Admirals Weekly: January 8, 2018

Last Week:

Wednesday, Jan. 3 vs. Wheeling, OTW, 3-2

Sunday, Jan. 7 at Greenville, W, 5-2

This Week:

Tuesday, Jan. 9 at South Carolina, 7:05 pm

Wednesday, Jan. 10 at Atlanta, 7:05 pm

Friday, Jan. 12 at Wheeling, 7:00 pm

Saturday, Jan. 13 at Wheeling, 7:00 pm

Quick Hits:

Norfolk heads into a four-game week having picked up a point in seven straight games. The Admirals play each of the next four games all on the road.  Christian Horn became the fourth different player to net a hat trick this season, with his three-goal game against Wheeling on Wednesday night. Heading into the week Norfolk eight points out of the fourth and final playoff spot in the South, with four games in hand on Orlando.

Week Ahead:

The Admirals make their first trips to Charleston, South Carolina, and Atlanta, while wrapping up the season series with the Wheeling Nailers on Friday and Saturday. Both South Carolina and Atlanta both sit in front of the Admirals in the South Division standings.

Norfolk hasn’t faced the Stingrays since South Carolina came to the Scope to help the Admirals open the home portion of the 2017-18 season. South Carolina swept both games of the weekend series topping Norfolk 5-4, and 5-2. Norfolk also squares off with the Gladiators for the second time this season, and the first since a five-player deal in November. Atlanta took the only previous matchup in overtime on Nov. 8.

The season series with Wheeling wraps up as the teams play back-to-back games in Wheeling Friday and Saturday. Each team has won two of the first four matchups so far this season.

Twice as Nice:

Domenic Alberga became the fourth Admiral in as many games to score at least two goals, with a pair on Sunday night against Greenville. Dating back to the December 29 overtime loss to Jacksonville when Chase Harrison scored a pair of goals, Alberga joins Harrison, Angeli, and Christian Horn as players to have scored twice in the stretch. The forward is also the 11th player to net a multi-goal game for the Admirals this season.

Hat’s Off (Again):

Christian Horn became the fourth Admiral to net a hat trick this season when the forward tallied a trio on Wednesday night against Wheeling. The hat trick also gave the Admirals hat tricks in back-to-back games. The four total hat tricks by the Admirals ties the amount of hat tricks that the Admirals had scored in the previous two seasons combined. Horn joins Trevor Mingoia, Brady Vail, and Darik Angeli as the players to score a hat trick this season for the Admirals.

In each of the previous two seasons the Admirals had only had two hat tricks in each year.

Streaking to Seven:

Sunday’s victory over Greenville gave the Admirals a point in each of their last seven games. Over that stretch the Admirals have posted a record of 5-0-1-1, with the only losses coming via shootout and overtime at the hands of the Jacksonville Icemen. The current seven game streak is the Admirals longest since rejoining the ECHL two seasons ago. Previously the longest streak came from January 4-16 of last season when Norfolk won six straight games. The final win of that streak came over Atlanta before it was snapped against Wheeling on January 20.

All-Star:

Forward Grant Besse was named as the Admirals representative for the ECHL All-Star Classic last week. The rookie, recently returned to the team from Tucson (AHL), had 27 points in his first 28 games prior to signing a PTO with Tucson.

The All-Star Classic is a three-on-three tournament style format pitting each division against each other. It will take place on January 15, 2018 in Indianapolis.