Admirals lose to Moose, face playoff elimination
(Courtesy: Milwaukee Admirals)
MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Admirals find themselves on the brink of elimination as they dropped their second straight OT contest in a 3-2 defeat to the Manitoba Moose on Wednesday night at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
Wyatt Bonjiovanni’s power-play goal from the left circle 4:53 provided the winner for the Moose, who take a 2-1 series advantage with Game 4 set for Friday night.
Luke Evangelista and Kevin Gravel scored the goals for the Admirals, while Yaroslav Askarov stopped 27 shots in net for the team.
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The Moose got on the board first as Alex Limoges skated alone in on Askarov and lifted a backhand past his outstretched pad just 2:49 into the game.
Evangelista tied things up at on at the 16:06 mark of the first. The play started when Zach Sanford grabbed the puck off boards and fed Kiefer Sherwood at the middle of the Moose blueline. Sherwood took a shot that Evangelista deflected over the shoulder of Moose goalie Oskari Salminen.
Manitoba got the lead back when Jeff Malott found the puck in a scrum and pushed it past Askarov at 9:57 of the second.
Once again the Admirals battled back to tie the score, this time off the stick of new father Kevin Gravel at 6:10 of the third period. After a scrum in front of the Manitoba net, the puck was pushed by Anthony Angello over to Joakim Kemell, who chipped it over to Gravel in the slot. Gravel paused for a moment before firing the puck by Salminen, setting the stage for overtime.
The Admirals look to keep their season alive when they host game four on Friday night, May 5 at 7 p.m.