Admirals fall 4-2 in Game 1 to Stars
Milwaukee had a quiet night offensively to kickoff the Central Division Finals.
Nashville’s prospects were held off the score sheet on Thursday night as the Milwaukee Admirals fell 4-2 in Game 1 of the Central Division Final to the Texas Stars.
The last time Milwaukee won its first game in a playoff series was on May 12, 2023.
Veteran Cal O’Reilly and D-man Mark Friedman scored the lone goals, which were their first ones, respectively, of the postseason.
“Yeah, we lost. Let’s get ready for Sunday,” head coach Karl Taylor told play-by-play voice Aaron Sims.
Former Nashville goalie Magnus Hellberg (2011-15) made 23 saves en route to extending the Stars’ win streak to four this postseason. He didn’t see the same formidable offense that Milwaukee showcased to complete the reverse sweep in the opening round.
Taylor saw his squad allow a goal late in the opening frame, and the rest was history.
“You can’t give up that late goal,” Taylor said. “It’s a terrible play by us. We win the faceoff, it just can’t happen, that’s inexcusable. We didn’t have a plan to be together on the ice, and that can’t happen.”
Taylor thought Thursday night’s effort was better than the first two postseason games against Rockford. Except it’ll be missed assignments like that when Milwaukee can hurt themselves down the lineup.
Milwaukee was on its toes early as Texas capitalized on a defensive error behind goalie Matt Murray. Defenseman Mark Friedman was caught up with Harrison Scott as the two were fighting for possession of a loose puck.
However, the puck kept going, and Ondrej Pavel was jostled enough to block Murray’s view of the puck. Matthew Seminoff tucked it home, and Taylor’s challenge failed on the play, which came back to bite Milwaukee later on a missed offside call that put the game away.
O’Reilly knotted the game up a few minutes later after Friedman’s shot caromed off the back wall and came right to him.
Then Texas went back up by one on their late goal following a defensive gaffe from Grigori Denisenko before the first period came to a close.
From then on, the Admirals’ best threats were quiet the rest of the night.
Fedor Svechkov failed to generate a shot on net throughout the contest while his linemates Kieffer Bellows and Ozzy Wiesblatt combined for six shots.
Texas executed better at minimizing the Admirals’ ability to make the simple plays matter down the stretch. It was more stopping and starting than Milwaukee likes to play in order to establish their offense.
Wiesblatt made a responsible choice to quickly kick it over to Svechkov, but he lost the puck. It’s a simple play, but once Texas found the pockets to be aggressive, they took advantage.
From the (0:20) mark, the Admirals were desperate and broke the puck out well. It’ll be plays like that moving forward, where if Milwaukee adjusts to executing on the fly, more plays ought to fall their way.
Game 2 is set for Sunday at 7 p.m. at the H-E-B Center down in Cedar Park, Texas.
Follow Nick Kieser on Twitter/X:@KieserNick