Admirals Weekly: December 5, 2017

Last Week:

Thursday, Nov. 30 at Jacksonville, W, 4-3 (SO)

Saturday, Dec. 2 at Jacksonville, W, 7-6 (OT)

This Week:

Friday, Dec. 8 at Manchester (12-7-1-1, 26 pts), 7:00 pm

Saturday, Dec. 9 at Adirondack (11-8-1-1, 24 pts), 7:00 pm

Sunday, Dec. 10 at Manchester (12-7-1-1, 26 pts), 3:00 pm

Quick Hits:

A pair of wins in Jacksonville gave the Admirals their first weekend sweep of the season. Each of the Admirals last three games have gone past regulation, with the Norfolk winning each game. Darik Angeli netted a career high four points (2g, 2a) in Saturday’s victory.  When away from Scope Arena, Norfolk has the league's best power play unit (29.

Week Ahead:

Norfolk continues a five-game road trip this weekend with a three-in-three. A pair of games against North division leading Manchester are sandwiched around a game against Adirondack on Saturday. The meetings with Manchester will be the fourth and fifth meetings of the season between the teams, while it will only be the second time that the Admirals have faced the Thunder this season.

Overtime Fun:

Each of the Admirals last three games have gone past regulation and into the extra period. Thursday night was the first time this season that the Admirals had ventured into a shootout, and they only needed one shot to make it count. Grant Besse scored on the Admirals first shootout attempt of the season. Brodie Dupont was stopped, however a trio of saves from Ty Reichenbach ended the shootout.

Norfolk has won four of five games that have gone past regulation so far this season, with the lone loss coming to the Atlanta Gladiators. Ten different ECHL teams have notched three overtime victories already this season, with the Admirals being one. Colorado leads all teams with four overtime victories.

Tale of Two Power Plays:

After going three-for-five on the power play Saturday night the Admirals now have the best road power play in the ECHL. This season the Admirals have converted on 12-of-41 (29.3%) power play chances away from home. Over the two game weekend the Admirals converted on exactly 50% of the power plays they were awarded.

At home the power play has been a different story for the Admirals. Norfolk ranks 26th on the man-advantage at home (9.4%).  On five different occasions the Admirals have scored multiple power play goals, however, only one of those five games have come at home.  Grant Besse (4) and Brodie Dupont (3) lead the Admirals in power play goals this season.

Big Night:

Forward Darik Angeli had a career night in the Admirals 7-6 OT victory on Saturday night. Four points (2g, 2a) including the game-winning goal, set a career high for the third-year pro. Prior to Saturday night Angeli had recorded a pair of three point games, but had never eclipsed that mark. The multi-point game was the Colorado natives second of the season, both coming with the Admirals. Saturday’s game winner was the third game-winning goal of Angeli’s career.

Comeback Kids:

The five straight goals scored by the Admirals on Saturday marked the largest comeback since the Admirals came back from down 5-1 to top Manchester 6-5 in a shootout on January 27.

After allowing three goals in the first four minutes of play the Admirals were behind until the final minutes of the game, never leading during regulation. Norfolk trailed 6-2 under half way through the middle period before scoring four straight goals to end regulation. The tying goal came off the stick of Max Cook with 3:27 to play in the third period. Darik Angeli capped off the comeback with 0:11 remaining in the overtime, giving Norfolk the 7-6 victory.