Milwaukee, WI – Yaroslav Askarov stopped all 23 shots he faced and John Leonard scored the game’s lone goal as the Ads took a 1-0 win over Iowa on Wednesday morning in front of a sell-out crowd for a Baird-UW-Milwaukee School Day Game at Panther Arena.
The win snapped a brief three-game losing streak for the Admirals, who moved within a point of first place Texas in the Central Division. The Ads will head down to Austin this weekend for contests Friday and Saturday against the Stars.
The shutout for Askarov was his third of the season and gave him 20 wins on the year as well. He becomes the team’s first rookie netminder to crack the 20-win plateau since Juuse Saros in 2015-16.
The Admirals were buzzing early, registering the game’s first eight shots on goal, and grabbing a 1-0 lead on Leonard’s 11th goal of the season at 8:09 of the first. The play started when Michael McCarron drove hard to the net and put a shot on net that Jeasper Wallstedt stopped. However, Leonard was there to cram the puck past the Iowa goalie’s left pad.
That was all the offense the game would see as both team’s played a tight-checking affair that is not uncommon to see late in the regular season as team’s battle for playoff positioning.
The Admirals hit the road for a pair of games this weekend in Austin against the Stars beginning Friday night at 7 pm. The Ads next home game will be Tuesday, March 7, also against Iowa, at 7 pm at Panther Arena.
