Kathryn Sears
Admirals’ Cal O’Reilly on his time with Milwaukee, fans.
He played his first pro game as an Admiral in 2005 at 19. A thousand games later, Cal O’Reilly reflects on his experience with the franchise and fans.
Fedor Svechkov’s rebound, overtime, power-play goal sent the Milwaukee Admirals to the American Hockey League Central Division finals.
Just as they did in their first series last season, the Admirals completed a reverse sweep, winning the best-of-five series after losing the first two games, this time with a 4-3 victory over the Rockford IceHogs on May 11 at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
Svechkov scored the winner at 1:38 of overtime with a backhander from close range after Drew Commesso had denied Marc Del Gaizo and then Ozzie Weisblatt. Svechkov also had a goal in the second period.
The 22-year-old center returned to the Admirals for the playoffs after making his NHL debut and skating in 52 games with the Nashville Predators, the Admirals’ parent club.
Chase DeLeo and Jesse Ylonen also scored for the Admirals, and Del Gaizo had a pair of assists. Matt Murray finished with 28 saves.
Former Admiral Zach Sanford had two goals and an assist, but also was the Rockford player in the box serving a delay-of-game penalty when Svechkov scored.
The Admirals open their series with the Texas Stars on the road May 14 and 18 and then would play the final three games at home. The Admirals edged the Stars for the regular-season division title, and the teams split eight games with each team winning three on the road and one at home. Milwaukee also eliminated Texas from the playoffs last season with a three-game comeback in the division semifinals.
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