Admirals Top San Antonio 3-2 in Shoot-out
Published on February 9, 2007 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Milwaukee Admirals News Release
Milwaukee, WI-Coming into tonight's game, no one would have believed that San Antonio's Matthew Spiller and Milwaukee's Nolan Yonkman, a combined one goal between the two of them this season, would be the impact players in Friday's match-up between the two teams. But both played key roles in the Admirals' 3-2 shootout victory.
After playing 60 minutes and a five-minute extra session, the Admirals Rich Peverley, Mikko Lehtonen, Ville Koistinen, and Nicolas Corbeil couldn't put away any of their chances in the shootout. So Coach Claude Noel used his secret weapon as his last shooter: Nolan Yonkman.
Yonkman skated down the ice, faked a slap shot that dropped Rampage goalie David LeNeveu to the ice, and slipped it through his legs as LeNeveu quickly tried to stack the pads.
"[Noel] just called my name," explained Yonkman of his shoot out opportunity. "I knew what I had in my arsenal and I picked one of two," he said with a laugh.
"[Yonkman was surprised] along with 5000 other people," Noel said jokingly about his decision. "Our team hasn't been great in shootouts. We do shootouts in practice and he does okay."
San Antonio's final shooter, Jeff Taffe, who had already recorded the game tying goal, watched his chance get poke checked away by Admirals goalie Pekka Rinne as he skated to the net. With the save, the Admirals improved their shootout record to 3-6.
San Antonio's Spiller opened up the scoring when he sunk his first of the season, ten minutes into the initial period, after his team won the face off and flipped the puck back to him. His line mates celebrated the goal with the exuberance expected after a player scores his first goal of the season.
But Spiller went from hero to zero as his two first period penalties led to a pair of power play goals for the Admirals.
With five minutes left in the first, Ramzi Abid turned a rebound into a goal in his first game back from a hip pointer injury.
Peverley got the other, 1:27 into the second, when he streaked down the wing and got an open look on the net.
San Antonio's Taffe evened up the game in the eighth minute of the third period after he ripped a shot off another successful Rampage face-off win.
The Rampage had numerous opportunities to sneak ahead late in the game and come out of the contest with a win. The Admirals forced a shootout thanks to a solid penalty kill and Rinne who had to shoulder the load of two late shorthanded situations, one that ran just under a minute into overtime.
"[Rinne] certainly did his part," said a relived Noel of his goalie's 28-save performance.
While Yonkman was more than pleased with his final shot of the contest, his tone changed from excitement to business as he began to discuss tomorrow's afternoon re-match between the two teams at the Bradley Center.
"We need to come with a better game tomorrow," he explained.
The Admirals and Rampage will battle for the second time in as many days tomorrow afternoon in a 1:30 pm contest. The first 5,000 fans will receive a bobblehead of Admirals goaltender Pekka Rinne, sponsored by US Bank. For tickets fans can call Ticketmaster at (414) 276-4545 or log on to www.ticketmaster.com. Groups of ten or more can get at least $2 off each ticket by calling the Admirals office at (414) 227-0550.
American Hockey League Stories from February 9, 2007
- Admirals Top San Antonio 3-2 in Shoot-out - Milwaukee Admirals
- Bulldogs Triumph in O.T. Thriller - Hamilton Bulldogs
- P-Bruins Defeat Sharks 5-4 in Overtime - Providence Bruins
- Griffins Blank Stars, 4-0 - Grand Rapids Griffins
- LaBarbera's sixth shutout earns Monarchs 10th straight win - Manchester Monarchs
- Admirals' Winning Streaks Halted by River Rats - Norfolk Admirals
- Phantoms top Rochester - Adirondack Phantoms
- Dubielewicz Sets Record in Win - Bridgeport Islanders
- Tigers survive 54-shot barrage, down Bears 4-2 - Hershey Bears
- Devils can't solve LaBarbera, lose 2-0 - Albany Devils
- Canucks Recall Reid - Manitoba Moose
- Admirals Sign C Brandin Cote to PTO and Release LW Les Haggett from PTO - Norfolk Admirals
- Canucks Re-Assign Rypien to Moose - Manitoba Moose
- Worcester Sharks promote David M. Daniels to Chief Operating Officer - Worcester Sharks
- Columbus Returns Conklin and Konopka to Syracuse - Syracuse Crunch
- Hockey Newcomer Night set for February 17 - Houston Aeros
- Penguins Skills Competition this Sunday - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
- Sharks player and FINZ become Cupid for Valentines Day with 96.1 WSRS - Worcester Sharks
- Dallman Comes To Manchester For Conditioning - Manchester Monarchs
- Moose Re-Assign Ellis to Victoria - Manitoba Moose
- Canucks Recall Moran - Manitoba Moose
- AHL Quick Hits - AHL
- Crunch Announce Details of Wise Foods Nights at the Crunch - Syracuse Crunch
- Beckford-Tseu Returns from ECHL Alaska - Peoria Rivermen
- Crunch Announce Details of Anheuser Busch $50,000 Shot Program - Syracuse Crunch
- Falcons Host Pack Tonight - Springfield Falcons
- Bears continue pursuit of first place Friday - Hershey Bears
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
