Wishart, Ty

The Lightning have assembled a preliminary roster for the upcoming prospects camp July 10-14 at the St. Pete Times Forum. The following roster, courtesy of Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune, includes at least three goaltenders, 12 defensemen and 17 forwards. All 2010 draft choices will be participating.

Let me start by saying, the 2010 NHL Entry Draft afterglow really puts into focus just how amazing a job Jim Hammett and Darryl Plandowski did in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. To put it bluntly, they spoiled us. When you walk out of a draft with four guys who were probably among the top forty or fifty picks in the draft, it's exhilerating. But, not every year can be like 2009 or even like the 2006 draft when the Lightning used their first four picks on four pretty solidly touted prospects.

By the time the Lightning got to their second pick at sixty-third overall, the large majority of the quality known talent was off the board. That's the difference between a draft where you have three top sixty picks and another where you have just one, I suppose. So, the Lightning were going off the beaten path for much of day two to try to find potential NHLers and fill organizational needs. As a consequence, the quality of this draft class isn't going to be as immediately apparent, and right now it feels like the draft will live and die on the shoulders, or hips, of Brett Connolly.

Hope lives in Norfolk.

WBS-0
NOR-1

Dustin Tokarski shut out the Penguins on 29 shots for the win. It was his 4th shutout of this rookie campaign. Heading into the final two games of the regular season, he has a 26-24-3-3 record on the year with a 2.46 GAA and a nice .917 sv%.

First Period
NOR Parrish, (17) (Wishart, Szczechura), 13:47 (PP)

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
NO SCORING

Tokarski and Mark Parrish were the game's first and second stars.

Ty Wishart returned from injury after missing the recent road trip, and chipped in a helper for his 32nd point of the season. It was just in a nick of time.

The victory temporarily puts Norfolk back in the playoffs. They are one point back of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for 3rd in the East Division, they are two points behind Lowell, which is 4th in the Atlantic Division, and they're tied in points with Bridgeport, which is 5th in the Atlantic Division. Norfolk would get in on the tiebreaker for having more regulation wins. That's the good news. The bad news is that all three teams hold a game in hand on the Admirals, so Norfolk still doesn't control its own destiny.

With the win tonight, Norfolk moved it's overall record to 38-34-3-3 with 2 games left to play, meaning the Admirals have clinched a winning record for the season. They finish up with a pair of games against Hershey at The Scope this weekend. At a minimum, they'll probably need at least 2 points out of those games to advance to the playoffs. Getting all 4 points would not mathematically guarantee the playoffs, but the odds would be in Norfolk's favor.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton finishes up with Albany and then with back-to-back games against Binghamton. 2 of those 3 games are at home for the Penguins. The Pens have lost 2 games in a row.

Lowell has Bridgeport and Providence at home and the Portland Pirates on the road. Lowell won their last game but are 3-5-0-2 in their last 10.

Bridgeport may have the toughest schedule of the three clubs. They have Lowell on the road and then home games against Manchester and Hartford. Manchester has won 7 straight games since I declared them the bubble team likely to fall off. Shows what I know. Bridgeport has lost 2 games in a row.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

It's a pretty bitter pill to swallow.

WBS-3
NOR-0

Dustin Tokarski allowed 3 goals on 34 shots for the loss. He deserved better. He played a brilliant first period and definitely gave the Admirals a chance to win the game. Other than the Pens' third goal, he has nothing to be ashamed about.

First Period
NO SCORING

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
WBS Conner, (20) (Wagner), 9:56 (SH)
WBS Johnson, (16) (Letestu), 15:46
WBS Lovejoy, (9) , 17:49 (PP)

Tokarski was named the game's third star. Norfolk actually played a pretty strong defensive game for 55 minutes and only came unglued after the shorthanded goal by Chris Conner. I thought Ty Wishart and Scott Jackson's pair was particularly strong, especially when compared to the last game against the Penguins.

Blair Jones may have a tough, sleepless night. He had a wide open chance in the slot on Thiessen that he missed by inches on the stick side when the game was 0-0 in the third that could have significantly altered the impact of the game. He later was involved in a vicious fight with Zach Sill in which both sides took some pretty big haymakers.

The damage in the standings is ugly. In fact, it's the nightmare scenario. 2nd place Albany thumped Adirondack 6-2, extending their lead on the Admirals back to 8 points, with Norfolk now holding 2 games in hand. Wilke-Barre/Scranton leapfrogged 1 point ahead of Norfolk into 3rd in the East Division, meaning the Admirals are now in peril from the crossover rule. Over in the Atlantic, Manchester defeated Lowell, so now the 3rd place Monarchs are 3 points up on Norfolk with a game in hand and the 4th place Devils are 2 points up on Norfolk. Even worse, 5th place Bridgeport moved into a tie with the Devils by beating Syracuse 5-2, so if the playoffs started right now, Norfolk would be out and Bridgeport would cross over into the East Division to play division champ Hershey.

Needless to say, Friday's game against the Pens is the most critical game of the year. With 8 games remaining this season, the Admirals can't afford to fall 3 points behind the Pens with the Pens holding a game in hand and feel good about their chances to get the 3rd seed in the division and avoid the crossover.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

And now things get really tight in the playoff race.

NOR-1
WBS-2

Dustin Tokarski allowed just 2 goals on 25 shots, but his first period softie allowed to Jesse Boulerice ended up being the margin of defeat.

First Period
WBS Boulerice, (4) (Conner, Lee), 4:23
WBS Johnson, (13) (Haddad, Wagner), 13:19 (PP)

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
NOR Fornataro, (9) (Wishart, Fadden), 15:22

It was a beautiful stickhandling play by Matt Fornataro that helped pull the Admirals to within one goal late in the game. Defenseman Ty Wishart got his 31st point of the season on the play, but he should be chastized along with Vladimir Mihalik for some very soft play along the wall in the defensive zone, especially in the first period. The soft goal, the soft play along the wall, and a disgustingly bad 0-for-8 power play doomed the Admirals in this one. That, and Mitch Fritz losing his mind at the end of the second period, including the ever-classy crotch chop to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton crowd, drawing a double minor and game misconduct that killed off about a quarter of the third period for a Pens team that only held on by one goal.

On the bright side, the two pro debuts went pretty well tonight. Carter Ashton almost had a beautiful goal chipping the puck between two defenders and showing surprising burst to split them and get himself a breakaway. He got in too tight on the backhand, though, and couldn't lift the puck to notch the goal. He had another chance a few minutes later when he spun out in front from behind the net on his backhand. Had he been a little more patient, he could've taken another half stride and maybe stuck it in far post. Richard Panik had one good chance from the slot, but the defining play for him was a downright nasty check he threw coming back into the Admirals zone. Downright nasty. In case you didn't know, he's strong as a bull.

Norfolk's lead over the Pens is down to 1 point with the Pens holding 1 game in hand. Uh oh. Norfolk has 11 games left to play in the season: 3 on the road and 8 at home. Norfolk draws Adirondack at Scope on Friday.

Box score from TheAHL.com.