Admirals beat IceHogs, Afanasyev scores 2

MILWAUKEE - Egor Afanasyev tallied two goals and added an assist, and Marcus Nurmi dished out a pair of assists and added a goal as the Admirals outlasted the Rockford IceHogs 5-3 on Saturday night, Nov. 26 at Panther Arena.

The win was revenge for the Ads, who fell to the IceHogs on Friday night in Rockford to snap their four-game winning streak.

Cole Schneider and Roland McKeown also found the back of the net for Milwaukee, while Yaroslav Askarov stopped 23 shots in net to pick up his eighth win of the year.

Just like on Friday night the Admirals would jump out to an early lead as Afanasyev found the rebound of a Nurmi shot and slipped it shortside on Rockford goalie Jaxson Stauber just 2:19 into the game.

Captain Schneider made it 2-0 when his centering pass deflected off a Rockford defensemen at the 7:36 mark of the first and less than three minutes later McKeown pushed the lead to three courtesy of a seeing-eye shot from the right point that got by a screened Stauber.

However, Rockford countered with three goals of their own, including the first two by Dylan Sikura, to tie the game at three. Sikura scored his two goals less than 2:30 apart at the close of the first before David Gust fired a wrister from the right circle that beat Askarov glove side at 7:04 of the second.

The Nurmi to Afanasyev connection struck again to give the Ads the lead back 3:18 into the third period. Nurmi collected the puck below the goal line and found Afanasyev crashing through the slot. He faked a shot, drawing Stauber out of his net and slid all the way around to tuck it in for his second of the night.

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That same duo reversed roles to make it 5-3 Ads as Afanasyev found Nurmi in the slot and his wrister flew over the shoulder of Stauber.

The Admirals return home on Tuesday, November 29th at 7 pm when they play host the Texas Stars at Panther Arena before heading out on a season-long five-game roadtrip.