards
7 - Ryan Maki - returns for his 3rd season with Milwaukee
11 - Mark Santorelli - rookie played one game at the end of last season with Milwaukee
12 - Andreas Thuresson - speedy winger returns for his 2nd season with Milwaukee
13 - Nick Spaling - rookie played junior hockey at Kitchener
16 - Cal O'Reilly - skilled center returns for his 4th season with Milwaukee
17 - Kelsey Wilson - bruiser returns for his 3rd season with Milwaukee
18 - Geoff Peters - 12 year journeyman made his pro debut with the IHL's Indy Ice in 1998
19 - Mike Santorelli - skilled center returns for his 2nd season with Milwaukee
21 - Triston Grant - 4th year pro traded from Philly
23 - Ian McKenzie - 6'4" rookie played junior hockey in Seattle and Moose Jaw
24 - Josh Gratton - 6th year pro played in San Antonio and Hartford last year
29 - Mark Van Guilder - 24 year old rookie from Notre Dame
40 - Antti Pihlstrom - speedy Finn returns for his 2nd season with Milwaukee

Transaction

The Nashville Predators sent forward Antti Pihlström to Milwaukee. He was the final cut before Nashville finalized their season opening roster. Pihlström returns for his 2nd season with the Admirals.

In other news, the puck finally drops on the AHL season tonight, with a pair of Eastern Conference games scheduled. Milwaukee's season begins on Saturday in San Antonio.

Transactions

Nashville sent forward Josh Gratton to Milwaukee this morning. The sixth year pro was signed as a free agent in July. He has played for six different minor league teams (Cincy Ducks, Philly Phantoms, San Antonio, Hartford, San Diego, and Trenton), as well as the Phoenix Coyotes and Philadelphia Flyers.

The Tennessean newspaper has speculated that Antti Pihlström will be the final cut from the Predators training camp roster. Joel Ward had a strong camp and apparently has won a roster spot over Pihlström.

Transactions and Results

The Admirals faced the Chicago Wolves in preseason action for the second straight night on Saturday. The Admirals lineup was mostly made up of players who will begin the season with the team. Goaltender Drew MacIntyre played the entire game for Milwaukee, while the Wolves used Dan Turple between the pipes for all three periods.

Milwaukee stormed to an early 2-0 lead on goals by Mike Santorelli and Cody Franson. Kelsey Wilson, Donny Grover, and Ian McKenzie scored in the second period, making the final score 5-1. Chicago's lone goal was the result of an Admirals turnover in their own zone in the second period.

Also on Saturday, Nashville sent center Cal O'Reilly and defenseman Alexander Sulzer to Milwaukee. Both players were with the Admirals last season. In addition, forward Triston Grant will make his way to Milwaukee if he clears waivers. Grant was acquired in the offseason by the Predators from the Philadelphia Flyers in a trade involving former Admiral defenseman Janne Niskala. Due to a few injuries in Nashville, Milwaukee will likely only get two more forwards from the Predators before the season begins.

Sulzer, along with Robert Dietrich, are both German defensmen. Has another North American pro hockey team ever had two German defensemen? They were teammates in Germany from 2005-07 with the DEG Metro Stars.

Results

Just a quick recap of tonight's preseason game in Hoffman Estates, IL, before I call it a night...

The Admirals used several ECHL players and rookies in tonight's game. Chicago built up a 3-1 lead after two periods, but Milwaukee rallied with 3 unanswered third period goals to defeat the Wolves 4-3. The game looked like it was going to overtime until Stephen Werner scored with 11.9 seconds left in regulation. Matt Beaudoin, Ian McKenzie, and Mark Van Guilder scored the first three goals for Milwaukee.

Milwaukee used goaltender Mark Dekanich in the first two periods, and Kyle Gajewski in the third. Chicago started with Robert Gherson and swapped him for Gerald Coleman in the 31st minute of the game.

It's only preseason, but it was worth the trip to see that come from behind effort. Remember, the teams play at the Kern Center Saturday night in the second and final preseason game.

