Milwaukee, WI–The Admirals regained sole possession of first place in the Central Division with a 2-1 win over the Rockford IceHogs on Sunday afternoon in front of a sold-out Panther Arena.
Matt Murray ended the day as the number one star of the game, tallying 29 saves to top the 20-win mark for the first time in his career. Jake Lucchini and Jake Livingstone were responsible for the two Admiral goals.
The win improved the Ads record to 31-19-4-6 on the season, good for 72 points which is one up on second place Texas and two over third-place Grand Rapids.
Looking to rebound from a loss to Hartford the night before, the Ads kicked the game off strong at just under four minutes in off the powerplay. Cal O’Reilly, who just celebrated his 1200th professional game, slid the puck from the red line to Ryan Ufko who sent it to the net with a wrist shot, leading Lucchini to get his stick on the puck and redirect it past Rockford Goalie Drew Commesso.
The lead was extended in the closing seconds of the first period when Ryder Rolston called the attention of Icehog defenders toward the left circle with a powerful shot, leaving Livingstone with a wide open net off the rebound.
Rockford found their footing at 6:34 in the second as Kevin Korchinski shot toward the net from the blue line, giving Aku Raty an opportunity to fake out Murray off the rebound, letting the puck slip by unnoticed.
However, that was the end of the scoring for both teams as Murray and the Ads defense held strong the rest of the way.
With $3 from every ticket going back to Children’s Wisconsin, the crowd in excess of 9,400 people raised over $28,000.
The Admirals will hit the road for the next three straight games, with the first stop being Wednesday night, in Lehigh Valley to face the Phantoms. The next home game is Tuesday, March 25th against Manitoba at 7 pm at Panther Arena.
