Milwaukee, WI- Fueled by multi-point games from Anders Bjork, Spencer Stastney and Ondrej Pavel, the Admirals defeated the Grand Rapids Griffins 4-3 on Saturday night at Panther Arena to complete a two-game weekend sweep of the Central Division leaders.
Bjork tallied a goal and dished out two assists for his first three-point game as an Admirals. while Pavel scored his third goal of the season and earned an apple and Stastney dished out two helpers and now shows five points (5a) in his past three games.
The Griffins scored two goals within about four minutes of each other to take an early lead in the first period. The first goal came when Griffins’ winger Gabriel Seger pounced on a rebound and beat Admirals goaltender Magnus Chrona with 12:33 left in the period for their first goal in four games. The second tally came from Carter Mazur, who was set up for a one-on-one opportunity, putting the Griffins ahead 2-0.
The Admirals struck on the power play with 4:17 left in the first period when Spencer Stasney broke down the Griffins’ defense and passed to Anders Bjork, whose shot beat Griffins goaltender Ville Husso. The goal gave Bjork his fourth of the season and cut the Griffins’ lead to 2-1.
Milwaukee opened up the scoring in the second period with a goal from Pavel after a wonderful entry pass from Kieffer Bellows to tie it up at two with six minutes left in the period. This was Pavel’s 3rd goal of the season and Bellows 12th assist of the season
In the third period, the Admirals gained the lead with huge goals from Ryan Ufko and Jake Lucchini. Ufko’s 4th goal of the season came from a pass from Anders Bjork in the Griffin’s zone and he ripped a one-timer at 8:29 of the final stanza. Less than two minutes later, Lucchini took the puck coast to coast and scored the one-on-one past Husso for his 12th goal of the season
The Griffins’ pulled back within one after winger Joe Snivley camped in the front of the Admirals crease and took his chance on a rebound. This made the score 4-3 with 3:57 left in the third period.
However, that was all Grand Rapids would manage as the Ads took home the victory. The back-to-back wins this improve the Ads record to 23-15-3-4 on the season and 53 points, pulling them within one of the Griffins
Chrona made 23 saves to pick up his ninth win of the year for Milwaukee.
The Admirals are back in action on Tuesday, February 11th at the Rockford IceHogs at 7 pm.
