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AHL Milwaukee Admirals

Ads Return Home Friday versus Rockford

December 8, 2008 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Milwaukee Admirals News Release


OVERALL...The Admirals enter tonight's action with a 13-7-0-1 record and 27 points, which puts them in fifth place in the extremely tight West Division. First place through seventh place in the division is separated by nine points. The Ads have played 21 games on the season, which are at least two less than every other team in the division. The Admirals will play three games this week, beginning Wednesday in Quad City where they will end their current five-game road trip. Milwaukee will host Rockford on Friday night at the BC before heading back out on the road Saturday in Iowa.

VS. QUAD CITY... The Admirals will finish their current five-game road trip with a visit to the I Wireless Center to battle the Quad City Flames. This is the first of eight games versus the Flames this season for the Ads, the lone West Division opponent that they have yet to play. Last season the Ads posted a 6-1-0-1 record against the Flames, including a 3-0-0-1 mark in Quad City.

VS. ROCKFORD... The Admirals will host Rockford on Friday night at the Bradley Center, their first home game since November 26th. So far the season the Ads are 1-1-0-1 against the IceHogs, including a 5-2 loss the last time the team's met on November 15th at the BC. Rockford won the first match-up this season with a 4-3 shoot-out win on October 18th in Milwaukee, while the Admirals posted a 2-1 shoot-out win in Rockford on November 12th. The two squads will again square-off ten times this season, with five contests at each team's building.

VS. IOWA...The Admirals travel to Iowa on Saturday for the third meeting of the season with the Chops. The two squads split their first two games, both in Iowa, with the Ads winning 3-0 on November 21st and the Chops taking a 8-6 decision on November 22nd. The Chops are affiliated with the Anaheim Ducks and were preceded by the Iowa Stars, who joined the league prior for the 2005-06 season. Last year against the Stars the Admirals posted a 5-2-1 record in eight contests, including a 2-1-1 mark at the Wells Fargo Arena.

EARLIER THIS WEEK...The Admirals went two-for-Ontario last week, sweeping a pair of games with Hamilton and Toronto. The Ads began the week with a 5-4 come-from-behind victory over the Bulldogs on Thursday night. Milwaukee fell behind 3-0 just over ten minutes into the game, but three markers of their own later in the first tied the score. Ryan Jones' second tally of the contest at the 8:00 mark of the third period proved to be the game winner for the Ads. Jones and Mike Santorelli each posted a pair of goals for Milwaukee, while Mark Dekanich came on in relief and stopped 20 of 21 Hamilton shots. The Admirals finished the week with a 6-2 win over Toronto on Saturday. Alexander Sulzer scored

EN FUEGO...In just two games last week Admirals center Mike Santorelli posted seven points (3g-4a), including the team's first four-point game this season in Hamilton. The Vancouver, BC native has lit the lamp in six straight games, the longest goal scoring streak for the Ads since the team joined the AHL, and he has also picked up at least a point in nine consecutive contests. During his current stretch Santorelli has posted 18 points (7g-11a), including four multi-point efforts. The hot streak has pushed the Vancouver, BC native into second place on the Admirals scoring list with 24 points (8g-16a) on the season.

06 WEST DIVISION FINALS, REDUX...The goaltending match-up on Saturday night in Nashville when the Predators hosted the Minnesota Wild may have given some people a case of déjà vu. The Preds Pekka Rinne squared off with Minnesota's Josh Harding in a rematch of the 2006 West Division Semifinal round, when the Nashville and Minnesota's AHL affiliates, Milwaukee and Houston, squared off in the playoffs. Saturday's game turned out to be a goaltending duel with Rinne making 32 saves to post his second shutout in three games in a 1-0 Nashville win. Harding wasn't too shabby himself, stopping 42 of 43 Predators shots.

COMEBACK KIDS...The Admirals victory after trailing by three goals on Thursday equaled an AHL team mark for biggest comeback in a game. The last time that the Ads had won game where they faced a three goal deficit was back on February 21, 2008 when they were down 4-1 to Iowa and ended up winning 5-4 in overtime. The all-time franchise mark for greatest comeback stands at four, which was set on numerous occasions. Thursday's game looks to be a continuation of a trend for this season, as Milwaukee has recorded a 7-3-0-1 mark when allowing the first goal of the game, and only a 5-4 record when scoring the first tally.

FAST AND FURIOUS...Milwaukee and Hamilton put on a first-period, offensive explosion on Thursday night at the Copps Coliseum, scoring six combined goals and recording 26 shots on goal. All six goals came within a 7:20 span, beginning when the Bulldogs' Mike Glumac scored at 8:03. Glumac's teammate Ryan Russell notched his first goal of the season just 37 seconds later and the Glumac struck again at 10:31. The Admirals responded with three straight of their own to tie the score by the end of the stanza. Mike Santorelli got the Ads on the board at 12:38 before Stephen Werner notched his fifth goal of the year at 14:25. Santorelli picked up the equalizer less than a minute later when he lit the lamp at 15:23.

29 AND COUNTING... Admirals forwards Mike Santorelli and Ryan Jones each scored twice on Thursday night and Alexander Sulzer posted two goals on Saturday, becoming the sixth, seventh, and eighth Milwaukee players to light the lamp twice in one game this season. Antti Pihlstrom, Andreas Thuresson, Stephen Werner, Cody Franson, and Nick Spaling have also done the deed, but none of them have been able to make it a hat trick. As a matter of fact, the Admirals went the whole regular season in 2007-08 without one player scoring three times in a game. Milwaukee has had 29 players score twice in one contest since the team's last hat trick, scored by Chris Durno against Chicago on March 10th, 2007.

HIT THE ROAD JACK...The Admirals have just one game left in their current five-game road trip, which equals their longest of the season. This is the first of three five-game road trips for Milwaukee on the season. The Ads started the trip with a pair of games in Houston before making the trip north to Ontario for games with Hamilton last Thursday and Toronto on Saturday. Milwaukee will finish the trip with a game in Quad City on Wednesday, December 10th. This is just the second time in franchise history that the Admirals have three five-game trips on the schedule. The only other occasion was the 1980-81 season when the team had two five-gamers and a seven-game swing. In addition, the Ads will be on the road for seven of their next nine games. Thus far on the swing Milwaukee is 3-1.

WELCOME TO MILWAUKEE...The Predators reassigned forward Jed Ortmeyer to the Admirals last Wednesday. Ortmeyer's assignment coincides with his activation from Nashville's non-roster list. The 6-0, 188-pound right wing has not played since sustaining a knee injury on Feb. 23, 2008. In his first season with the Predators in 2007-08, he played in 51 games, recording four goals and four assists. Ortmeyer has 32 points (13g-19a) in 228 career NHL contests with the Preds and New York Rangers. The Omaha, NE native picked up an assist and a pair of shots Thursday night in his first game with the Ads.

OVER THE AIR AND ON THE WEB...For the second consecutive season Sportsradio 1250 WSSP will serve as the Admirals flagship station 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" that airs every Monday from 6-7 pm on WSSP. Fans can watch all Admirals games, home and on the road, live on the internet via NeuLion. Simply go the Admirals website at milwaukeeadmirals.com and click on the AHL Live banner.

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