Admirals tame wild in shoot-out

MILWAUKEE -- Troy Grosenick stopped 29 shots in regulation and overtime and all three Iowa shooters while Justin Kirkland connected on his shoot-out attempt as the Admirals took a 3-2 shoot-out win over the Iowa Wild on Wednesday night at Panther Arena.

The win was the second straight for Milwaukee and put them back into first place in the Central Division with 25 points on an 11-6-3 record.

After former Admiral Mike Liambas opened the scoring for Iowa, Milwaukee scored the first goal in three games against Wild goalie Kappo Kahkonen courtesy of Tanner Jeannot with 5:33 to play in the first. The play began when Freddy Allard sent a pass to Jeannot and his first shot was stopped by Kahkonen, but Jeannot followed shot and roofed it for his third goal of the season.

Admirals defenseman Matt Donovan gave Milwaukee a 2-1 lead later in the opening frame when he fired a canon from the right circle that snuck its way through traffic for a power-play marker with 2:08 to go.

Another former Admiral, this time Cal O’Reilly, scored what would be the last goal of the game at the 5:48 mark of the second to tie it.

After plenty of back-and-forth action but no goals in the third period and overtime the game went into a shootout. From there Grosenick was stellar turning aside attempts from Sam Anas Gerry Fitzgerald, and Matt Read, while Kirkland connected on his attempt, carrying over the success he had last year when he went an AHL-best 9-for-11.

The Admirals hit the road to visit Grand Rapids on Friday night at 6 pm CT before returning home on Saturday night to battle the Rockford IceHogs at 6 pm at Panther Arena in team’s Hockey Fights Cancer Night.

Fans can purchase tickets by calling the Admirals office at (414) 227-0550, or online at www.milwaukeeadmirals.com.