Winnipeg, MB— Cal O’Reilly scored two goals and added an assist to lead the Milwaukee Admirals to a 5-1 win over the Manitoba Moose Friday at Canada Life Centre.
The Admirals have won three straight and now trail first-place Texas by four points. The Ads record is 13-8-1-0 and 8-4-1-0 on the road.
O’Reilly’s three points gives him 263 as an Admiral. He’s 13 points behind Darren Haydar (276) for the most points with Milwaukee since the team joined the American Hockey League in 2001-02.
The Admirals scored the only goal in the first period, although they had many opportunities to score more. The Moose allowed six power play attempts to the Ads in the first frame, including two chances with a 5-on-3 advantage. Milwaukee was able to score one on a 5-on-3 power play. While Mark Jankowski and Denis Gurianov battled with the Moose defenders on the left wing boards in the Manitoba zone, Fedor Svechkov was left undefended in the slot. Gurianov fed him a pass and Svechkov slapped a one-timer past Moose goalie Collin Delia at 15:35. It was Svechkov’s seventh goal of the season and his third on the power play.
The Admirals outshot the Moose 20-9 in the first period.
Milwaukee built its lead to 3-0 early in the second frame. O’Reilly scored his third goal of the season at 2:37. Anthony Angello fed a backhanded pass from behind the Moose goal to O’Reilly in the left circle. O’Reilly lifted the puck past Delia’s glove to give the Ads a two-goal cushion.
The Admirals made it 3-0 at 6:37 with a 4-on-4 goal scored by Joakim Kemell. Fedor Svechkov was able to win a face-off and dish the puck to Kemell who skated to the high slot and wristed a shot past Delia for his sixth tally of the year.
Manitoba got on the board at 8:23 of the second frame with a shorthanded goal by Wyatt Bongiovanni. A penalty to the Admirals Gurianov had ended just seconds prior to the Moose goal. It was the first shorthanded goal scored against Milwaukee this season.
O’Reilly scored his second of the game at 5:52 of the third period with a shot from the slot. Roland McKeown and Marc Del Gaizo picked up the assists.
Due to an injury in the first period to Liam Foudy, Del Gaizo played forward in the waning minutes of the third period. It led to his first goal of the season at 15:13 of the third stanza. Kemell’s shot from the left circle was stopped but Del Gaizo crashed the net and smacked the rebound into the goal. Kemell and O’Reilly garnered the helpers.
Admirals goalie Yaroslav Askarov won his second straight start, stopping 30 shots for the win.
The Admirals four-game road trip concludes Sun., Dec. 17 at Manitoba. Milwaukee returns home to host the Wild Wed., Dec. 20 at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
