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The Norfolk Admirals traveled to the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean this week for two games against the St. John's IceCaps (Winnipeg affiliate). The streak for regular season wins was at 32 when they arrived on the island. After the rematch of the 2011-12 Eastern Conference Finals, where the Admirals swept, the streak would be over.
Saturday's game had the Admirals playing catch up all night long. The team came up short and lost the game, 3-2.
The Ads took a lot of penalties early on and created themselves a deep hole in both goals and shots-on-goal. After the first period, the Admirals trailed in shots 16-5; luckily, goaltender Frederik Andersen was able to stop all 16 of the IceCaps shots.
In the second, the IceCaps put two behind Andersen, one on the power play and one at even-strength. Late in the period Devante Smith-Pelly brought the Ads within 1 goal of St. John's.
The third period was played much better by the Admirals; except, they went down 3-1 about halfway through the frame. Sami Vatanen, once again, bring the score to within 1 goal after a cannon shot from the blue line that the IceCaps netminder never had a chance at stopping. The game would end at 3-2 and the streak from February would finally come to an end. The Admirals tried to come back in the 3rd but it seemed like a penalty or bad call always stopped the momentum.
Sunday's game was a shot at redemption and a chance to start a new streak of the new Admirals' own. The team didn't have a slow start in this game. The Ads out-shot the IceCaps 12-10 in the first and second period.
The first goal of the game happened halfway through the second period. Patrick Maroon netted his 4th goal of the year and DSP added another assist to impressive production so far this season. Newly signed Ryan Parent earned his first point in a Norfolk Admirals sweater as the second assist. With 11 seconds left in the period, John Mitchell scored his 3rd goal of the season and Troy Bodie provided the assist. St. John wouldn't answer Norfolk's scoring run, earning Igor Bobkov his first shutout of the season and the Ads began their new win streak of the 2012-13 season.
Injury Notes: Jay Rosehill has a "minor injury" and was replaced with Luca Caputi over the weekend. Caputi had 7 shots, no points, and even on the plus/minus. Matt Smaby is still out with a lower body injury. In his place, Gabe Guenztel and Ryan Parent are sharing the blue line duties with Mat Clark.
Line Combinations & Cumulative Season Stats
Kyle Palmieri - Peter Holland - Patrick Maroon: 17 points; 8 goals, 9 assists, plus-7 and 42 PIMs
Ryan Lasch - Corey Elkins - John Mitchell: 9 points; 7 goals, 2 assists, minus-3 and 13 PIMs
Emerson Etem - Brandon McMillan - Devante Smith-Pelly: 7 points; 1 goals, 6 assists, minus-3 and 12 PIMs
Troy Bodie - Chris Wagner - Luca Caputi: 9 points; 3 goals, 6 assists, plus-11 and 26 PIMs (Lost Rosehill's stats with injury)
Hampus Lindholm - Nate Guenin: 5 points; 0 goals, 5 assists, plus-13 and 6 PIMs
Jordan Hendry - Sami Vatanen: 7 points; 2 goal, 5 assists, plus-3 and 6 PIMs
Gabe Guentzel/Ryan Parent - Mat Clark: 2 points; 0 goals, 2 assists, minus-4 and 6 PIMs
Dulin's Top Three Performers of the Week
- Igor Bobkov - Shook off a couple shaky starts to get his first shutout of the season.
- Devante Smith-Pelly - Still producing a lot of points; had a goal and an assist this week.
- Sami Vatanen- My favorite so far this year; good production and can play defense all day.