(Eric Kent contributed to this post -- All photos courtesy of Chris Jerina)
This Chet Pickard guy might be alright after all. Look at the picture -- he doesn't even need his goalie stick!
Pickard rebounded from his awful debut with a solid second start of his pro career, and collected his first professional win -- a 2-1 victory over the Rockford Ice Hogs on Halloween night.
"I thought we battled hard and blocked a lot of shots again. It was a good game for us to kind of learn when things aren't flowing your way and you're under seige a little bit, how hard it is to have to battle through it and win the game."
The Admirals had a spell of penalty trouble in the first period, as Mark Matheson, Jason Josza and Triston Grant were all whistled for minor infractions. But Chet Pickard and the Milwaukee PK unit were up to the task, and killed off all three chances. Despite spending 6 minutes of the period killing penalties, shots were even at eight after twenty minutes. Pickard's rebound control was outstanding in the opening period.
On one of those penalties, there wasn't a clear from the offensive zone the entire two-minutes, so hats off to the very tired PK unit of Spaling-Guite-Ford-Yonkman. Or as the unit is now going to be known as, Spalguiforman. (okay, maybe not). As the penalty expired, Pickard made a nice save and covered up for the whistle, and the guys got a well deserved breather.
"They did a good job when they were tired of staying tight and they ended up blocking three or four shots. We really hit it hard with the instruction in the last week to try and shore (the penalty kill) up a litle bit. We've gotten really big efforts from certain guys on our penalty kill recently. I'm much happier with the way the penalty kill is going."
The ref put his whistle away for the second period, and it was the Admirals who broke through on the scoreboard first. Mark Matheson dumped the puck in the offensive zone off the far boards. Corey Crawford started to head behind the back of the net to prepare to play the puck, but the puck never made it to him. It hit some kind of seem on the glass about half way between the blue line and the goal line, and like a perfect pool shot, the puck banked into the net. 8-ball, center pocket. Mark Matheson got credit for it at 1:11 of the second period.
This was only the 2nd time all season that the Admirals scored the first goal.
Corey Crawford kept the Ice Hogs in the game with some pretty spectacular saves. He's not looking like the goaltender the Admirals beat in the playoffs last year.
The Ice Hogs evened the score on a fluky goal of their own. Skating into defensive position, Nolan Yonkman lost his edge and collided with Chet Pickard. Bracken Kearns was stationed behind the net, and fed Matt Keith by the far face-off dot. Keith's shot beat Pickard high glove side. Make no mistake - it was a well-placed shot. But we believe Chet would have stopped it - had he not been scrambling to get back in position.
Jasson Cullimore was whistled for tripping at the 4:29 mark of the 3rd period, leading to the Admirals only chance on the power-play. They made good on it, as Cal O'Reilly shot the puck (!) through traffic from the far faceoff circle, beating Corey Crawford. Hugh Jessiman didn't get an assist on the play, but his screen helped Cal's shot get through. Blum and Dietrich with the assists.
"Finally...O'Reilly shoots. And he scores," noted Lambert, mostly in context.
The ice seemed tilted in Rockford's favor for most of the remaining time, yet they only managed 6 shots on Pickard in the 3rd period.
"He played with confidence, and he moved the puck very well," said Lambert. "He just seemed like he was more in control and he was pretty square to the puck most of the night - and that limited his rebounds. I felt the guys really battled hard and really wanted to do it for him and have him rebound from his first game."
ODDS AND ENDS
Grant - Van Guilder - Maki
Jones - O'Reilly - Pudding
Spaling - Guite - Jessiman
Mueller - Rabbit - McKenzie
- The most exciting 30 seconds of the game came towards the end of the second period. Corey Crawford made an amazing play to rob Ryan Jones after a beautifully set up one-timer from Santorelli. The Ice Hogs then turned it back into a rush of their own with Jake Dowell breaking in alone on Pickard, who made an equally amazing save with the left pad. As the Admirals were clearing the zone after the rush, Scott Ford's fists had some things to say to Jake Dowell.
The linesmen look like they're playing peek-a-boo with each other. Regardless, Dowell got a pretty severe beatdown from Scott Ford.
- Chris Mueller was called up today and did an admirable job in his Admirals debut.
- Ben Eaves was a scratch with what Coach Lambert has termed a lower-body injury. Status for Wednesday is undetermined.
- Ryan Jones took a slapshot to the left leg area (aka lower body, if you want to be specific) while the Ads were on their power play. He skated gingerly to the bench, but did not miss his next shift. We'll see if there are any lingering effects as the week progresses.
- Ice Hogs forward and Madison, WI boy Jack Skille did not play, but he did suit up.
That's a Teletubby signing autographs.
And - Oh, by the way - after the Predators game, Nashville sent both Peter Olvecky and Andreas Thuresson back to Milwaukee.
We'll have more about tonight's game tomorrow, including more on roster management, Chris Mueller's Admiral debut and Nick Spaling's absense from the stat sheet.