The Admirals are still looking to put together a solid 60 minute effort, but they outplayed Quad City enough for 40 minutes Friday night that the 20 minute lull didn't matter.
You can read Dave Boehler's recap on JSOnline here, the Admirals recap here, and the Quad City recap here.
The way the game started out, it looked like the Ads were gonna cruise to an easy victory. About 7 minutes in, James Sixsmith created a little offense with a great forecheck. He went behind the goalline to battle for a puck, and sent a terrific centering pass to Cal O'Reilly in front of the crease. O'Reilly cut left, but was in a little to tight to get a shot off. Fortunately, Quad City goalie Leland Irving didn't realize this, and dropped to his knees to take away the 5-hole. Cal then dropped a pass to the right, where Patric Hornqvist was waiting to pound the puck into a wide open net.
Three minutes later, the Ads were shorthanded due to a Tim Ramholt hooking penalty. No matter. O'Reilly made a nifty play at center ice to swipe the puck, and feathered a pass back into the unmanned Quad City zone. Jed Ortmeyer won the race for the puck, and used tremendous body control to outmaneuver Flames defenseman Anders Ericsson and put a shot past Irving for a 2-0 goal. It was Ortmeyer's second shortie of the season.
The second period was not as pretty. The Flames scored a power play goal when Tim Ramholt went to the box for tripping. The goal was scored by John Vigilante (He later added an assist for a 2-point night and #3 star of the game).
"It is good to see him doing well," said Cal O'Reilly. "It sucks it was against us - but it's good to see him playing well. He's a good player."
It could have been a turning point in the game, if it weren't for the next chapter in the Hugh Jessiman-Brad Brown saga.
The saga started in the first period. Brown delivered a solid check to Jessiman that knocked him to the ice in front of the players' bench. Jessiman got up and had a few words with Brown, and they exchanged playful shoves. With less than two minutes to go in the period, they finished what they had started and dropped the gloves. Unfortunately, Jessiman worked over a bit - as Brown landed a pair of solid rights. But Jessiman would get the last laugh.
Just 40 seconds after the Flames' goal, Jessiman carried the puck along the left boards into the offensive zone, defended by Brown. Jessiman actually was faster than Brown here, and got behind Brown by step. He then drove hard to the net - shielding brown from the puck with his body - and slipped a pass to Geoff Peters who one-timed the puck into the net to restore Milwaukee's 2 goal lead.
"That's what he has to do," said Coach Lane Lambert. "He's a big body and he has to play big. He has to be a power forward and I thought he did a pretty good job of that tonight."
The rest of the second period was a bit of a struggle - an Drew MacIntyre had to make several terrific saves just to keep the score static at 3-1. While it was nice to see MacIntyre playing so well, it was frustrating for Coach Lambert that he had to.
"We have to go north with the puck, and we didn't. We got fancy and cute and we ended up turning the thing over and it ended up being in our end most of the time."
MacIntyre had to face 13 shots in the second period, after facing 12 in the first period. Unfortunately, he would not have the opportunity to face any shots in the third. Mark Dekanich actually led the team out of the locker room for the final period. At some point in the second period, MacIntyre suffered a lower body injury of some sort. Details are sketchy - Coach Lambert isn't even sure when MacIntyre injured himself, and MacIntyre finished the period without any visible issues. But Mark Dekanich had to answer the bell for the third.
"We have all the confidence in the world in Dex. We've got a great 1-a goaltender to come in. Certainly you want to protect him, you don't want him to come off the bench cold and face a barrage of shots."
Dex faced only 7 shots in the third period, 2 of which he had to face without his stick, which was knocked away from him. (He made both of those saves, by the way).
Quad City got a goal late in the third to cut the lead to one, but Milwaukee was able to put the clamps down after that. They weren't able to score on the empty net, however.
TWICE, Cal O'Reilly had the puck at the offensive blue line with an empty net in front of him, and he opted to pass. (Say it with me now: SHOOT THE PUCK, CAL!). Jed Ortmeyer also had a golden opportunity for an ENG. His shot went through one defenseman's legs, but was stopped on a terrific play by Ericsson (who owns a Stanley Cup ring and was once traded for Chris Chelios).
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LINES
| Thuresson |
Spaling |
Ortmeyer |
| Wilson |
Santorelli |
Maki |
| Sixsmith |
O'Reilly |
Hornqvist |
| Jessiman |
Peters |
Santorelli |
A few interesting shifts - as we see Sixsmith moved back to O'Reilly's line, and Ortmeyer and Maki essentially traded places.
DEFENSE
| Matheson |
Franson |
| Ramholt |
Yonkman |
| Ford |
Dietrich |
Back to the traditional pairings here.
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ASM
Tonight's notables:
| O'Reilly |
+4 |
| Ortmeyer |
+3 |
|
|
| Mi. Santorelli |
-3 |
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Drew MacIntyre's lower body injury will definitely keep the goaltender out of tomorrow's game against Iowa. Normally, this wold mean a recall of Kyle Gajewski. But he's been loaned to the Johnstown Chiefs, so he's not available. That leaves the Admirals in a bit of a pickle.
"We're looking for another goaltender as we speak" said Coach Lambert.
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INTERESTING TIDBITS
In journalism parlance, this is called "burying the lead." I happen to think that these little pieces of info are the most interesting things of the night. In fact, they probably deserve their own post. But this is where they are going.
First of all, the rumor that Cal O'Reilly may be called up to Nashville. As we posted earlier, this was mentioned on the Tennessean.com website. It was loosely attributed to Barry Trotz - although John Glennon elected not to have any direct quotes in the entry. So the theory could have come from Trotz - or from Glennon himself. Either way, the Admirals would not confirm if O'Reilly was being called up. They said a decision on any call up wouldn't be made until tomorrow when Erat's status could be determined.
That's fine and dandy.
But I do know one thing for a fact: After tonight's game, the Admirals boarded a bus for Iowa.
Cal O'Reilly was not on that bus. He drove himself out of the Bradley Center parking lot.
Does this mean he is being called up? I don't know. Can you think of any other reason he would not be on the bus?