NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- Teams often refer to road games or series as business trips. It's safe to say the Admirals took care of business during their latest venture away from Norfolk.
Jeff Carr's squad won the first two games of its ECHL North Division final in Adirondack, topping the Thunder in Game 1, 7-4, and coming back to claim victory in the second match-up, 5-2. Norfolk returns to the Scope needing two wins to punch its ticket to the Eastern Conference finals.
"We're happy to get those games, but that's a long time ago," Carr pointed out Monday. "We're nowhere near winning the four games right now. We've got to take it a day at a time and that's our plan right now."
"We know they're going to have their best game coming forward on Wednesday and we've just got to be ready for it," added forward Austen Keating.
The Admirals found themselves in close battles through two periods of each of the first two games of the series, but surged ahead and slammed the door in the final frame. Norfolk outscored the Thunder, 7-1, combined in the third periods of those meetings to help pull away.
The head coach says that, while his team found the back of the net to close things out, it all comes down to the other end of the ice.
"We talked about not trying to score in the third period," Carr noted. "That's been our recipe. We say just commit to defense because we think we have a team that can work and wrestle the puck out of 'D' zone and get it into the offensive zone, play a half-court game and we're fine."
"We work extremely hard in practice for our conditioning," said Keating. "I think we're able to wear teams out throughout the whole 60 minutes, so I think it's important that we just stick to it and continue our success."
After the wins Friday and Saturday, the Admirals took a 12-hour bus ride back to Hampton Roads Sunday. Many were on the ice during an optional workout Monday and the team will have a full practice Tuesday. It just shows that three days with no game does not necessarily mean rest.
"It's laughable to me that people keep talking about this rest," Carr said. "There's no rest. We're right back in the hopper. Our players are conditioned for this. This is exactly what we want."
Puck drops for Game 3 at the Scope on Wednesday at 7:05 PM. Game 4 is set for Friday and, with an Adirondack win in either of those contests, Game 5 would take place Saturday. Those contests would get underway at 7:05 PM at the Scope, as well.
