Milwaukee, WI—Jordan Gross broke a 3-3 tie with a power-play goal early in the third period and Zach Sanford tallied a pair of goals as the Admirals took down the Tucson Roadrunners 5-3 on Saturday night at Panther Arena.
With the game tied at three entering the third, the Admirals went on the power-play and that’s when Gross fired a one-timer from one step inside the blueline that made it through traffic and past Tucson netminder Tyler Parks.
The Ads held that lead the rest of the way before Sanford sealed the contest with his second goal of the night with 12 seconds remaining in the game.
The win stopped a brief two-game skid for the Ads and improved their record to 33-19-3-2 and 71 points on the season. Yaroslav Askarov stopped 32 shots in net to earn the win, his 21st of the season.
After being held to two goals on Friday night, the Admirals busted out for three in a 2:05 span in the middle of the first period. Kevin Gravel got things started at the 10:46 mark of the opening stanza when he seeing-eye shot made it through traffic and past a screened Parks for his second of the season.
Exactly 70 seconds later Austin Rueschhoff picked up his second goal with the Ads since being acquired via trade less than two weeks ago. Tye Felhaber chipped the puck into the Tucson zone and it was collected by Anthony Angello, who immediately sent a backhand towards the goal mouth where Rueschoff was there to deflect it up into the corner of the goal.
Sanford finished the flurry with his 10th goal of the year at the 12:51 mark of the first with a deflection of his own off an Isaac Ratcliffe pass to the slot.
However, the Roadrunners battled back and scored three of their own in the second period. Milos Kelemen picked up his 14th of the year at 12:35 of the second and that was followed by two from Colin Theisen at 13:47 and 16:01 to knot the score at three, setting the stage for Gross in the third period.
The Admirals are off for the next six days before continuing their five-game homestand on Friday, March 17th at 7 pm against the Chicago Wolves
