Admirals drop game 1 in OT to Griffins, 4-3

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Freddy Gaudreau tallied two goals and added an assist, but it wasn't enough for the Admirals as they fell 4-3 in overtime to the Grand Rapids Griffins on Friday night at Van Andel Arena in game one of the Calder Cup Playoffs.

The Griffins Tomas Nosek scored the game-winner at 9:32 of OT on a low-angle shot from just above the Milwaukee goal line in the Ads first overtime game since April 26, 2011.

Gaudreau got the Ads on the board with a power-play goal 12:08 into the game. With Milwaukee on their second PP of the game, Trevor Smith won the draw back to Alex Carrier, who swung the puck over to Gaudreau and he hammered a one-timer for a 1-0 lead.

The Griffins responded a pair of goals just 13 seconds apart to take a 2-1 lead. The first was a power-play marker Matt Ford with 2:37 to go in the opening frame, followed shortly thereafter by a Evgeny Svechnikov tally.

However, Milwaukee had a response of their own as Petter Granberg took a feed from Gaudreau in the high slot and fired a wrister that beat Jared Coreau to tie the game at two with 1:16 to play in the first.

Gaudreau struck again in the second period, scoring the frame's lone tally. With the Ads on the penalty-kill, Gaudreau perfectly read a Griffins pass at the blue line, intercepted it, and went off on a breakaway, beating Coreau top shelf for a 3-2 lead.

The Griffins forced overtime when Matt Lorito scored on a rebound with 9:15 to play in the final period.

Game 2 will be back at the Van on Sunday afternoon at 3 pm CT. The series then shifts to Milwaukee for game three on Wednesday, April 26 at 7 pm at Panther Arena, and, if necessary, game four next Friday night at 7.

Tickets for the April 26th game are as low as just $8 and are now on sale by logging on to http://www.milwaukeeadmirals.com or by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Groups of 10 or more receive priority seating and discounts off the face value of the tickets. Fans interested in group tickets should call the Admirals office at (414) 227-0550.

In addition, ticket packages for the playoffs are currently available by visiting http://www.milwaukeeadmirals.com. The packages begin at just $120 and include the same seat for every game during the Admirals post-season run. If the team doesn’t play all of the games the excess money can either be refunded or applied to a season tickets for the 2017-18 season.

Don’t forget to follow the Admirals on Twitter (@mkeadmirals) and like them on Facebook.