News

Just a reminder, the Admirals first preseason game is tonight in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, against the Chicago Wolves. The Admirals training camp started this week, and most of the final roster is in Milwaukee. The Nashville Predators still have to cut about 7 players from their roster - likely six forwards and one defenseman.

Tomorrow, the Admirals host the Wolves at the Kern Center (Broadway & Knapp). The season kicks off with a three game road trip beginning on October 11. The first home game is October 18 against Rockford.

RIP Paul

This time of year, I like to pop a few of my favorite hockey movies into my DVD player to get myself pumped up for the upcoming season. I had planned to watch Slap Shot for what could be the 200th time tomorrow morning to get the blood a-boiling before next week's preseason games. Instead, I will watch it with a bit of a heavy heart. Paul Newman, who played Coach Reggie Dunlop, died yesterday. He had suffered from lung cancer and was out of the public spotlight for several months.

In addition to admiring his other film work, I admired him as an IndyCar owner. In 1983, he formed a race team with Carl Haas. The team won many races and championships with drivers such as Mario and Michael Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Sébastien Bourdais, and most recently Justin Wilson and Graham Rahal.



And yeah, I've barely touched this site in the last month, but training camp is underway, and after a long dry summer, I'll soon have plenty of Admirals stew to stir up.

Schedule News

The Admirals released their preseason schedule, which will only consist of two games. On Friday, October 3, the team will bus down to the western Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates to take on the Wolves. The following night, the same two teams will faceoff at Milwaukee's Kern Center.

In recent years, the Admirals have held three preseason games (two at home and one in Chicago). Having one less game could mean that fewer IHL-calibur players will get ice time to impress the team for a future callup.

Player News

As we creep closer to the beginning of hockey season, a few transactions trickle in from time to time. It appears that Nashville has almost enough players under contract to fill the rosters of the Predators and Admirals, but I'd expect a few defensemen to be signed before training camp.

Today, 2007 Predators draft pick forward Nick Spaling was signed by Nashville and is expected to play in Milwaukee. The length of the contract was not mentioned, but it's likely a two or three year deal. He had a break-out season last year with Kitchener, scoring 38 goals in 56 games.

Some players who ended last season in Milwaukee have found new teams. Earlier this summer, Janne Niskala was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers, who in turn traded him to Tampa Bay. John Vigilante was signed by Columbus and will likely play in Syracuse. Alex Henry signed with Montreal and may play with Hamilton. Kevin Ulanski signed with the Colorado Eagles (CHL), near his alma mater of Denver University.

Several players have packed their bags to play in Europe. Matt Ellison (Latvia), Dov Grumet-Morris (Austria), Jason Guerriero (Switzerland), John Laliberte (Denmark), Josh Langfeld (Germany), and Bryan Schmidt (Germany) have signed deals overseas. Shane Willis, who injured his neck in the opening game of last season, is trying out with Columbus. And still no word on where Nolan Yonkman, Maxime Daigneault, James Sixsmith, and Mark Matheson will end up.

Player news

With Pekka Rinne in position to graduate to the NHL this season, it looks as though Milwaukee's goaltender tandem for this season will be Drew MacIntyre and Mark Dekanich. Of course, anything can happen after training camp is over (see: 2007 - Ellis, Dan), but for now I'll make this assumption.

MacIntyre should be familiar to Admiral fans. He has played in the AHL for the past four seasons - 2004-06 with Grand Rapids and 2006-08 with Manitoba. Last season, he played in his first two NHL games (no starts) with the Vancouver Canucks and was the shootout winning goaltender in the 2008 AHL All Star game.

You may also remember him "scoring" an overtime goal against the Wolves back in February. He was the last Manitoba player to touch the puck before Chicago's Steve Martins sent an errant pass the length of the rink into his own net.

