Two Shootouts Too Much For Milwaukee

LOVELAND, Colo. – Up until this weekend, the Milwaukee Admirals hadn’t been in a shootout during the 2021-22 season. In a weird twist of fate, the hockey gods blessed them with two shootouts in two nights against the Colorado Eagles. Unfortunately, the Admirals did not come out on top in either of those situations.

Since the Admirals and Eagles were evenly matched during regulation, I decided to break down both overtimes and shootouts to see where the Admirals may or may not have faltered.

Friday

The Admirals kicked off Friday’s overtime with a faceoff win. They employed good diagonal skating and passing to help move the puck down the ice. For 48 seconds, they controlled the puck before Graham Knott angled through the faceoff circle and cut into the slot before firing off a shot at Eagles netminder Justus Annunen. The Eagles quickly rebounded the shot, but the puck rolled off of Kiefer Sherwood’s stick, forcing them to clear so they could reset the play.

After a full minute of possession, the Eagles’ Justin Barron attempted to fire a shot down an open lane towards Connor Ingram, but the puck flew wide due to the breaking of Barron’s stick. The Eagles were unable to fire off a shot until that moment because the Admirals staggered their placement in front of Ingram so that shooting lanes were blocked but Ingram wasn’t screened.

After picking up Barron’s missed shot attempt, the Admirals maintained possession of the puck for 49 seconds. When they couldn’t find room to shoot, the Admirals made a personnel change. This freed up Knott to made another break for the net and fire off a point blank shot. Yet again, Annunen rose to the call and denied Knott the dream of scoring.

Colorado won the proceeding faceoff when Eagles forward Jean-Luc Foudy raced to the boards to pick the puck up. He then tossed it off to Jordan Gross, who sat behind the net while Foudy wound himself up like a toy car. Yes, you read that correctly. Foudy skated in a wide circle before grabbing the puck from Gross, zipping from coast to coast looking for an open shot on net. With all of the scoring angles blocked off and the Admirals beginning to apply pressure, Foudy passed the puck off to Gross. In an odd turn of events, Gross tossed the puck across the ice to no one, absolutely no one. Milwaukee forward Cole Schneider was able to quickly pounce on the errant puck before passing it off to David Farrance, who made a play on the net but was stopped by Annunen.

What was interesting about this play is the fact Schneider was barreling down towards the net while Farrance was skating around the back. This caused the Eagles to change their focus to stopping Schneider, thus freeing up 75% of Colorado’s defensive zone for Farrance to freely skate through. Undetected, Farrance was able to launch a bomb from the blue line that Schneider redirected into the crease. The Eagles saving grace was Annunen; he tracked Farrance the entire time and was ready to stop the puck when it came his way.

With a minute and a half to play and the game on the line, both teams abandoned perimeter play and started to rush the crease and pack the slot. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for either team to earn the game winner.

In four rounds, Schneider was the lone member of the Admirals to find the back of the net. He quickly rushed the net, kept it simple, and backhanded the puck through Annunen’s five-hole. Everyone else did a lot of fancy tricks and focused on Annunen’s left pad side (which happens to be his strong side).

Saturday

The start of Saturday’s overtime had a much different feel than the night before. Both teams abandoned the perimeter play and spent a lot of time attacking the net. Colorado dominated the bulk of extra time. There was a block of 1:50 where they had sole possession of the puck. During this time, the Admirals’ netminder Devin Cooley was put to work. He made two kick saves and saw three shots that went wide of the net. It wasn’t until Admirals forward Anthony Richard broke up a pass that the Eagles’ reign of shot-taking terror was put to an end.

After the Eagles almost two-minute possession, both Grimaldi and Marc Del Gaizo were able to make plays on the net. Grimaldi’s went just a hair wide as he was passing the crease. Del Gaizo picked up Grimaldi’s wide shot and fired it from the door step at Annunen who stopped it with ease. The proceeding faceoff was yet again an Eagles win, which put momentum in their favor and kept it there for 1:22. Cooley pulled out all the stops to protect the back of the net.

With 21 seconds left in overtime, the Admirals tried to rush the net, but got caught in the corner. Once they were freed, Rocco Grimaldi brought the puck up ice and fanned on a Hail Mary attempt as the horn was sounding.

Yet again, during the shootout, only one Admirals skater was able to find the back of the net, and Farrance did it by lifting the puck over Annunen’s right pad.

At the end of the day, there were things the Admirals could work on to succeed. Faceoffs could have been won and shots could have been more accurate. However, the real kryptonite for the Admirals was Justus Annunen. Once the game was on the line, there was no bending or breaking from him.

(Well, unless you lifted the puck over his right blocker or rushed a shot through his five-hole…)