MILWAUKEE -- The Milwaukee Admirals fell to the Oklahoma City Barons 3-2, Friday night at the Bradley Center. The Ads could not capitalize on any of their 10 powerplay opportunities in the contest and now find themselves three points out of the eighth and final playoff spot.
The Admirals had early scoring chances in the first period against the Barons but could not capitalize. After Milwaukee could not capitalize on their scoring chances, Oklahoma City did not waste their scoring chance. Anton Lander controlled the puck on the boards, when he found teammate Antti Tyrvainen who fired a shot off the right post that deflected past Ads netminder Jeremy Smith and putting the Barons up 1-0.
The Barons added to their lead in the second period as Tanner House took a pass from Lander and controlled the puck to the high slot. Once in the high slot, House fired on a shot on Smith and beat him glove side extending their lead to 2-0.
Later in the second period, Milwaukee had a three on two, where Taylor Beck tried to beat Yann Danis with a backhand shot but Danis came up with a huge save to keep the Ads off the scoreboard. Less than a minute later the Admirals had another odd man rush, as they had a two on one but it ended with Danis making a save against Michael Latta and after two periods of play the Ads trailed 2-0.
With 23 seconds gone in the third period the Admirals cut the Barons lead in half. Mark Van Guilder found Kevin Henderson, who got behind Oklahoma City’s defenders, and beat Danis cutting the Barons lead to 2-1.
However, the Barons answered right back, pushing their lead back to two just 1:14 later as Tyler Pitlick scored on a rebound.
Milwaukee did not go away as the Admirals kept attacking. Captain Scott Ford fired a shot from the blue line that deflected off of Henderson and then off of Ryan Flynn and into the Oklahoma City net at the 12:29 mark, pulling the Ads to within one again at 3-2.
The Ads had more scoring opportunities later on in the third as the Barons were called for a four minute high sticking and a subsequent hooking penalty on OKC gave Milwaukee a full two minutes of 5-on-3 time. However, the Admirals were unable to solve Danis and came away from both the five-on-three and four-minute PP empty-handed.
Kevin Henderson paced the Admirals offense with two points (1g-1a), as the Ads outshot Oklahoma City 38-27 on the night.
The Admirals return to action on Sunday afternoon when they host the Rockford IceHogs at 3:00 pm at the Bradley Center.