Admirals beat Firebirds, Western Conference Finals tied
(Courtesy: Milwaukee Admirals)
MILWAUKEE - The Admirals scored a pair of power-play goals and added a shorthanded tally as well as they defeated the Coachella Valley Firebirds 5-2 in game four of the Western Conference Finals to level the best-of-seven series at two games apiece.
Game three is set for Saturday night at 6 pm at Panther Arena.
Phil Tomasino and Egor Afanasyev each potted a goal and an assist, while Mark Jankowski dished out a pair of helpers to guide the offense, while Isaac Ratcliffe, Michael McCarron, and Joakim Kemell also found the back of the net for the Ads.
Devin Cooley made 30 saves in goal for his second consecutive win for the Ads.
The Admirals power-play finished the night 2-for-3 on the man-advantage, while the team’s penalty kill was a perfect 5-for-5 to bring their series total to 14-for-15.
Like they have in he previous three games in the series, Coachella grabbed the first goal when Joey Schuldt’s shot from the right point got passed a screened Devin Cooley at the 5:13 mark.
Exactly half-way though the first Tomasino leveled the score at one with his second of the series. His shot from just above the hashmarks deflected off Coachella’s Cameron Hughes, popped up in the air and landed behind Firebirds goalie Joey Daccord and into their net.
Just 1:04 into the second period Ratcliffe gave the Ads a 2-1 lead with a power-play tally as he crashed to the net and deflected the pass from Afanasyev past Daccord for his third of the playoffs.
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However, less than a minute later Coachella leveled the scored Eddie Wittchow’s third goal of the playoffs with assists from Jesper Froden and Andrew Poturalski.
Kemell’s team-leading eighth of the season put the Ads back up at 11:25 of the sandwich frame. He finished off a pretty passing play on the PP that went from Luke Evangelista on the right dot to Mark Jankowski on the goal line to Kiefer Sherwood in the slot and finally over to Kemell on the left hashmark and his remarkable shot would not be denied.
Just 17 seconds into the third period McCarron scored the Ads first shorthanded tally of the playoffs to make the score 4-2. McCarron and Jankowski came into the Coachella zone two-on-one, Jankowski held the puck to freeze Daccord before dishing to McCarron and his backhand beat the Coachella goalie shortside.
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Afanasyev finished the scoring for the Admirals in what would be described as an unusual goal. With Daccord pulled in favor of an extra attacker, Afanasyev carried the puck into the neutral zone and was tripped up from behind without anyone between him and the goal, resulting in the Ads being awarded a goal to bring the final score to 5-2.