Brats & Beer » Admirals

The Hershey Bears proved to be too much for the Admirals, besting Milwaukee 5-1 last night at the Bradley Center to win the Calder Cup in six games. The Bears jumped out to an early lead once again, with net minder Pekka Rinne giving up two goals in the first six minutes of the game. Head coach Claude Noel decided to pull Rinne after that, but reliever Brian Finley fared little better, allowing another goal in the opening frame and one apiece in the final two periods. Darren Haydar came up with Milwaukee’s lone point on a power play in the second.

Despite falling short of the Cup, it was a good run for the Admirals, winning 49 games in the regular season to win the West Division title. Haydar led everyone in the playoffs with 18 goals and 17 assists, while Simon Gamache came up with 12 goals and 16 assists. I would suspect they might get a shot at making the Predators roster next year.

Speaking of youngsters playing hockey, the NHL Draft is coming up June 24, and there are some Badger names to keep an eye on. Derrick LaPoint, a defenseman for Eau Claire North High School, is considered a possible second round pick this year, while Ben Street, who scored 10 goals and had five assists for the NCAA champion Badgers this year, is also a top prospect. And representing the Hawkeye state, Keye Okposo is seen as a first rounder. Actually, Okposo is from St. Paul, but he helped lead the Des Moines Buccaneers to a Memorial Cup trophy back in May.

The Calder Cup finals are all even after this weekend’s games in Pennsylvania. Milwaukee recorded a 2-0 victory over the Hershey Bears on Saturday night with Darren Haydar scoring a power play goal in the first and then getting an assist on a goal by Simon Gamache in the second. Pekka Rinne had 21 saves in the shutout. Last night, though, it was all Hershey as the Bears powered their way to a 7-2 win with four goals scored during a three and a half minute span in the first period. The Admirals and Bears resume the series tomorrow night.

In the big leagues, I was happy to see the Edmonton Oilers strike back and get one win at least, even if it came by way of a garbage goal. Even though it was a “controversial” call, it was definitely a goal and pretty neat the way Lady Luck shined down on the Oil. Edmonton and Carolina play Game 4 tonight.

The Milwaukee Admirals got off to a good start last night in their bid to win a second Calder Cup in three years, outlasting the Hershey Bears 2-1 at the Bradley Center. Scottie Upshall and Darren Haydar scored for Milwaukee in the first and the defense, anchored by goalie Pekka Rinne, hung on to take a 1-0 lead in the series. According to the Journal Sentinel, it sounds like the Bears are a bigger team than the Admirals, so Milwaukee will need to rely on speed and good skating to get through this championship series.

I’ve actually been getting back into pro hockey this season now that the lockout is over. It’s good to see at least one Canadian team made it to the Stanley Cup finals; it is their Cup after all and they only have six teams left, so bully for them. Plus, the Edmonton Oilers were the bottom seed in the Western Conference and are coming on strong at the right time. How can you not root for them? Not to mention some of the Oilers fan blogs are pretty great, like Covered in Oil.

There does seem to be some blacklash out there against pro hockey, though, and I don’t quite understand why. I’ve seen more than a few reports in the mainstream sports media pointing to the NHL’s low TV ratings and saying that it’s high time we stopped treating hockey like a major sport. What they fail to take into account, though, is that most of the games have been shown nationally on OLN, which not everyone gets on their cable system, and even the people that do have access probably don’t know where it is on the dial since there’s nothing else to watch on that network (unless you’re really into bull riding and hunting shows). Attendance at the games has actually been better than before last year’s strike and ratings in the markets that have hockey has been pretty good. Let’s wait and see how NBC does with the finals before we write off an entire sport.

With all the activity around the holidays and all, I kind of lost track of what’s been going on with the Admirals, so I was a little surprised to see that Milwaukee is currently second in the division with a 22-11-3 mark. They won nine of 16 during December and had a four-game winning streak going at one point. The team opened 2006 with a 4-2 victory over the Iowa Stars but lost last night 1-4 to the Barons in Cleveland. Darren Haydar is leading the team with 14 goals and 21 assists, while rookie goal tender Pekka Rinne is 14-9-1 in his starts. The Adminrals host the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights tonight.

The Milwaukee Admirals knocked off the division-leading Houston Aeros 3-0 in AHL action the other night. The Admirals have won 11 of 13 after opening the season with four loses and are now tied for third in the West Division with the Peoria Rivermen.

I just love the AHL and its mix of old school and new school hockey names. On the one hand you have the Admirals (also the name of the Norfolk team – copycats!), Providence Bruins, and Rochester Americans, and then you’ve got such teams as the Philadelphia Phantoms, the Syracuse Crunch, and the San Antonio Rampage. Very odd what some people think will bring out the crowds.