NORFOLK, VA – Following Friday night’s loss to the Wheeling Nailers, the Norfolk Admirals had only themselves to blame. Saturday night, the Admirals turned that self-anger into a rallying cry.
The Norfolk Scope is once again home to ECHL hockey (photo by John and Jeremy Ramey)
Four different Norfolk players scored goals and goalie Ty Rimmer bounced back with a 38-save performance as the Admirals turned away the Nailers by a score of 4-2 in front of an announced crowd of 3,503 at the Norfolk Scope. The victory was Norfolk’s first since returning to the ECHL.
Eager to atone for the previous game, the Admirals came out with pure fire in their eyes. Less than two-and-a-half minutes into the game, Marc-Olivier Roy challenged Wheeling’s Sahir Gill to a fight. That was quickly followed by a disagreement between Norfolk’s Jonathan Lessard and Nailers’ tough guy Patrick McGrath that ended in matching minor penalties. By the time Norfolk’s Michael Pelech and Wheeling’s Clark Seymour squared off, just 6:14 of playing time had elapsed and the fans had spent much of that time on their feet.
The rough play seemed to inspire the Admirals (1-1-0-0) as they went on to light the goal light three times in the opening period. Josh Currie and Maxime Legault did the work, setting up Greg Chase for Norfolk’s first goal of the game and the season at the 7:12 mark.
The hits and excitement continued, leading up to when a Wheeling penalty lead to a man-advantage score for the host Admirals. Mathieu Brisbois did the honors, beating Wheeling netminder Brian Foster 11:55 into the frame off assists from Alexis Loiseau and Charles-Olivier Roussel. Pelech brought the crowd to its feet with a shorthanded breakaway goal three minutes to expand the lead to 3-0.
The punctuation to the big Norfolk period came late when tough guy Gabriel Verpaelst labeled Wheeling’s Anton Zlobin with a heavy hit. Zlobin was injured on the play and left the game. By the time the period ended, the teams had combined for 14 penalties and 20 shots on net (11-9 in favor of the Admirals) to go along with a 3-0 lead for the home team.
The fans at the Scope expected more of the same from the Admirals in the second but what they saw looked very familiar. Much like its had done the night before, Wheeling dominated the middle frame, pounding Rimmer with 19 shots while Norfolk could only muster five. Had it not been for Rimmer’s play, the fans were envisioning a replay of Friday.
The Nailers finally got on the board 5:50 into the final period when Derek Army set up Jarrett Burton to trim the Norfolk lead to 3-1. When Burton scored his second of the frame off of assists from Riley Brace and Brett Stern 12:04 in on a power play, the Admirals fans began to get very nervous.
When Wheeling was given back-to-back man advantages (including a brief overlap that created a two-man power play), the Admirals looked done for but Rimmer again saved the day. A boarding penalty to the Nailers’ Shane Bakker nullified the end of the second power play and forced the visitors to pull goalie Brian Foster just to get to even strength. With Foster on the bench, Legault scored a power play goal into the empty Wheeling net to seal the win for Norfolk.
For the game, Wheeling outshot Norfolk 40-24 but Rimmer when he had to down the stretch to pick up the win. The Admirals will set sail for sunny Florida where they will face the Florida Everblades on Wednesday before heading to Orlando for a pair of games on Thursday and Saturday against the Solar Bears.
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