Barberio, Mark

The Admirals get to Jason Wiemer, and oddly their journey didn't take them to The Hideaway.

BNG-1
NOR-3

Jaroslav Janus allowed 1 goal on 28 shots for the victory. His 21 wins is tied for 12th in the league, as he continues his push to try to give Norfolk two goaltenders in the top-10 in the AHL in victories.

First Period
NOR Barberio, (13) (Oberg, Johnson), 18:15

Second Period
BNG Downing, (9) (Dziurzynski, Hamilton), 16:34

Third Period
NOR Johnson, (30) (Gudas, Jackson), 2:51
NOR Smith, (23) (Segal, Cote), 16:46

Tyler Johnson, Janus, and Jean-Phillipe Cote were the game's three stars. Johnson becomes the second Admiral to hit 30 goals.

Mark Barberio hit 60 points for the season with his goal tonight. Soak that in for a moment.

24 consecutive victories for the Admirals, and this one happens to clinch the AHL equivalent of the President's Trophy. The club will have home ice throughout the playoffs for as long as they survive. With 4 games left to go in the regular season, the only question left on a team level is who their fiirst round opponent will be, and as of this moment, it would be the Manchester Monarchs. The rest boils down to personal goals. Specifically, will Richard Panik get to 20 goals.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

Brian Bellows, for the Eastern Conference top seed win!

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NOR-2

Dustin Tokarski allowed 1 goal on 26 shots for his 30th victory of the season, which leads the league. It's his 11th straight win, personally, and he raised his save percentage to .912 with his effort tonight. He's trying to track down his personal best as a pro, his .915 save percentage from his rookie campaign.

First Period
NOR Ouellet, (15) (Panik, Barberio), 8:09 (PP)

Second Period
WBS Lerg, (25) (Grant), 14:23

Third Period
NOR Barberio, (12) (Johnson), 12:23 (PP)

Mark Barberio, Tokarski, and Michel Ouellet were the game's three stars. Barberio continues to lead the league's defensemen in scoring by a wide margin of 13 points, and he's now 1 point shy of the 60 point plateau for the year. It's hard to imagine any scenario where he doesn't win hardware as the league's top defenseman.

Panik attack, y'all.

There will be two banners raised in Norfolk in the Fall. The victory, the Admrials' 50th of the season, puts away the Eastern Conference top seed (bring on the "z"), and they now have the opportunity to zero in on clinching the top spot in the entire league. They have a 10 point lead on Oklahoma City with the Barons still with 6 games left to play, so the magic number is 2 for the AHL equivalent of the President's Trophy, as the Barons can't catch Norfolk in ROW. The Barons are currently in action, leading Hamilton, but if they stumble, then Norfolk will clinch that distinction tonight, as well. Norfolk has just 5 games remaining in the regular season. They draw Binghamton on Friday and Saturday.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

Video game-like.

NOR-6
BRI-3

Jaroslav Janus started his third game in three nights and stopped 27 of 30 for his 7th consecutive victory.

First Period
NOR Smith, (22) , 15:00

Second Period
BRI Frischmon, (8) , 1:17 (SH)
NOR Barberio, (10) (Conacher, Johnson), 17:16 (PP)
NOR Panik, (14) (Smith, Johnson), 19:28 (PP)

Third Period
BRI Mouillierat, (7) (Riley, Oleksy), 7:50
BRI McNeely, (7) (Sinkewich, Rakhshani), 11:14
NOR Barberio, (11) (Johnson, Ouellet), 13:12 (PP)
NOR Panik, (15) (Labrie), 15:52
NOR Johnson, (24) (Panik, Ouellet), 17:32 (PP)

Mark Barberio, Tyler Johnson, and Richard Panik were the game's three stars.

Barberio's 2 goals moved him to 11 on the season, which is 2 better than his rookie campaign last year. He holds an 11 point advantage on St. John's defenseman Paul Postma for the league lead in scorers amongst blueliners.

Tyler Johnson has moved into 3rd amongst all AHL rookies in scoring, 3 points back of Gustav Nyqvist of Grand Rapids and 16 points back of teammate Cory Conacher.

Panik is enjoying the month of March so far with 3 goals and 8 points in 5 games. Today's Panik attack was his first 3-point game of his career.

