Norfolk Admirals Win Big Heading Into All-Star Break

Final Score: Norfolk Admirals 5, Bridgeport Sound Tigers 0

First Period Recap: The Admirals started off the game with an aggressive pace and forecheck, setting the tone for the entire night. Emerson Etem benefitted early after the forecheck of Luca Caputi and Patrick Maroon would set him up for a sweet goal where Anders Nilsson had no chance. The Admirals had two power play chances but could not convert on them and they killed off one penalty. Norfolk had a pretty wide margin in shots at one point, but the Sound Tigers pulled it closer near the end of the period. After 20 minutes the Ads out shot Bridgeport 16-10.

Second Period Recap: In the second period the Sound Tigers tried to get rough and goad some of the Admirals to take bad penalties. One example was when Brett Gallant tried to get Jay Rosehill to fight or catch a roughing but Rosie just kept skating and drew a penalty. Later in the period with the power play, Caputi scored his third goal of the season with Etem and Sami Vatanen getting the assists. Seven minutes later Josh Brittain put the Admirals up 3-0 on a two on one break with Dan Sexton delivering a beautiful pass and Brittain putting it up high over Nilsson. Even with the goals and the power play opportunities, the Admirals barely out-shot the Sound Tigers 7-6 in the second.

Third Period Recap: The final period was a typical melt down for a team full of people who play in a fairly rough and sometimes dirty manner. Brandon DeFazio of Bridgeport put a two hander across Vatanen's leg when he came into the zone drawing a penalty and Matt Kennedy went straight after him. DeFazio got two for slashing, five for fighting, and a misconduct for continuing an altercation.

Right off the faceoff Nathan McIver attacked Maroon for no apparent reason other than being a dick. Maroon didn't fight back or anything so he only got a roughing and made McIver look like a fool, which he is. McIver eneded up getting 27 minutes of penalties of this play with a two for instigating, five for fighting, ten minutes for instigating and a game misconduct for being the aggressor, the end result was a five minute major to go on top of the previous power play.

The Admirals came out with a sweet set play and after a hard shot from Vatanen, Etem tipped in his second goal of the night. Caputi also got an assist so he and Etem each had three points on the night. Rod Pelley finished off the scoring with another late power play goal, third of the night for the team, and got all 7574 fans in attendance free wings. We have seriously missed free wings this season. Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond got an unexpected assist along with John Mitchell. The Admirals were playing with a tough guy on every shift for this power play.

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The Great: The Admirals have won three straight games for the first time this season since their four game win streak to start the year and carry a lot of momentum into the All Star break.

The Good: Luca Caputi, Patrick Maroon and Emerson Etem combined for seven points last night.

The Ugly: Nathan McIver, biggest tool in the league right now. He also would only go after the non heavyweights on the team in the previous game and never would even look at Rosehill or Leblond.

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Next Game: Friday, Feb 1, 7:00 PM ET at Adirondack Phantoms