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Dedicated Admirals Fans Witness a Comeback

The Ducks may have sucked last night, but the Ads pulled out a rare win.

By shawndubstep
Shawn Dulin

Final Score: Norfolk Admirals 2, Bridgeport Sound Tigers 1

First Period Recap: Just 1:13 into the first period Scott Campbell of the Sound Tigers scored killing the tiny crowd that braved the weather to see the Admirals play. About four minutes later, Pierre-Luc (Jaques-Paul-Henri-Maurice-Jean-Francois-Sebastien) Letourneau-Leblond started his first shift of the night by bumping into fellow tough guy Brent Gallant a couple times while skating around the ice. It escalated quickly with both players dropping the gloves and attempting to fight, they even took a break in the middle to take off their helmets.

With just 39 seconds left in the first, John Kurtz fought Nathan McIver after a different Sound Tiger hit an Admiral. Kurtz tried to fight the offender, but McIver jumped in after he couldn't get Maroon to go. Kurtz got the decision, but barely. The teams combined for 29 shots with the Admirals getting 16.

Second Period Recap: The second period was like a highlight reel for goalie Frederik Andersen, who played his first game since coming back from Anaheim. He faced 15 shots and stopped them all, as well as helping the team kill back to back penalties. The Admirals could only muster eight shots on net which doesn't seem too bad, but they were definitely outplayed through this 20 minutes of hockey.

Third Period Recap: The final 20 minutes was a much better played than the rest of the game for the Admirals. Matt Kennedy fought Mike Halmo after a huge scrum involving basically everyone on the ice. Kennedy definitely showed some endurance in the fight. He took some knocks to the chin and kept his feet. After some so-so games from Kennedy, this might have made him a little more loved by the fans.

About three and a half minutes later, Patrick Maroon actually forechecked and hustled through an entire shift and ended Kevin Poulin's shutout attempt. Dan Sexton and Gabe Guentzel registered the assists. Before his goal, Maroon made some really poor decisions and looked like he had some sort of attitude problem going on.

Josh Brittain scored his fourth goal of the season to put the Admirals up 2-1, which ended up being the game winner. Originally it was ruled unassisted but they gave Maroon an assist.

Note to any fans who go to Admirals games: The Team will be exchanging any unused or USED ticket from last night's game, Jan. 25, for any future game at Norfolk Scope. This offer only applies to the Norfolk Scope box office. This is a very nice move by Ken Young and the Norfolk Admirals.

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The Good: The team showed a lot of grit at the end with the third period comeback.

The Bad: PL3 looks kind of lost on the ice sometimes, he still needs to get up to game speed.

The Ugly: The weather of course! Lots of snow and ice every where made for a long and miserable commute.

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Most Valuable Duckling:
1st MVD - Frederik Andersen- Stopped 37 of 38 shots in his first game back from Ducks training camp.
2nd MVD - Josh Brittain- I put him ahead of Maroon even with less points because he is out there banging and hustling every shift.
3rd MVD - Patrick Maroon- When this guy has his mind right, I don't think many power forwards are near him in skill at this level of hockey. But when he just stops battling for the puck below the goal line to casually glide for a change, something needs to be fixed. His goal and assist helped though.

Next Game: Saturday, Jan. 26 at 7:15 PM ET with the annual Guns and Hoses game at 4 PM where local police and firefighters play for pride. I will be live tweeting both events. The Guns and Hoses game is usually pretty freaking good.

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