On Saturday night, The Milwaukee Admirals defeated the Grand Rapids Griffins 7-3 in their season opener. The Admirals scored seven goals by six different players.
Cole Schneider, scored the first two goals in the first period. In addition, Tommy Novak added a trio of assists.
Egor Afanasyev made his North American professional debut with the Admirals, after spending the last season in the Kontinental Hockey League. He picked up two assists in the first period.
The Admirals announced Schneider as the team captain for the season, making him the 16th captain in Admirals AHL history. Admirals Head Coach Karl Taylor expressed his pleasure with the team’s performance, especially from Schneider.
“He’s the captain for a reason,” said Taylor. “Our whole team played great, but he got the two goals out of the gate.”
It’s been 584 days since the Milwaukee Admirals took the ice. Fans were excited to be back, as a crowd of 7,243 filled the stadium. They opened their season at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena for the first time since the team returned to playing there in 2016.
“The fans brought a lot of energy tonight even when we got down,” said Schneider. “There was definitely some momentum from them.”
The Admirals sported a league-best 41-14-5-3 record in the 2019-2020 season before the season was suspended and later cancelled because of the pandemic. The Admirals opted out of the shortened 2020-2021 season, with most of the players competing with the Chicago Wolves and Texas Stars.
Devin Cooley was the winning goalie in net for the Admirals with 20 saves on 23 shots. In contrast, Victor Brattstrom was the losing goalie for the Griffins with 24 saves on 30 shots.
Cooley wasn’t expected to be the starting goalie for the opener, but Connor Ingram was called up to Nashville Saturday morning to replace David Rittich (COVID-19) on the NHL roster.
Matt Donovan was called for a cross-checking penalty two minutes into the first period. The Griffins took advantage of the power play, scoring first on a goal by Joe Veleno in the first period.
However, the Admirals quickly answered back, with a goal by Cole Schneider, assisted by Egor Afanasyev and Tommy Novak. Just 18 seconds later, Schneider added a second goal assisted by Novak and Afanasyev.
The Admirals added a third goal in the period on the power play, scored by Matt Luff and assisted by Novak and Jeremy Davies.
The Griffens had a chance to answer late in the first period, as they were in a 5-on-3 for 13 seconds and were on the power play for almost four minutes. However, the Admirals had their first successful penalty kill, after both teams scored on their first power play opportunity. At the end of the first period, the Admirals had 14 shots on goal to the Griffens five.
The Admirals continued their momentum from the first period, opening up the second period with a goal by Zach Solow assisted by Matt Donovan and David Farrance. The Admirals score was 5-1 after two periods. They scored five unanswered goals before Veleno added his second goal for the Griffins in the third period.
The Admirals capped off the scoring with an empty-netter by Anthony Richard late in the third period. The team showed grit and determination, responding with goals of their own each time after they allowed a goal.
“We gave up the first one and we bounced back right away which is huge,” said Schneider. “We played two really great periods of hockey.”
Although they had a dominant win, Taylor says there are still many aspects to improve on.
“We have some bullets in the gun we can work with and a little bit of ammo to have some video sessions,” said Taylor. “Win or lose we’d still be doing the same thing, analyzing the trends and help our guys get better.”
Despite the win, Schneider criticized his teams’ penalty kill.
“We got to clean up our power play a little bit,” said Schneider. “We gave up four or five breakaways on the power play alone.”
The Admirals will take on the Chicago Wolves in a two-game series on back-to-back nights next weekend. They will host at the Panther Arena Friday night while traveling to Chicago on Saturday.