In his career, MacIntyre has played three games at the Bradley Center, all of them losses. Overall, he is 4-4 against Milwaukee in his career (including playoffs).
April 12, 2005 - 4-1 loss (17 saves, 20 shots)
December 9, 2005 - 5-2 loss (10 saves, 13 shots)
October 20, 2006 - 2-0 loss (31 saves, 32 shots)
Results courtesy of hockeygoalies.org

If he does play for Milwaukee, expect him to wear #1, as that has been his number in all of his AHL seasons.

Dekanich was a 2006 draft pick by the Nashville Predators. The Vancouver-area native just completed four seasons at Colgate University, where he was the starting netminder for the last three seasons. While his save percentage has been a steady 92% at Colgate, he lowered his goals against average to 2.16 and recorded a career high 6 shutouts (in 41 games) last season.

Site News

I'm slowly getting the site transferred over to the new layout and color scheme. Along the way, I'm going back to tweak some of the changes I've made... and that will continue for some time.

Some of the things I've done in the last couple of days...
- Added a new title graphic on the top of this page. I'm either going to work on that some more or go with something altogether different before the season begins. The old one didn't work in the new color scheme... and no, I'm not much of an artist, but I tried.
- Added Google Street View to the Bradley Center page.
- Added team links and a few more miscellaneous links to the right hand column of this page.
- Added more categories to the Almanac page.
- Added some new pics to the Photos page that never appeared online until now. I will probably add more in the coming days.

Essentially, the History section is all I have left to convert to the new format. It's the largest section of the site, and I am in less of a hurry to tackle that project.

League News

More off-season catch-up news...

The American Hockey League announced some rule changes for this season:
- One minute minor penalties in overtime, an experiment that may move to the NHL next season
- When a defending team's player clears the puck over the glass in his own zone, it will result in an automatic delay of game minor penalty. Recently, it was up to the discretion of the referee if it was intentional.
- Accidental high sticking incidents that cause injury will now be double minor penalties, rather than 5 minute majors.
- Opposing players chasing a puck on an icing play may not intentionally obstruct each other. Incidental contact by players going after the puck is not a penalty.
- Gameday rosters increase from 17 to 18 skaters (plus two goaltenders). (BRING BACK THE GOON!)
- Pucks deflecting off of the goal post into the crowd will result in a faceoff in that zone.

The schedule came out today, and I have posted it to the site (see link in the upper-right column).

The season starts for Milwaukee on October 11 on the road in San Antonio. After three road games, the team plays their home opener on Saturday, October 18 against Rockford.

The home games start at the usual times (7 or 7:30 Monday-Saturday, 4 or 5 on Sundays) except for a 1pm start on Saturday, November 15 and a 6pm start on Tuesday, December 30.

For the 9th time in the last 13 seasons, the team scheduled a home game during the Daytona 500... this time I will be staying home.

Site update

The site has not been touched for two months. Sorry if that disappointed any of you.

I had a busy stretch for several days, and by the time I finally had time to devote to the site, I found myself very unmotivated. Part of it was my dissatisfaction with the underachieving Admirals team last season... and part of it came after my favorite NHL team since I was a rugrat (Pittsburgh) lost in the Stanley Cup Final to the stinkin' Red Wings. I would have been 'ok' for them to lose to any other Western Conference team... why Detroit?!?

So, I decided to disconnect myself from the hockey world this summer. Traffic to the site always is a slow trickle in the offseason, despite the fact in past summers I would find morsels of news to publish every few days. I just needed to get my mind off the sport for a little while, and this was the ideal time for that.

There's still about six weeks until the first preseason game, but I decided not to wait until the last minute to work on the site again. As you can already tell, I'm working on a new layout and color scheme. Definitely a work in progress. Give it time. It will take me some time to make adjustments and apply the final look to all of the URLs on the site.

This space will serve as a news/blog area. I was unhappy with the blogger site I used last season, and decided I can whip up my thoughts on this page a lot quicker.

Later today, the schedule is supposed to be released, and I'm already prepared to plug the dates on a calendar which should be uploaded sometime this afternoon/early evening. After that, I'll need to slowly catch up on all the news I've missed and throw it on the site. (For instance, the horrible name and logo for the Iowa team - my lord!)