Not a Ripple in the Water as the Admirals Blank the Devils 3-0

Final: Albany 0 Norfolk 3

The toughest part of away AHL games  is trying to judge the flow of the game based on a radio stream. Healthy scratches for the Admirals were: Stefan Warg, Ryan Parent, Norm Ezekiel, Brett Skinner, and Brad Staubitz

First Period: The Admirals open the game with a bench minor for not starting the correct lineup. The Admirals are 2nd from the bottom of the league for the number of shots they take and this game was the perfect example. Both teams had only 9 shots each on goal for the first 20 min. The Admirals had a really hard time getting the puck out of the zone and the Albany Devils did a good job keeping it in the zone, they just didn't get enough shots on goal.

At 8:30 Antoine Laganiere took a 2 minute minor for high sticking. The pk unit of Luca Sbisa, John Kurtz, Nolan Yonkman, and Rickard Rakell did a great job keeping the puck out. Sbisa had great puck movement and yielded an amazing play to put the puck on the stick of Nolan Yonkman whose shot was deflected into the net by Jamie MacQueen for his first goal of the season.

Just under 2 and a half minutes later, the Admirals struck again off of a Rakell, Max Friberg, and Maxime Sauvet combination at 14:41 in the period. Friberg was deep in the corner when he placed the puck perfectly for Sauvet to send home.

There was a fairly quick pace to the period, though not much in the way of penalties of other major events. John Gibson was strong in net, but he also wasn't given much of a challenge.

Second Period: Kurtz makes the first big move of the period at 3:23 when he gets a 5 minute fighting penalty and the Admirals go to the 4 on 4.

Shortly thereafter, David Steckel takes a hooking penalty and goes to the box at 5:16 for 2 min. Gibson does an amazing job blocking some huge shots to run the penalty out and keep Albany off the scoreboard. He also keeps the momentum going for the team as the penalty expires with Laganiere putting the puck on goal.  The puck takes a bounce out of Albany goalie, Wedgewood's, glove and Steven Whitney makes him regret giving up that rebound. The goal comes at 8;17 in the period and Albany decided to switch goalies.

After the 3rd goal of the game the action slowed down enough that the radio announcer started trying to use catch phrases such as "off the chain" properly... Thankfully, he moved on to stats about the team quickly.

The period closed with Albany out shooting the Admirals 13 to 7.

Third Period: The third period was extremely uneventful. The Admirals went into "protect the lead" mode as they posted only 5 shots in the whole period. Albany seems to be a little more confident with the new goalie, but they still only manage to get 12 shots on goal.

Yonkman took an early hooking penalty at 1:26 in the period followed by another at 9:31. The first was just sloppy playing and the second was due to a miscommunication on the ice and players being out of position.

Albany did a good job keeping the puck in the zone and again the Admirals have trouble clearing. The pace of the game seemed fairly quick though not much to mention.

When it was all said and done, Gibson posted a 34 save shutout, his 2nd of the season. He now has 2 of the team's 3 shutouts, the 3rd was posted by Frederik Anderson, currently called up to the Anaheim Ducks. Despite being out shot, again, the Admirals manage to hit 'em where it hurts to post the "W"!

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The Good: Although still leading the league in penalties, Zack Stortini didn't find himself in the time out box tonight and Joseph Cramarossa was back in the lineup.

The Bad: The team is still taking too many senseless penalties (a bench minor for starting the wrong line-up?!)

The Ugly: Yonkman took 2 minors in the 3rd period with a 3 goal lead....

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Three Stars:

Third Star: Luca Sbisa +3 on the night

Second Star: Nolan Yonkman

First Star: John Gibson

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Most Valuable Ducklings

Third MVD: Nolan Yonkman for being +2 on the night but not higher because of the senseless penalties he took in the 3rd period.

Second MVD: Luca Sbisa for being +3 on the night in his first game on the ice since suffering a sprained ankle.

MVD of the night: John Gibson for posting the shut out on the night he was named the AHL/CCM goalie of the month for October. He leads the league with both the lowest goals against average and highest save percentage. The current numbers were not available at the time of recap.

The Admirals remain on the road and next face the Bridgeport Sound Tigers tomorrow, 2 November 2013, at 7:00pm. Away game radio coverage can be streamed on your smart phone by downloading the WXTG FM app for your iPhone or by visiting the AHL website.