Admirals earn key win over IceHogs

MILWAUKEE -- The Admirals picked up goals from four different players and Troy Grosenick stopped 22 shots in net as they grabbed a 4-2 victory over the Rockford IceHogs on Friday night at Panther Arena.

The win moved Milwaukee within three points of the Hogs for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Central Division with 10 games to play in the regular season. The two teams will meet in four of those, including tomorrow night in Rockford.

It took the IceHogs just 36 seconds to grab a 1-0 lead when Dennis Gilbert jumped on the loose rebound of a Andreas Martinsen shot.

Milwaukee responded quickly, tying the game at one on Colin Blackwell’s 10th tally of the season just 1:12 later. With the Admirals on the power-play Alex Carrier fired a shot from the blueline and Blackwell deflected it past Rockford goalie Anton Forsberg to knot the game at one.

Joe Pendenza gave the Ads a 2-1 lead at the 6:04 mark of the first when he skated the puck off the right half-wall and went five-hole on Forsberg for his fourth of the season.

The lead went up to two goals with just over five minutes to play in the opening stanza. Ads Captain Jarred Tinordi swooped in from the left wing to the goal mouth where he was denied by Forsberg. However Phil Di Giuseppe was right there on the doorstep to knock it in for his second goal in as many games and a 3-1 advantage.

There was no scoring by either team in the second period, but the Admirals did manage to kill off a double-minor high-sticking penalty on Laurent Dauphin resulting in four minutes of PP time for the IceHogs.

Rockford pulled within one at 6:27 of the third on a Victor Ejdsell goal, but just the Ads responded and just over a minute later Anthony Richard got the lead back to two with his 20th of the season. The play begin with a backhand by Dauphin that hit Forsberg in the pad and pounced out to a crashing Richard, who chipped a backhand into the IceHogs net.

Grosenick and the Admirals defense held firm the rest of the way shutting the door on the IceHogs as Milwaukee extended their point streak to four games.

The Ads and Hogs get right back at it tomorrow night when they play the middle of three consecutive contests at 6 pm at the BMO Harris Bank Center in Rockford. Milwaukee doesn’t return home until Wednesday, April 3 when they host the San Antonio Rampage at 7 pm.