Wednesday night in Norfolk becomes a big game for two reasons now. It was always going to be a big game with the rival Pens in town lurking 8 points back with a game in hand. But, now, it becomes even bigger with the Admirals' ridiculous, video game-like winning streak hitting 15 with a chance to run to 16. If the Admirals pull of the win against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, they hop a bus to Charlotte on Friday with the opportunity to tie the all-time AHL record for consecutive victories at 17. If they pull that off, the rematch is in Charlotte at 3 pm on Sunday, with a chance to make history. It will not be easy. The Pens currently are the 4 seed in the Eastern Conference and the Checkers are the 3 seed in the West. But, at least its not another 3 games in 3 nights marathon like this weekend was.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

11.

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NOR-5

Dustin Tokarski allowed 2 goals on 21 shots for his 26th victory of the season. He's now 1 back of his career high of 27 wins. He remains locked in mortal combat with Ben Bishop of Binghamton, who also has 26 wins.

First Period
NOR Ouellet, (12) (Kostka, Devos), 12:13 (PP)

Second Period
NOR Angelidis, (13) (Picard, Ouellet), 4:15
NOR Ouellet, (13) (Panik, Johnson), 12:48 (PP)
NOR Picard, (4) (Gudas, Jackson), 18:33

Third Period
SPR Calvert, (12) (Joudrey), 12:26
SPR MacLeod, (6) (St. Pierre, Regner), 17:14 (PP)
NOR Devos, (5) (Neilson, Barberio), 18:52 (PP)

Michel Ouellet (pictured circa back-in-the-day), Alexandre Picard, and Mike Angelidis were the game's three stars.

Mark Barberio hit 50 points for the season with a late power play assist. He holds a 9 point edge on Brian Connolly of Abbotsford for the league lead amongst blueliners. With 33 points, Mike Kostka lurks in a tie for 5th in points in that category.

Jon Cooper just broke TheAHL.com. Evidently, they only show 10 game winning streaks on the website, as the standings are currently not properly registering the Admirals unbelievable 11 game streak. They've opened up an 8 point lead in the division on the idle Penguins and a 12 point lead on the idle Bears. Resetting their sights higher, they've also opened up a 6 point lead on St. John's for the conference's top spot, although St. John's has 5 games in hand. Nonetheless, they need to give Cooper the hardware.

P.S. Panik attack, y'all!

Norfolk finishes their week against Springfield tomorrow night. The normal warning about beating the same team on back-to-back nights when you paste them pretty good on the first night applies.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

The Admirals tie a winning streak record from the heady days of Head Coach Jim Johnson. 8 straight wins for Norfolk, even as the Lightning call up several of their players.

NOR-4
HER-3

Jaroslav Janus stopped 25 of 28 shots he faced for the victory. From the, "no way that can be right," file: Janus (pictured) is 3-0-1 against Hershey this season. Bear in mind Hershey is the second highest scoring team in the AHL behind just Norfolk. And, yet, they tremble before the might and power of Jaroslav Janus between the pipes.

First Period
NOR Barberio, (8) (Dimmen, Conacher), 2:21
NOR Ouellet, (11) (Picard, Kostka), 15:58 (PP)
HER Pope, (5) (Mink, Carman), 17:07

Second Period
HER Bourque, (25) (Eakin, Mink), 0:16 (PP)
NOR Segal, (15) (Ouellet, Picard), 1:29
HER Greentree, (4) (Potulny, Bourque), 13:19 (PP)
NOR Segal, (16) (Barberio, Panik), 16:35 (PP)

Third Period
NO SCORING

Brandon Segal and Mark Barberio were the game's first and second stars. Hershey did a good job tying the game at 2-2 and 3-3, but in the end, Segal made sure they were Marked for Death.

After assisting on Segal's game winning goal, prospect Richard Panik took a rather nasty slash to the leg by Kyle Greentree that sent him to the dressing room. Panik attacked, y'all? Expect that issue to be cleaned up Wednesday when the Ads play the Bears for the last time this season.

Defenseman Evan Oberg was a healthy scratch and may be on his way to join the Lightning after Victor Hedman's injury earlier this afternoon. One thing we know, this is a man who will not pull a Nikita Alexeev and miss his flight, if that's the case.

Tonight went as well as possible for the Admirals, as they not only opened up a 6 point lead on the Bears, but with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins losing to Syracuse tonight, they also have moved 2 points ahead of the Penguins to claim uncontested hold of the top spot in the division. They've also tied St. John's for the most points in the Eastern Conference, although the Ice Caps hold 3 games in hand on the Admirals.

Norfolk draws the Pens at the Mohegan Sun Slot Machine Gamble-plex tomorrow, with the opportunity to open up a 4 point lead on the Pens and an 8 point lead on the idle Bears. With a name like the Mohegan Sun Slot Machine Gamble-plex, you know the Admirals will be looking for the pay window.

Box score at TheAHL.com.