Milwaukee’s season comes to an end
The Admirals fall 3-2 in five games to Stars.
The Milwaukee Admirals’ season came to a close on Sunday evening losing 3-2 in Game 5 against the Texas Stars, losing the series in same 3-2 fashion.
It was the third straight postseason that Milwaukee and Texas played in a Game 5 against each other.
Head coach Karl Taylor is now 16-5 in playoff elimination games with Milwaukee.
“Thought we were in good shape, we just couldn’t get that next goal tonight,” Taylor told play-by-play voice Aaron Sims. “It was empty nets and crossbars and opportunities, it was a very close game. I’m not saying we deserved it more than they did, the series was close, but we just couldn’t get that next goal when we had those opportunities early.”
Kieffer Bellows, a depth piece for Nashville this season, led Milwaukee with nine points this postseason.
Fedor Svechkov was second on the team with eight points and one series-clinching goal in the opening round against the Rockford IceHogs.
Milwaukee also saw Joakim Kemell and Ozzy Wiesblatt finish with eight points. Certainly, a couple of offensive pieces the Nashville Predators could use next season.
“It’s extremely disappointing that this group will never be together again, and that’s the reality of this hockey business,” Taylor said. “There’s probably 15 guys in there that are going to be somewhere else next year. That’s the hard part because everyone cares about each other.”
Milwaukee got after the Stars in the opening frame with quick offensive plays coming from the Admirals’ top line of Kemell, Svechkov, and Bellows. Kemell nearly found Bellows on a backhanded no-look pass for a goal in tight along the right post.
However, it was Stars captain Curtis McKenzie who found the back of the net first. D-man Jake Livingstone was caught off guard by a hard pass from Michael Karow that got to McKenzie for the tap-in goal.
Then the Admirals responded four minutes later on the power play, just their second goal on the man advantage this series.
Chase De Leo filled in for Svechkov in the slot and worked himself open to beat Remi Poirier in the goal crease. Stars defenseman Luke Krys dropped down to take away the pass, but Svechkov threaded a pass to De Leo to knot it up 1-1.
The Stars and Admirals traded more rushes and chances as the desperation level grew on both sides of the ice.
Then neither squad could capitalize on the powerplay after De Leo’s goal until Nashville’s young guns went back to work on a quick rush.
Svechkov beat Arttu Hyry on a faceoff, and Admirals D-man Tuner Ottenbreit picked up the loose puck. He looked up and saw Kemell open on the opposite blue line for an open pass.
In turn, Kemell saw Svechkov breaking up the right wing and fed him a pass, resulting in a breakaway. The Russian prospect sped in and beat Poirier on his blocker side, giving Milwaukee a 2-1 lead.
Texas fired back to start the third as Kevin Gravel and Ryan Ufko were out of position, leaving Matěj Blümel wide open. McKenzie saw Blümel along the left post and beat Murray to even it up 2-2.
“They had us on our heels a little bit. It doesn’t matter how old you are, you always learn from these moments and things you can do differently,” Captain Kevin Gravel said.
“I was out there for the tying goal, and I’m not thrilled with how I played that. That’s something I’ll look back on and watch and try to learn from that, things like that you could do differently when looking back at your season.”
Then, with 5:07 remaining in regulation, Justin Hryckowian cashed in a loose puck after Cameron Hughes tried to put home his initial chance in tight. Matt Murray sprawled to try and make the stop, but Texas went ahead 3-2.
Milwaukee had a late push, but the offense wasn’t able to force this one to another overtime to keep the season going.
Now, the entirety of the Nashville Predators organization is officially in offseason mode.
Follow Nick Kieser on Twitter/X:@KieserNick