AHL Milwaukee Admirals

Admirals Fall 3-2 in Shootout

Published on March 14, 2007 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Milwaukee Admirals News Release


Milwaukee, WI-The Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights have come away with a victory in all four their trips to the Bradley Center this season. The Admirals were hoping that the teams' fifth and final meeting in Milwaukee would prove different. Despite another strong performance from Kim Staal, Omaha's goalie Curtis McElhinney pitched an even stronger showing to help his team edge Milwaukee 3-2 in a game that needed to be decided by an eleven round shootout.

"We would put him in the NHL," said Coach Claude Noel jokingly about the level of play McElhinney exhibits when facing his team. "He has played very well against us."

McElhinney was able to stifle every aspect of the Admirals' offense except that of Kim Staal who scored both of the Admirals goals on the night, including the game-tying marker that came with three minutes left to play.

Admirals winger Pat Leahy ripped a shot from the red faceoff dot on McElhinney's stick side. The rebound didn't stray far from McElhinney, but Staal crashing hard to the net was able to swipe the puck and put it around McElhinney for the goal before the goalie could even react. Staal celebrated with a fist pump while sliding across the ice on one knee.

"It feels great," he explained after the game of his recent scoring success. "I [have] struggled [to score this season]. It's tough to score when you don't play well. It's [been] pretty satisfying for me to play more and, of course, it's good to score."

Now with four goals and two assists in his past four games, Staal is riding the longest scoring streak of his career.

"[Staal]'s played a lot better," Noel explained to reporters after the game. "He's battled a lot harder and he's got into a lot more areas.

Noting the loss of Rich Peverley and Ramzi Abid to Nashville he added, "The door's opened, he's stepped up his game, and he's taking advantage of it."

The Ads used Staal's two goals to catapult them into a shootout situation against Omaha for the third tie this season.

But Admirals defenseman Ville Koistinen was the only skater to notch a goal in their eleven chances in the session.

Omaha's Andrei Taratukhin was finally able to score on his third chance in the shootout, after missing his first two. The goal became the deciding marker when Chris Durno, the Admirals 11th shooter, was denied by McElhinney's stick.

"Pekka [Rinne] makes all those saves," said Staal who didn't score on his two chances in the shootout. "We should make more than one of eleven. So that's not good enough."

He later added, "We work on penalty shots during practice, and we are pretty sharp. But we weren't sharp enough today."

The Admirals were pretty sharp in the first.

They got things going early with a big win by Sheldon Brookbank in a fight incited by Omaha's Warren Peters two minutes into the game.

The Ads were unable to score on their two first period power plays, but Staal was able to open up the scoring when he found the back of the net with three minutes remaining in the opening period.

Two minutes later, Jason Guerriero's hip check on Tomi Maki that sent the forward head first into his own bench completed the series of events that seemed to give Milwaukee the edge going into the locker room for the first intermission despite being out shot almost 2-1.

Milwaukee was able to even the chances in the second period by out shooting the Knights 14-9, but it was Omaha that added the only goal in the second when Brandon Prust sent the puck over an outstretched Rinne who had just saved a shot by Cam Cunning, thirteen minutes into the middle frame.

The third period started tied at 1-1, and after goals by Omaha's Taratukhin and the Admirals' Staal the period ended undecided.

"It was a toss up who was going to win it," noted Noel. "Both teams hit the post a couple of times. They had some chances and we did too."

With Iowa and Peoria losing in their contests tonight, Noel was happy his team was able to take advantage of the opportunity given to them and get at least a one point jump on the two teams trying to knock them out of the playoffs.

"We got a big point," he said. "You look at that, and you got to think that's a huge point for us."

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American Hockey League Stories from March 14, 2007


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