Milwaukee, WI—The Milwaukee Admirals busted out of a 1-for-18 power-play slump with three goals on the man-advantage, but they couldn’t hold a late lead and fell to the Rockford IceHogs 4-3 in a shoot-out Saturday night at the Bradley Center in the Admirals home opener.

The IceHogs took a 1-0 lead in the first period on Bryan Bickell’s first goal of the season at the 8:13 mark of the period. Cal O’Reilly evened the score at one with his first goal of the season at 15:56 of the first. With the Admirals on the power-play O’Reilly attempted to center the puck from the corner and it deflected off Rockford defenseman Cam Barker and into the net.

Rockford took another one-goal lead when Barker fired a shot through traffic that beat Admirals goalie Drew MacIntrye at the 6:50 mark of the second. The Ads had the equalizer in them again, this time in the form of Antti Pihlstrom’s third marker of the season during a five-on-three power play at 18:33 of the second.

Milwaukee defenseman Cody Franson would give the Admirals their first lead in three games when he blasted a slap-shot past IceHogs goalie Antti Niemi at the 8:22 mark of the third. After successfully killing off almost two full minutes of a Rockford two-man advantage later in the third, it appeared that the Ads were headed to their second win of the year. However a hooking penalty to Richard Dietrich with 1:12 left in the game allowed the IceHogs a 6-on-4 advantage and Petri Kontiola made the Admirals pay when he notched the tying goal with just 16 seconds to go.

After a scoreless overtime session, the Admirals got off on the right foot in the shoot-out when Mike Santorelli was able to beat Miemi. But that was the lone conversion for the Ads in the shoot-out, while Kontiola and Pascal Pelletier each scored on their attempts for Rockford and the IceHogs came away with the win.

Both O’Reilly and Pihlstrom posted a goal and an assist on the night to pace the Admirals offense, while MacIntryre made 20 saves, but suffered the shoot-out loss.

The Admirals travel to Cleveland on Wednesday for their first ever match-up with the Lake Erie Monsters before returning to the Bradley Center for games next Friday and Saturday night. To purchase tickets fans can call Ticketmaster at (414) 276-4545 or go online at www.milwaukeeadmirals.com. Group of ten or more people receive a minimum of $2 off the regular price ticket. Fans looking for group tickets can call the Admirals office at (414) 227-0550.