After rebounding from a two-game losing skid last week, Milwaukee spent last weekend in a home-and-home contest with the Iowa Wild. With two wins, the Admirals outscored Iowa eight to two and improved their Central-Division-best record to 10-4-0.
They’ll host Manitoba tonight before splitting a home-and-home series with Rockford this Thanksgiving weekend.
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Quick Hits
- Forward Luke Evangelista sits seventh in the AHL in rookie scoring with 12 points in 14 games
- Forward Phil Tomasino has missed the last two games with a lower-body injury
- Milwaukee sits second in the AHL with a 0.714 points percentage
- The Admirals rank third in the AHL with 55 goals scored this season/
Milwaukee Admirals (6) @ Iowa Wild (1)
Earning his second straight start, goalie Yaroslav Askarov enjoyed his best performance of the season on Friday, stopping 32 of 33 shots for a 0.970 save percentage. With Phil Tomasino and Juuso Pärssinen out of the lineup, head coach Karl Taylor did some significant line shuffling but maintained a core of Afanasyev-Huntington-Sherwood and Schneider-Novak-Evangelista.
That second line opened the scoring when Cole Schneider got a piece of a Tommy Novak wrist shot from the top of the circle that worked its way past Jesper Wallstedt. In the second period, veteran Tim Schaller charged to the net and roofed a beautiful backhand shot behind Wallstedt, giving Askarov his second assist of the evening.
An absolute rocket from Sherwood 🚀 pic.twitter.com/WK06Fk8RU4
— Milwaukee Admirals (@mkeadmirals) November 19, 2022
The Afanasyev-Huntington-Sherwood line added two more second-period goals as the Admirals escaped the second frame with a 4-1 lead. Bad habits crawled back onto the ice for Milwaukee in period three, giving Iowa plenty of power-play opportunities.
But the Wild failed to convert on all six of their chances, and the Admirals added two more markers, including one from Jachym Kondelik set up by Tommy Apap; the latter dressed for his first two games of the season this weekend and contributed well on the fourth line.
Milwaukee Admirals (2) vs. Iowa Wild (1)
On Saturday, the Wild came out of the gates without hesitation, blitzing the Admirals for 25 shots in the first two periods. Regardless, Devin Cooley was stellar, capping off an excellent weekend for Milwaukee’s goalies—other than a one puck misplay by Cooley that led to Iowa’s only goal on Saturday night.
Despite their dominance on Friday night, the Afanasyev-Huntington-Sherwood line struggled on Saturday. At even strength, they posted a 37.04%, 37.50%, and 46.15% Corsi rating and were startled for 84.72, 74.14, and 68.24 shot attempts against per 60 minutes, respectively.
It was the fourth line that provided the offensive spark in the third period when Jachym Kondelik tipped in a Marc Del Gaizo point shot to send this contest to overtime. After clawing their way back into things with a big third-period response, Kiefer Sherwood—who’s clearly proven he’s too good for the AHL but not quite good enough for the NHL—took advantage of a bad Iowa change to put home a breakaway chance in overtime.
The Week Ahead
- Tuesday, November 22 vs. Manitoba Moose
- Friday, November 25 @ Rockford IceHogs
- Saturday, November 26 vs. Rockford IceHogs/
All statistics are courtesy of eliteprospects.com, theAHL.com, or manually tracked.