Palm Desert, CA— Ozzy Wiesblatt scored the Admirals lone goal as they dropped a 3-1 decision to the Coachella Valley Firebirds on Friday night in game two of the Western Conference Finals.
The Ads now trail in the best-of-seven series 2-0 with game three set for Tuesday night in Milwaukee.
Milwaukee is no stranger to this deficit, however, as they trailed Texas 0-2 in the division semifinals before winning the next three on home ice to clinch the series against the Stars.
Coachella got on the board just 28 seconds into the game when Andrew Poturalski collected the rebound of a Gustav Olofsson shot and roofed it over the shoulder of Ads netminder Troy Grosenick and then made it 2-0 with a power-play marker by Ryker Evans at the 15:06 mark of the first period.
Wiesblatt halved the Firebirds lead with his second of the post-season at 5:28 of the second. The play started when Ryan Ufko intercepted a Coachella pass in the neutral zone and headmanned it to Fedor Svechkov, who led a rush into the zone. Svechkov sent a cross-ice pass over to Wiesblatt at the top of the left circle and his one-timer beat Chris Driedger stick-side.
However, Coachella got that goal back later when Cole Lind snuck backdoor and scored just under four minutes to play in the sandwich frame.
That was all the scoring for the remainder of the game as the Admirals would fire 10 shots on goal in the third period, but Driedger stopped them all.
The series now shifts to Milwaukee for the next three where the Admirals are 5-1 in the playoffs after posting the best home record in the conference during the regular season.
