Admirals fall in OT to Grand Rapids, 4-3

MILWAUKEE -- The Admirals battled back from an early three-goal deficit to force overtime and earn a point in the standings as they fell to the Grand Rapids Griffins 4-3 on Saturday night at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.

With the point Milwaukee now owns a five-game point streak, but they saw their four-game winning streak come to an end.

It was a tough first period for the Admirals as they found themselves in a 3-0 hole after 20 minutes. Grand Rapids picked up unassisted goals from Colin Campbell and Louis-Marc Aubry and a power-play marker by Mitch Callahan all in a 4:34 time span.

The Ads didn't quite, however, and tallied a pair of goals in the second to pull within one. The first came off the red-hot stick of Matt White, who deflected a Kevin Fiala shot past Griffins goalie Eddie Pasquale for his team best sixth goal of the season.

Hulking defenseman Adam Pardy show he can handle the puck when he dangled through a pair of Griffins defensemen and fired a wrister from the right dot just 31 seconds after White's tally. It was Pardy's second goal of the year and Fiala also earned an assist on it.

After a pair of failed power-play chances in the third it looked like the Ads would suffer their first regulation loss since October 29. However Adam Pardy found a loose puck in front of the Grand Rapids goal and poked it past Pasquale to level the score at three with 1:14 to play and eventually force OT.

Overtime is where Milwaukee saw their luck run out as Joe Hicketts scored his first goal of the year with 3:11 to play to give the Griffins the win.

Milwaukee finishes up a season-long five game homestand by hosting the Charlotte Checkers on Tuesday night at 7 pm at Panther Arena.