NORFOLK, Va – The Norfolk Admirals scored three goals in a span of 68 seconds in the third period Friday night at the Norfolk Scope, to break open a 2-2 game and score a 5-2 victory over the Connecticut Whale.
The loss kept the Whale five points behind the first-place Manchester Monarchs, who lost 3-0 in Providence, in the Atlantic Division, and the Portland Pirates, who beat Springfield at home, 4-1, moved into a second-place tie with the Whale.
The Admirals, who improved to 19-9-6-2 for 46 points on the year, outshot the Whale 19-7 in the decisive third period, in which they got goals from Mike Vernace, Mike Angelidis and Chris Durno.
Norfolk dominated play throughout the period but were held at bay by Whale goaltender Chad Johnson (35 saves) until Vernace scored at 11:22. The goal came immediately off of a faceoff win by Blair Jones, who beat Tim Kennedy on a draw and got the puck to the center point to Vernace, who beat Johnson high.
Twenty-three seconds later, at 11:45, Angelidis drove to the net and jammed in a centering pass from Jones out of the right-wing corner. Durno, the Norfolk captain, then completed the quick burst at 12:30, when he gunned a drive from the right-wing circle past Johnson after Marc-Antoine Pouliot fed the puck across the slot.
The Whale were outshot by a total of 40-26 in the game, and found themselves behind on the first shift, as Johan Harju, the Admirals’ leading goal-scorer, got his 15th of the year just 17 seconds after the opening faceoff.
After a pinch by Connecticut defenseman Tomas Kundratek failed to get the puck deep on the right-wing boards, the Admirals broke three-on-two, and Harju was able to get behind Kundratek’s partner, Pavel Valentenko, and snapped a shot past Johnson’s stick side.
The Whale took over a lot of the play shortly after that and, after several glittering saves by Norfolk goaltender Cedrick Desjardins, were able to even the score at 8:45, on a goal by Brodie Dupont.
The Admirals’ Pierre-Cedric Labrie attempted to pass across the slot in his own zone and Dupont intercepted. After Desjardins stopped Dupont’s first shot, Kelsey Tessier worked the rebound back to Dupont in the slot, and his backhand shot eluded Desjardins (24 saves), who was seeing his first action since a callup to parent club Tampa Bay that saw him win both of his first two career NHL appearances.
The Whale built a 14-3 shots advantage at one point, but Desjardins yielded nothing else, and the Admirals got the final seven shots of the session.
The two teams also traded goals in a second period that saw Norfolk outshoot the Whale 11-5.
James Wright put the Admirals back on top at the 10:06 mark, after good work deep in the offensive zone with linemates Matt Fornataro and Paul Szczechura. Fornataro dug the puck out behind the net and played it to Wright at the left-wing faceoff dot. Wright fired a high shot into the net behind Johnson, through an effective screen by Szczechura.
The Whale got that one back at the 15-minute mark, though, on the second goal in four Whale games for Jason Williams. Todd White pushed the puck down the left-wing wall to Williams near the corner. Williams moved toward the slot and tried to center to Chad Kolarik, but the puck deflected off of Admiral defenseman Scott Jackson and squeaked between Desjardins and the goalpost to his right.
The loss was the Whale’s second in three games, but only their third regulation defeat in the last 19 outings (13-3-0-3). The Whale and Admirals get together again at Scope on Saturday night at 7:15 PM, and Norfolk has won the first two games of the season series by a combined score of 10-3, having beaten the Wolf Pack 5-1 in the first meeting October 20 in Hartford. The five goals-against came one game after the Whale and Johnson had shut out the Worcester Sharks, 2-0, in Worcester Wednesday night.
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