GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Playing in his first game in North America, Milwaukee Admirals forward Patrick Cehlin scored two third period goals to help the Ads to a 3-2 come-from-behind win over the Grand Rapids Griffins on Friday night in the season opener.
The win was also the first game behind the Milwaukee bench for Dean Evason. He became the third straight new Admirals coach to pick up a win in his premier game.
The Griffins got on the board first with a power-play tally at 9:49 of the first period. Joakim Andersson grabbed the rebound of a Tomas Tatar shot and slid it past Ads netminder Jeremy Smith.
Grand Rapids made it 2-0 with a short-handed goal by Landon Ferraro, who picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone with a full head of steam, bore in on Smith, before deeking once and going high-glove side at 15:31 of the second.
The Admirals cut the Griffins lead in half with just 43 seconds left in the second when Mattias Ekholm floated a pass behind the Grand Rapids defense to Chris Mueller, who picked it up and scored on a breakaway for his 70th career goal. Smith was also credited with an assist on the play.
Milwaukee tied the score just 3:28 into the third period on Patrick Cehlin’s rebound goal. Michael Latta dropped the puck back to the right point for Jon Blum, who fired a shot that Jordan Pearce stopped with his leg pad. However, the puck went right to Cehlin and he had a wide open net.
Cehlin scored the game-winner from almost the exact same spot he scored his first one and with an equally wide open net. With Milwaukee on a power-play Taylor Beck held the puck on the half wall and drew Pearce out of the net just are enough to fire a cross-ice pass to Cehlin, who tapped it in.
The Admirals kick off the home portion of the schedule on Friday, October 19th at 7:00 pm at the BMO Harris Bradley Center against the Charlotte Checkers.