Admirals top Griffins, even up best of 5 Central Division Finals
MILWAUKEE - Yaroslav Askarov stopped 27 shots in goal and five different Admirals found the back of the net as they leveled the best-of-five Central Division Finals at a game apiece with a 5-2 victory over the Grand Rapids Griffins on Monday night, May 20 at Panther Arena.
Game three is set for Wednesday night at 6 pm back in Grand Rapids.
The win for the Admirals was their fourth in their past five contests and snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Griffins in the post-season. The last time the Ads had topped Grand Rapids in the playoffs was back on May 24th, 2006 in game four of the Western Conference Finals.
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Playing in his first game since May 4th, Askarov was sharp for Milwaukee, keeping Grand Rapids off the board until less than five minutes to go in the game and making 21 of his saves in second and third periods.
Zach L’Heureux (1g-1a), Jasper Weatherby (1g-a) and Joakim Kemell (2a) all posted multi-point nights for Milwaukee, who avoided dropping back-to-back home games for the first time since March 3rd and 6th.
Egor Afanasyev got the Admirals off to an early lead with his first goal of the post-season just 4:39 into the game when his shot from the left point got through traffic and past a screened Sebastian Cossa.
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Fedor Svechkov made it 2-0 with a power-play marker with 7:15 remaining in the first. Ozzy Wiesblatt had the puck behind the Grand Rapids net and fed it to Svechkov on the left dot and his quick, low shot beat Cossa stick-side for his third of the playoffs.
The Griffins had a prime opportunity to cut into the Ads lead late in the second with Roland McKeown in the box for tripping. However, it was the Admirals who took the opportunity and extended their lead to three courtesy of a shorthanded goal by L’Heureux, his AHL-leading seventh goal of the post-season.
Marc Del Gaizo made it 4-0 with his third of the playoffs just 3:27 into the final period.
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The Griffins didn’t go away easily and scored twice late to pull within a pair at 4-2, however former Griffin Jasper Weatherby sealed the game up for the Admirals with an empty-netter with 59 seconds to play in the game. It was the first post-season goal of his career.
The series now shifts to Grand Rapids for games three and four on Wednesday, May 22nd and Friday, May 24th, respectively. Game five, if necessary, would be back at Panther Arena on Sunday, May 26th at 5 pm.