Milwaukee continued their season-best winning streak, extending it to eight games with victories over Chicago and Iowa. Having captured third place in the Central Division for the time being, Milwaukee has Rockford and Grand Rapids at home and one more visit to the IceHogs on Sunday to wrap up the regular season.
Headlines & Standings
- On Monday, Milwaukee signed forward Joe Pendenza and defender Scott Savage to AHL contracts for the 2019-20 season. Pendenza has been playing on a tryout contract and Savage has been on loan from the ECHL.
- On Sunday, Nashville recalled forward Zac Rinaldo from his long-term injury assignment.
- On Saturday, Nashville draft pick Adam Smith signed an ECHL deal with the Atlanta Gladiators and debuted in their regular season finale./
Weekly Game Recap
April 5: Milwaukee Admirals v. Chicago Wolves
This was a back-and-forth affair. Milwaukee was heavily outshout in this one but traded chances fairly evenly. Alex Carrier put the Admirals up 3-2 with his 100th career point before Milwaukee added an empty-netter for insurance.
April 6: Milwaukee Admirals v. Iowa Wild
This one was a pretty dominant effort by Milwaukee from start to finish. Cole Schneider opened the scoring with two goals, and Troy Grosenick kept his shutout alive with a save on a penalty shot until a shorthanded tally by the Wild in the third.
Phillip Di Giuseppe, Anthony Richard and Joe Pendenza added three more for Milwaukee’s eighth straight win.
Trending Up
Cole Schneider: 11 points in his last six games; four goals in that span, too. Schneider has been all that was advertised since coming over from Hartford in an early-season trade. As lines have continued to shuffle, Schneider has been a steady presence. From Rachel:
“[Schneider] and Colin Blackwell made a great combo against Chicago. Yakov Trenin has benefited from their play in that he’s become more active as a play develops. He set up several chances against San Antonio on Thursday evening, too. It’s safe to say Schneider is easy to play with and can communicate well on the ice.”
Trending Down
The ability to not take penalties: Rachel has highlighted Milwaukee’s lack of discipline down the stretch here and for good reason. Slashes, trips, stick infractions everywhere. Milwaukee sits ninth in the league in penalty minutes with 959 and this past week certainly contributed, as they gave up nine power plays to their opponent in two games.
Final Thoughts
There isn’t much that hasn’t been said on this win streak. It’s pretty impressive what this Admirals team has been able to do each night and it’s surprising to me each time. They’re getting healthy and the contributors that Milwaukee needs to be firing are: Carrier, Tolvanen, Trenin, Blackwell, Di Giuseppe, and depth players like Gaudet and Kirkland.
Simply put, as Rachel likes to say, “Forecheck. Backcheck. Paycheck.”
All statistics are courtesy of theAHL.com and eliteprospects.com.