Admirals battle back from early deficit to beat Texas Stars 7-2

MILWAUKEE -- Pontus Aberg, Justin Florek, and Vladislav Kamenev each score a pair of goals as the Admirals battled back from an early deficit to defeat the Texas Stars 7-2 on Sunday afternoon, April 2nd at Panther Arena.

Aberg's first tally was his 30th of the season, making him just the fourth player in the Admirals AHL history (2001) to score 30 or more goals in the season. His second of the night tied him for the league lead in red-lighters, something no Admiral has done since joining the AHL.

Texas opened the scoring 4:18 into the game when Mark McNeill took advantage of a bad bounce off the end boards and was alone in front of the Milwaukee net and lifted a backhand over the shoulder of Marek Mazanec.

Matej Stransky tallied his team-leading 24th goal of the season to put the Stars up 2-0 just 6:41 into the game.

But Kamenev scored the next two goals to level the game at two. The first happened while the Ads were on a delayed penalty. The Russian forward held the puck in the high slot and faked a slapper before sending a wrist shot through traffic and into the Texas net.

Just under five minutes later Kamenev struck again with the wrister, this time beating Maxime Legace far to the stick side from the top of the right circle with just over seven minutes to play in the opening stanza.

The second period turned into the Aberg period as the Ads star tallied two goals and added a dazzling assist to turn a tie game into a 5-2 Milwaukee lead.

The Stockholm, Sweden native got things going with #30 via a power-play marker 1:41 into the frame.

Just under 90 seconds later Aberg set up Justin Kirkland for a tap-in on a beautiful move.

Carrying the puck into the Texas zone Aberg drove hard to the net and looked like he might shoot. As the Stars defense converged he spun 180 degrees and then sent no-look back-hand to a wide open Kirkland and a 4-2 Milwaukee lead.

Finally with just 6.7 seconds to play in the period Aberg scored a shortie, bouncing the puck off of Legace's pad to give the Ads a three-goal advantage going into the final frame.

In the third, Florek scored both of his goals just 1:24 apart, his 11th and 12th of the year, and Milwaukee was up 7-2.

Marek Mazanec, who tied the team AHL record with his 161st appearance, earned his 25th win of the season.

The Admirals are off until next Friday night, April 7th when they play host to the Rockford IceHogs at 7:00 p.m. at Panther Arena.