Tonight, the Admirals (10-4-1-2; 23 pts) host the Cleveland Monsters (14-5-0-1, 29 pts). The Ads are in 2nd place in the Central and the Monsters are in 1st place in the North.
Joseph LaBate and Rocco Grimaldi are the former Admirals playing for Cleveland.
LD Nychuk, RD Matier, LW Mutter, C O'Leary with Marino RW and Murray in goal.
Jet Greaves is in net for the blue clad Monsters. Hinostroza (8) scores unassisted 63 seconds into the game, on the first SOG and a wrister. At 1:58, Cleveland for Too Many Men. Ads called for Offside, when it wasn't. Angello tripped after the face off. No call. Ozzy (2) scores at 4:10 at ES. Prokop (3) and Kemell (7) with the assists. The Ads have 2 goals on 4 shots! (After the game, the AHL shows Lucchini, not Prokop).
Wahl is playing between Angello and Rolston. Lucchini between Vinnie and Schaefer. Bellows centers Ozzy and Kemell.
One Ads front line all looked back when stepping onto the bench. That tells me that somebody from Cleveland said something that they should not have. That was Lucchini's line with the swivel heads.
Greaves was out of position and the Ads missed the net. Cleveland goes down the ice and scores a fluky goal at 12:47. SOG 11-3 Ads. It is 2-1 Ads, instead of 3-0. Ads hit the left post on a turnover! Cleveland is lucky tonight. Lucky that the Ads don't have four goals.
In the last minute, Rolston sends a shot off of Greaves left arm that went just wide of the left post. I thought that it was going in because there was a lot of room on that side. SOG were 14-9 Ads. Lucchini said something to #10, Luca Del Bel Belluz after the period. LDBB stayed on the ice to talk to the refs for about a minute.
Period 2 starts with LaBate taking out Marino at the Ads blue line. Mutter skated over after the NO Call and LaBate turtled. Mutter got 2 for Roughing. Ufko took the puck from LDBB like he was a 6 year old. The Ads killed the penalty. The net was off a foot and none of the officials saw it for about 10 seconds!
Players were Slashing and punching and NO Call on anybody. It was Matier and Sillinger. The latter is now in the Ads net, being face washed by Marino. Gravel seems upset with ref Jarrod "the big Ragu" Ragusin. The next time a Monster takes a poke at Murray, will be the last time!
Grimaldi interfered with Bellows behind the Ads net. Bellows slashed his left hand in front of a ref. No Calls. At the other end, 5 Monsters are bravely pushing with 3 Admirals after a cross check after the whistle. No Calls. Angello was being held from behind as #17 was punching him. No Calls on that?
Ozzy was headbutted after the whistle by #11, James Malatesra. They both got 10 minutes. That used to be an ejection! #4 just punched Lucchini after the next whistle and he did get called for Roughing. Finally!!! Monsters killed it. With 5:29 remaining, SOG are 27-12 Ads. That is 13-3 so far this period, while the Monsters have played like Federal League GOONS. Hinostroza called for Interference after he took a big hit at the Red line. Vinnie nailed the guy back.
Rolston (3) scores over the glove with an assist to Angello (3) at 18:32 of the period. Wall gets slashed BEFORE the puck drop by #45. Murray slashes #45 for being in the crease. At the other end, Marino is checked in the NW corner, then he checks a Monsters player before the horn sounds. A Linesman gets in between as the Monster chases after Marino. All of those checks were before the horn! SOG are 30-14 Ads and 16-5 in Period 2. The Ads lead 3-1.
Ragusin has problems dropping the puck to begin Period 3. Mutter called for Hooking at 45 seconds. I did not see it because I was typing. Angello and Kemell on the PK. Then Schaefer and Lucchini. Lucchini cross checked well after the Icing and in front of a ref, who grabs Lucchini. Both 37 and 19 cross checked Lucchini. LaBate gets called for Tripping Bellows. Angello pops open the door in the SE corner. Ref Stephen Hiff was hit with the puck by both teams in less than one minute!
Clayton just cross checked Hinostroza when the puck was 40 feet away. No Call. Kemell wants to fight, 93 jumps him from behind. Kemell gets 2 minutes for defending himself against TWO Monsters! Roughing is the BS call. Clayton punching Kemell in the back in the SE corner. No Call.
Ads hit the right post. It is called Icing? If it went into the goal would these refs still call it Icing? Kemell with a couple of big checks.
At 4:26 remaining, the goal is EMPTY. Wall passes to Rolston in the high slot and the puck hops over his stick. Another missed goal. Cleveland gets a penalty for Hooking at 17:50 and Gravel is angry that only one penalty was called. He has a good point.
A long shot from the NE corner to make it 4-1. It was Gravel (1). His first PPG since 2017. The game ends without a big fight, much to my surprise. The SOG were 12-5 Cleveland and 36-26 Admirals.
The Stars of the Game were #1 Angello. No points but he won a lot of face offs and killed several penalties. Ryder Rolston was #2 with the big insurance goal at the end of Period 2. He is speedy with a wicked shot. (Bruno will turn him into a goalie!) Ozzy was #3 with the GWG, only his second goal of the season.
My Stars were Vinnie, Jack Matier and Reid Schaefer. They did a lot that doesn't show up on the scoresheet. Ryan Ufko and Mike O'Leary get Honorable Mentions.
I don"t remember seeing Rocco after he was slashed on the left hand. Maybe he got a broken finger after messing too much with Bellows?
The Ads had 4 goals on only 3 assists.
The Ads played well most of the game. The Monsters played well 5 minutes in each period. They looked tired during the first 15 minutes of the game.
They played at Grand Rapids on Sunday and lost 6-4. My daughter asked if they walked from Cleveland?
The AHL has a story, "Reloaded Monsters ride streak to top of North".
My story is "Monsters give up 10 goals in two road losses to Central teams".
The refs were okay in Period 1. It went downhill from there to the Final Horn.
The next 3 games are against Iowa on Sat at 6 pm, Sunday at 3 pm and back in Milwaukee for Friday the 13th at 7 pm.
Dunt, dunt, dah!!!