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Admirals Aftermath: Well, That Was Anticlimactic

After a late season surge to get back into the playoff picture, the Ads dropped their last three games to fall right back out.

By shawndubstep
TillDeath Creations.

The Norfolk Admirals headed into the final weekend of AHL hockey with amazing chances of making the playoffs. Instead they had some sort of melt down in every game resulting in giving up a hat trick on Friday, getting shutout by a terrible team on Saturday, and giving up another hatty on Sunday. If Norfolk could have won on Friday or Saturday they might very well be in the post season right now.

On Friday they never had a chance against Tyler Johnson... and the Crunch too I guess. Frederik Andersen gave up three as the starter and rookie John Gibson got his first pro start giving up another three goals. The next day Norfolk held off for 57 minutes before effectively ending their season by giving up two goals to Albany. Sunday the Admirals were able to keep knotting up the score but once again failed late giving up the game winning goal with twenty one seconds left in the game.


Game Reviews
Game #1
Final Score: Norfolk 1, Syracuse 6
Goal scorers for Admirals: Patrick Maroon (25)
How'd our goalie do? Andersen stopped 9 of 12 and only played twenty minutes, Gibson stopped 18 of 21 and played 40 minutes.
Numbers for Nerds: Norfolk went 0 for 3 on the power play. John Kurtz tied Maroon for the most shots on goal for an Admiral at 3.

Game #2
Final Score: Norfolk 0, Albany 2
Goal scorers for Admirals: N/A
How'd our goalie do? Andersen stopped 27 of 28 shots.
Numbers for Nerds: Maroon had 5 shots on goal and finished -2. Charlie Sarault also had 5 shots on goal and finished even.

Game #3
Final Score: Norfolk 3, Providence 4
Goal scorers for Admirals: Devante Smith-Pelly (14), Maroon (26), Guenin (4)
How'd our goalie do? Andersen stopped 29 of 33 shots.
Numbers for Nerds: Peter Holland had his first point in the AHL since a hat trick on Mar. 1.



Overall Record: 37-34-4-1 79 points

Place in division: 5th

Place in conference: 10th

Top Producer: Patrick Maroon - 50 points

Top Goal Scorer: Patrick Maroon - 26 goals

Roster Moves from the Past Week:
  • Jordan Hendry was sent down on 4/18
  • Igor Bobkov was called up on 4/18

Injuries:
  • Josh Brittain played on Saturday but missed games before that and was a scratch on Sunday.
  • John Mitchell stopped playing the previous weekend, no announced injury though.

Three Star Admirals:
#3 - Devante Smith-Pelly - The only other player who scored a goal all weekend.
#2 - Nate Guenin - Had the game tying goal against Providence and the only assist in Friday in Syracuse.
#1 - Patrick Maroon - He had two goals on a weekend where the offense was pretty absent.

Cabin Boys:
#1 - Peter Holland - I think he was still with Anaheim all this weekend but an equipment manager wore his gear.
#2 - Kyle Wilson - Unfortunately this guy did nothing when he was on any line but Maroon's.
#3 - Frederik Andersen - This one isn't really his fault. I think the guy got tired in his first year of North American pro hockey. He was big all year though and was the only reason this team even had a chance to make the playoffs.

So, the Calder Cup will now find a new home somewhere in the AHL after an unsuccessful push to make the playoffs. It was a pretty good effort for the most part over the last two months but all I can think of is what could have happened if the Admirals didn't start the year so terribly.

Next season there will be full training camps at both levels, no lockout, and hopefully a team full of prospects and veterans that will make fans forget about this year.

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