Milwaukee dropped a critical game five at home and now must win out their final two games against Coachella Valley to get to the Calder Cup Finals.
Milwaukee dropped a critical game five at home and now must win out their final two games against Coachella Valley to get to the Calder Cup Finals.
The first twenty minutes of Saturday night's game between the Coachella Valley Firebirds and the Milwaukee Admirals couldn't have gone much better for the home team. Playing in front of a rowdy home crowd at UWM Panther Arena, the Admirals took a 1-0 lead, a score that didn't highlight the disparity between how the two teams performed in the opening period. Just halfway through the period, the Admirals recorded ten shots on goal to the Firebirds' two. Coachella Valley committed three penalties in the first - including a double minor for a high stick, and the Admirals' Kiefer Sherwood cashed in on one of the mistakes with a power play goal at 12:03. Heading into the first intermission, it seemed the Admirals had this game in hand.
Unfortunately, hockey is a sixty minute game.
The Firebirds made some key adjustments coming out for the second period and evened the score up at 1:22 with a glove side high goal by Brogan Rafferty. Coachella Valley dominated puck possession in the second much the same way the Admirals had in the first period. Devin Cooley came up with some big saves for Milwaukee, but Max McCormick gave the Firebirds the lead with a goal at 16:43 from the slot.
Milwaukee committed two early penalties in the third period, but the penalty kill kept Coachella Valley from capitalizing and increasing their lead. Still, the Firebirds dominated the final period, and despite Milwaukee's efforts, the Firebirds took game five by a score of 2-1.
The series returns to California where the Firebirds have a strong home ice record from their regular season.
Puck drop for game six is scheduled for 9:00 pm CST Monday evening.
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