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AHL Milwaukee Admirals

Admirals Fall to Wolves in OT

December 27, 2006 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Milwaukee Admirals News Release


Milwaukee, WI-Roughly thirty-seconds was all that remained between what could have been the Milwaukee Admiral's third victory against their rival the Chicago Wolves this season. But the Ads let the win slide through their fingers and the Wolves found a way to secure a 5-4 overtime win.

It was a typical Admirals-Wolves game, filled with intensity, grit, and bare-knuckle brawls. But according to coach Claude Noel, at least from his bench, the game lacked intelligence.

"We didn't play a very intelligent game. It was a frustrating game to coach. It was a frustrating game to be part of."

Noel was referring to the ten power play chances his team gave Wolves. In their last meeting (December 16th), the Admirals gave up the same amount of chances but were still able to muster a win. The Wolves have the most effective offense in the league, helped in large part by Brett Sterling. Sterling, a rookie, once led the NCAA in power play goals and now leads the AHL in the same. Needless to say, giving the Wolves chances on the man advantage was not in Noel's game plan.

"The game plan was simple: keep them off the power play. How did we do there? Well, not very well. They scored four goals. Force them to defend? We're in the box the whole night."

He added, "You can't play that way and expect to win games."

Things looked good coming out of the first. The Admirals got a last second goal from Rich Peverley, to pull them up by one. The play developed when a deep shot from Sheldon Brookbank deflected off of Wolves' goalie Michael Garnett, who came out to face the shot, and the puck landed on Peverley's stick. Peverley ripped the rebound into the wide open net with nine seconds remaining in the opening period to give the Admirals a 2-1 lead.

During the second period, the Wolves sandwich a pair of power-play tallies between a Brandon Segal goal and the game was tied at three after 40 minutes of play.

As the second period closed, the rivals stopped trading chances and started trading blows. A pair of fights broke out, and with less than ten seconds remaining, captain Sheldon Brookbank found himself in a tussle with Chicago's Nathan Oystrick. Fans ushered him to the locker room with loud cheers and applause as the pumped-up Brookbank spent some extra time in the tunnel high-fiving fans in celebration of a tough battle.

But that same intensity seemed to be lost in the third. The Admirals were able to pull ahead when Garnett came out of his net to play the puck. When Garnett didn't make a play Ramzi Abid swooped in and made one of his own, stealing the puck and passing it to the middle where Peverley took the pass and casually put it in the wide open net with seven minutes remaining in the game. Abid finished the night with four points against his old team, an assist on every one of the Ads' goals.

The Wolves would tied the score at four with just 32 seconds remaining in the game when Kyle Wanvig beat Karl Goehring up high to the glove side, while the Admirals were attempting to kill off Chicago's tenth power-play opportunity of the night.

And things only got worse for the Admirals in overtime.

At 3:46 into the extra frame Kevin Doell was able to sneak one past Goehring and quietly ended the game. A game in which Noel claims:

"We were awful," explained Noel. "We were playing not to lose."

A mentality Noel hopes will not be present when they take on the Rivermen in Peoria tomorrow night. The Ads return home Friday at 7:00 to take on the Grand Rapids Griffins, a team they have beat in all four of their meetings this season.

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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.

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