Admirals cannot overcome Wild, lose 4-2
MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Ruslan Fedotenko scored two goals to lead the Iowa Wild to 4-2 win over the Admirals Saturday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
The loss was the third straight for Milwaukee, who now find themselves in a three-way tie for first place in the Midwest Division with Rockford and Grand Rapids.
It was a defensive battle during the first period between the Admirals and the Wild with neither team scoring in the opening frame.
The Wild broke the scoreless tie at 3:09 in the 2nd when Brady Brassart snuck through the Admirals zone and received a pass in front of the goal from Kurtis Gabriel. Brassart fired one past Marek Mazanec just outside the crease to give Iowa a 1-0 lead.
Iowa extended its lead on a two-man advantage at 9:17 in the second when Zack Mitchell caught Tyler Graovac cutting through Milwaukee's defense. Graovac then fired a shot that beat Mazanec to give Iowa a 2-0 lead.
The Ads were finally able to cut into Iowa's lead at 3:46 into the third period when Kevin Fiala made a spectacular pass through Iowa's zone to feed Viktor Arvidsson. Arvdisson fired a wrister past Johan Gustafsson to score his 17th goal of the year and cut the deficit in half at 2-1.
However, Iowa answered right back and extended their lead to 3-1 with 13:38 left to play when Fedotenko zipped one past Mazanec for his first goal of the season.
Milwaukee once again cut into Iowa's lead when the Wild turned the puck over in the Admirals zone and set up a 3-on-1 for the Ads. Colton Sissons passed it to Viktor Stalberg who was just outside the crease and then fired a pass just inside the red dot to Kevin Fiala who was able fire a shot past Gustafsson with five minutes to play which made the score at 3-2.
Unfortunately for Milwaukee that was as close as they would get as Fedotenko posted an empty-netter with 41 seconds to play to put the game away.
The Admirals will host their next home game on Friday February 27th at 7 pm vs the Grand Rapid Griffins at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.