AHL Milwaukee Admirals

Upshall Leads Team to Five of Six Points on the Week

January 17, 2006 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Milwaukee Admirals News Release


OVERALL...The Admirals (25-11-3-1) enter this week's action in second place in the West Division with 54 points, six points behind the first-place Houston Aeros (60 pts). The Ads are 6-2-2 in their last ten games and have picked up at least a point in four straight games. Milwaukee is currently in a stretch of five games in seven nights and six games in nine nights. Fortunately, four of those games are at home.

LAST WEEK...Last week the Admirals didn't play until a three game in three night session over the weekend. Friday night the Ads got by the Cleveland Barons 6-4 at the Bradley Center. The line of Scott Nichol, Scottie Upshall, and Darren Haydar produced nine points (5g-4a) for the Admirals, while Pekka Rinne picked up his 16th win of the season. Saturday night the Ads fell to the Grand Rapids Griffins 3-2 in overtime. Don MacLean picked up the game winner for Grand Rapids just 35 seconds into OT. On Sunday night, Upshall played the role of hero twice, scoring the game tying goal with just 4:08 left in regulation and the game winning goal 1:45 into overtime to lift the Admirals over the Toronto Marlies.

VS. CLEVELAND... Milwaukee and Cleveland meet for the fifth time on Tuesday and the third time at the Bradley Center. The two teams have split their four games this season, with the home team winning all four times. The Barons won 4-2 on October 15th and 4-1 on January 6th, while the Ads topped Cleveland on December 18 5-4 and then 6-4 last Friday. All-time versus the Barons the Admirals are 10-4-2-0, including a 7-0-2 mark at the Bradley Center.

VS. OMAHA... The Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights invade the Bradley Center for the fourth time this season on Thursday night. So far this year the Admirals are 4-2 versus the Knights with a 2-1 mark on home ice. Most recently the Ads took a 3-1 victory over Omaha on January 6th in Milwaukee. Darren Haydar leads the Admiral offense versus the Knights with six points (3g-3a), while Dave Moss has eight points (3g-5a) against Milwaukee.

VS. CHICAGO... The Admirals will make their fifth and final visit this season to the All-State Arena on Saturday night. The Admirals are 4-1-1 versus the Wolves this year, including 2-1-1 in Chicago. The last time these two teams met, the Wolves escaped with a 5-4 OT win on December 29. In 118 lifetime meetings with the Wolves the Admirals own a 63-41-1-13 record, including a 26-22-1-1 mark in the Windy City. Of those 118 games, 86 of them have been decided by one or two goals with Milwaukee posting a 48-25-13 record in those contests.

THE HALF-WAY POINT...Last Sunday's game was the Admirals 40th game this year, marking the half-way point of the 2005-06 season. The teams 54 points are tied for the fourth most in franchise history after 40 games, as are their 25 wins. The 1988-89 Admirals squad owns the organization's top spot at the half-way mark with 30 wins and 62 points. Last season after 40 games the Ads compiled a 27-10-2-1 mark, good for 57 points.

TRANSACTIONS... Jordin Tootoo was reassigned to the Admirals from Nashville on Monday afternoon. Tootoo had a goal and five assists for six points and ten penalty minutes in 13 games since being recalled by the Predators on December 15th. In 21 games with the Admirals this season, Tootoo has 13 points (8g-5a), 57 PIMs, and a +7 rating. In addition, center Scott Nichol has joined the Admirals on a conditioning assignment to rehab a broken foot he suffered November 5 versus the Los Angeles Kings. Playing in all three of the team's games last weekend, Nichol notched five points (2g-3a), eight PIMs and a +2 rating.

SECOND CENTURY...Sunday's contest versus Toronto was the 200thregular season game that Claude Noel has served as Admirals head coach. In those games, the 2004 AHL Coach of the Year has posted a 118-59-8-15 record for Milwaukee, good for a .648 winning percentage. Noel also has the distinction of being the only coach in the franchise's history to lead a team to a league title when he guided the Ads to the Calder Cup Championship in 2004.

THREE-IN-THREE...This weekend will be the first time in three weekends that the Admirals do not play three games in three straight nights. The past two weekends the team has sandwiched a road game in between two home games. The team has been fairly successful in those games, posting a 9-4-2 during three-in-three stretches, including an impressive 4-1 mark in the third game. The Admirals are 16-7-1-1 in games that are not in the midst of a three-and-three stretch.

MOVING UP... Left wing Scottie Upshall has certainly left his mark with the Admirals in a short amount of time since being reassigned by the Predators. In just three games, the Fort McMurray, ALTA native has eight points (4g-4a) and a +2 rating, including a four-point night on Friday versus Cleveland and the game-winning and game-tying goals on Sunday. In eight games with Milwaukee this season Upshall has posted two or more points six times and has totaled 14 points on six goals and eight assists. In 30 games with Nashville, Upshall has 12 points on four goals and eight assists.

QUICK ENDINGS... Saturday night's loss 35 seconds into overtime was Milwaukee's third straight OT game that was over in 35 seconds or less. Timofei Shishkanov etched his name in the Admirals record books on December 27th when he scored just nine seconds into overtime to beat Peoria 4-3. Two nights later, Chicago's Billy Tibbits finished off the Ads after he beat Pekka Rinne only :18 into OT. The combined time of the last four Admirals OT contests, including Sunday's tilt versus Toronto, has been just two minutes and 47 seconds, which is longer than either of the teams first two overtime games lasted individually.

HOME COOKING... The Bradley Center has been a safe haven for the Admirals thus far this season as the team has posted a 15-3 record at home, outscoring opponents 66-42. Milwaukee is currently on a six-game home winning streak, outscoring their opponents 25-16 during that span. The Ads have yet to lose two in a row on home ice and they are a perfect 3-0 in overtime/shoot-out contests. However, in all three of the team's losses at home they have been shut-out.

ROAD WOES... While the Admirals have had plenty of success on home ice, they have been struggling away from the Bradley Center. The team is currently on a five-game road losing streak and has not won a road game since beating Chicago 4-3 on December 17. The one bright spot for Milwaukee is that two of those games, last Saturday in Grand Rapids and December 29th in Chicago, they lost in overtime and were thus able to pick up one point in the standings.

WESTWARD HO... The Admirals have made their hay versus West Division opponents thus far this year, posting an impressive 20-6-1-1 mark against intra-divisional foes and outscoring them by a 97-66 margin. Milwaukee has been particularly impressive at the BC with a 10-1 record against the West. Versus the North Division the Ads have not been quite as good, recording just a 5-5-2 mark.

OVER THE AIR AND ON THE WEB... The Admirals have a new flagship radio station this season in Milwaukee's ESPN Radio 1510 AM (days)/1290 AM (nights). Aaron Sims will call 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 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 to the Admirals Website at www.milwaukeeadmirals.com

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American Hockey League Stories from January 17, 2006


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