Admirals top Stars, lead Central Division Finals early
(Courtesy: Milwaukee Admirals)
MILWAUKEE - Yaroslav Askarov stopped 26 of the 27 shots he faced, and the Ads scored a pair of power-play goals as they won 2-1 over Texas in game one of the Central Division Finals.
Luke Evangelista tallied a goal and added an assist, while Joakim Kemell scored the game-winner early in the third period to pace the Ads offense. The win for Askarov was his third straight, and he has stopped 46 of 48 shots over the past two games.
Texas got on the board first with a wrister from left dot from Rhett Gardner at 6:30 of the first period.
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Milwaukee tied the score at one on a power-play maker from Evangelista with 3:36 to go in the opening frame. On their first man-advantage of the game, Ads Captain Cole Schneider gave a streaking Kiefer Sherwood a little touch base coming into the Texas zone. Sherwood slammed on the breaks and found a wide-open Evangelista, whose one-timer beat Stars goalie Matt Murray.
The Ads took their first lead of the night on another one-timer, this one off the stick of Kemell at 4:35 of the third. Texas had two players in the box, giving the Admirals a 5-on-3 advantage and worked the puck around before Jordan Gross fed Kemell just above the hash marks for his second of the playoffs.
From there, Askarov and the Admirals' defense held firm and withstood the Stars' offense, including 1:23 of 6-on-5 time at the end of the game when Murray was pulled in favor of an extra attacker.
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The Ads look to grab a two-game advantage tomorrow night when they face off in game two at 6 pm from Panther Arena.