I was at today's game. The team was flat in Period 1 (AGAIN) but kept the Wolves from scoring. Chicago went up 1-0 in period 2. Milwaukee gets on the board 6 minutes into Period 3 and gives up a goal less than 1 minute later (AGAIN). The puck pin balled around and possibly the Wolves player hit it with a high stick. It happened at the far end and I really couldn't see the replay. The on ice officials did discuss it for about a minute before calling it a good goal. Milwaukee tied it again with a rebound goal by Gaudet with 19.6 seconds remaining in regulation. For once, an open Admirals player was in the right place!
In OT, Milwaukee started with Gaudet and Tolvanen with Donovan on defense. The play went back and forth with Milwaukee skating in circles and getting the usual ZERO shots on goal. A pass got deflected in the Chicago zone and Donovan skated the puck all the way back behind the Milwaukee net. He waited about 20 seconds. I have no idea why, but Chicago changed their 3 skaters. Then Milwaukee changed their other 2 players about 10 seconds later. (The AHL.com says it was Blackwell and Carrier) Donovan goes to his left and makes a bad pass up the slot which gets intercepted. Chicago posts a player about 10 feet in front of McCollum. There are Ads players in front and in back of that Wolves player. The puck is in a corner. The Ads player in front gets dumped by the Wolves player. The puck comes out to Macek near the upper hash marks and he shoots it into the net unopposed because his guy is flat on the ice in the low slot. The refs called it a good goal instead of interference on Chicago. The crowd was booing loudly.
I heard Ryan Miller on the radio after the game and he gave a similar description about what happened on that game winning goal, including the interference. He asked Coach Taylor about it. Taylor said "that the refs didn't see it that way". The Admirals were totally SCREWED by Ben O'Quinn (#27) and especially by Alex Garon (#64) who was on the goal line and had to see what happened. Up to that point, I would have given them sixes for doing a good job. They end up with fours for literally blowing the game in 90 seconds of OT. Donovan was on the ice the entire time and I blame him for retreating 120 feet, then making a very bad pass. He should get an assist for Chicago!
It comes down to this. Either Donovan stops leading off as Dman in OT or Taylor gets fired! I am seriously thinking about not renewing my season tickets because it has become a waste of time and money. I saw my friend Gerry talking to Jon Greenberg of the Admirals. When I passed by he was complaining about "the lackluster performance of the team". Greenberg said it wasn't his place to do anything about that. He is the President of team. If not him, than who?
Edit: One more thing to complain about. The Game Day work. They kept announcing about "tonight's game" when it started at 1 PM. I knew something was wrong when they posted the Admirals record against the Wolves this season as being 3-3-31. I am fairly sure that the last number should be a "1" and not 31, but who has time for accuracy on a giant scoreboard in front of a big crowd of 7000 fans?
