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After a horrid month of November, the Admirals have started off December with a bang. Norfolk dominated the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (New York Islanders affiliate) for three full periods with a very aggressive forecheck and a perfect penalty kill effort.
The Admirals scored first for the second game in a row on John Mitchell's sixth goal of the season with assists from Brandon McMillan and captain Nate Guenin, who added a goal of his own with 2:20 left in the first.
Chris Wagner assisted on Guenin's goal and is quietly becoming a very steady, dependable player with nine points through 19 games.
The period ended 2-0 for the Admirals and they out-shot the Sound Tigers 13-6.
In the second period, four penalties in a row lead to some rare three-on-three action and Jordan Hendry extended the Admirals' lead to three with assists from the only other skaters on the ice, Sami Vatanen and Peter Holland.
Andersen's shutout attempt ended with just under five minutes left in the period as Bridgeport's Brock Nelson scored his sixth goal of the season. The sliver lining was that it was teddy bear toss night in Bridgeport and the and the home fans were finally able to throw their stuffed animals down onto the ice.
After 40 minutes the Admirals were up two goals but they were out shot 15-12 in the period.
Early in the third, Kyle Palmieri scored a rare power play goal for to give the Ads a 4-1 lead. From there Norfolk pretty much cruised to victory despite taking three penalties and being out shot 12-7 in the period.
The Admirals ended up 1-for-8 on the power play and killed all six penalties against them in the game.
The Admirals seem to have straightened out their heavily listing ship, getting two straight wins on the weekend in dominating fashion, outscoring their opponents 9-3. They also went perfect on the penalty kill, killing 15 penalties.
Andersen has established himself as the number one goalie for now, but you never know if the Ducks want Bobkov playing as well.
The Admirals next game is at "home" in Washington DC against the Hershey Bears, you know.. Washington's farm club. I don't know how they worked this one out but it kinda sucks for the Norfolk fans who can't travel on a Thursday night game that is three and a half hours away. Anyways, Jen will be there doing some stuff live from the game I think and I will be in the crowd cheering on my team.