AHL Milwaukee Admirals

Admirals stumble in season opener

Published on October 9, 2006 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Milwaukee Admirals News Release


OVERALL...The Admirals (0-1-0-0) started the season in unimpressive fashion, falling to the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights 7-1 at the Bradley Center on Saturday night. Omaha scored early and often, posting a shorthanded goal 53 seconds into the game and by the end of the first period it was 3-0. Alexander Radulov scored the lone goal for the Admirals, and that didn't even come until the Ads were down 6-0.

VS. CHICAGO...The Wolves and Admirals battle in a home-and-home series this weekend, the first two of ten contests between the squads this year. Last season the Ads posted a 6-3-1 record, outscoring them 36-35. Milwaukee had a 3-2 record at the Bradley Center, while going 3-1-1 at the All-State Arena in Chicago. All-time between the two clubs the Admirals have a 65-43-1-13 record, including a 38-21-0-5 mark at the BC and a 27-22-1-8 record south of the border.

LESS THAN STELLAR START...The seven goals the Admirals surrendered on Saturday night were the most they had allowed on an opening night since giving up a touchdown to the Peoria Rivermen on October 4th. The game also set a dubious record of the highest margin of defeat in the first game of the year, breaking the old mark of five. The last time Milwaukee lost by six or more goals was a 6-0 defeat to Chicago on February 9th, 2001.

LEADER OF THE PACK...Claude Noel begins his fourth season as the Admirals bench boss, after leading the team to unprecedented prosperity over the previous three seasons that included two trips to the Calder Cup Finals and the organization's first professional championship in 2004. The 2004 American Hockey League Coach of the Year has a career record of 142-69-18-11, good for a .652 winning percentage. Under Noel's tutelage, the Ads have become just the third team in AHL history to post three consecutive 100-point seasons.

WELCOME TO MILWAUKEE...Noel has a new assistant behind the bench this year as Lane Lambert takes over for Todd Richards, who was named the head coach in Wilkes-Barre. Lambert joins the Admirals after serving as an assistant in Bridgeport for the Sound Tigers last year. Prior to that he was the head coach of the Prince George Cougars of the Western Hockey League. The Melfort, SASK native finished an 18-year playing career with 58 goals and 67 assists for 125 points and 521 penalty minutes in 283 NHL games with the Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers, and Quebec Nordiques.

NAME TAGS, PLEASE...The Admirals roster has a completely different look to it this year, with just seven players on the active roster who played a majority of the games in Milwaukee last season. Those players include defensemen T.J. Reynolds, Kevin Klein, Sheldon Brookbank and Nathan Lutz and forwards Paul Brown, Brandon Segal, and Rich Peverley. In addition, Segal and Lutz are the lone remaining players who were members of the Admirals 2004 Calder Cup Championship team.

NHL TALENT... The Admirals currently have three players on their roster this season that played in over 38 games in the NHL last season. Defenseman Nolan Yonkman posted seven assists and 86 penalty minutes in 38 games for Washington last year, while Patrick Leahy had four goals and four assists in 43 games with Boston. Shane Endicott, who played against the Ads in the 2004 Calder Cup Finals as a member of the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, notched a goal and an assist in 41 contests for Pittsburgh.

THE NEXT LEVEL... Greg Zanon, Shea Weber, Scottie Upshall, and Jordin Tootoo, all players who spent most of last season with the Admirals, made the Nashville Predators roster out of training camp this year. Defensemen Zanon, who captained the Ads last season, had just two games of NHL experience entering this year, while Weber logged 28 regular season contests and four play-off games with the Preds in 05-06. Meanwhile, last season, Upshall had NHL-career highs in games played (48), goals (8), assists (16), and points (24) and Tootoo had career best in assists (6) and points (10).

HONORING A LEGEND... The Admirals will honor recently retired Executive Vice-President/General Manager Phil Wittliff next Friday night when they take on the Chicago Wolves at 7:00 at the BC. All fans in attendance will receive a placard commemorating Wittliff's career and there will be a pre-game ceremony to honor him. Wittliff, who called it quits in July after 30-plus years with the organization, served the team as a player, coach, general manager and front office executive. The Notre Dame alum is the team's all-time coaching leader with 378 wins over three different coaching stints. He was a player on the 1976 USHL championship team and the GM when the Ads captured the 2004 Calder Cup Title.

OVER THE AIR AND ON THE WEB... The Admirals enter their second season airing games on Milwaukee's ESPN Radio 1510 AM (days)/1290 AM (nights) with Aaron Sims calling all of the hard-hitting end-to-end action. In addition, the team has a one-hour hockey magazine dubbed "Milwaukee Admirals Center Ice" every Tuesday from 6-7 pm on ESPN Radio. Fans can watch all Admirals games, home and on the road, live on the internet via B2 Networks. Simply go the Admirals website at www.milwaukeeadmirals.com and click on the B2 logo.

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