While we wait for the Predators/Ducks series to resume Sunday evening in Nashville, the Milwaukee Admirals continue their first-round playoff series against the Texas Stars tonight at the Bradley Center. After Chris Mueller’s and Gabriel Bourque’s dominating performance (for more on that, check out Admirals Roundtable) in Game 1, a 5-2 win for the Ads, they’ll want to maintain their home-ice advantage before the series shifts to Texas on Tuesday.
We’ll want to keep an eye on this series going forward, because it’s entirely possible that we could see an Admiral called up at some point during the Predators’ playoff run. For weeks now, the Preds have gone with just 6 defensemen on the active roster, so if an injury or suspension were to occur, they’d need to call up a blueliner.
For more on tonight’s game, follow after the jump for a press release from the Admirals…
The Milwaukee Admirals look to maintain the momentum they built Thursday night as they host the Texas Stars in game two of the West Division Semifinals on Saturday at 7:00 pm at the Bradley Center. In spite of winning just one out of six games against the Stars in the regular season, the Admirals took a 5-2 victory in game one of the best-of-seven series.
The Admirals only mustered seven goals in those six games against the Stars and nearly equaled that total in one game Thursday night racking up five goals, led by Gabriel Bourque and Chris Mueller with two goals a piece, and nine points between them. Bourque also chipped in three helpers to tie an Admirals franchise playoff record for points in a game with five, originally set by Libor Pivko back on May 7, 2004 against the Chicago Wolves.
Milwaukee netminder Jeremy Smith made his Calder Cup Playoff debut last night and turned in a stellar performance making 22 saves to earn the win. The Admirals were caught in a five-on-three disadvantage mid-way through the second period and Smith rattled off some spectacular penalty killing saves to help keep the Ads in the lead.
Texas and Milwaukee came into this series as the two lowest penalized teams in the AHL, and that held true last night as the Stars were only whistled once while the Ads were caught four times. However, Milwaukee capitalized on their lone power play chance when Mueller converted late into the first period off of assists from Bourque and Aaron Johnson. To keep momentum going the Ads can not take power play opportunities for granted, as they are few and far between against Texas.
Game two of this showdown commences Saturday at 7 pm. Games three, four and five (if necessary) will take place in Texas, while games six and seven are penciled in on home ice for the Admirals on April 25 and 26. Tickets are on sale for Saturday’s contest and prices for the playoffs have been reduced from regular season prices. Fans can purchase individual tickets by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 or logging on to milwaukeeadmirals.com, while fans looking for playoff packages, group tickets or more information should call the Admirals office at (414) 227-0550. Don’t forget to follow the Admirals on Twitter (@mkeadmirals) and on Facebook!