The Milwaukee Admirals completed a reverse sweep in the best-of-five game series against the Rockford IceHogs on Sunday, May 11. Milwaukee won 4-3 in overtime to clinch their spot in the Central Division finals.
Both teams took a calmer physical approach to the match. In total, the game saw 10 penalty minutes, significantly down from the 80 minutes in game three and 36 minutes in game four.
Rockford’s Aidan Thompson earned a penalty shot early in the first period. His shot attempt on Milwaukee’s goaltender Matthew Murray was unsuccessful.
Ten seconds later, Milwaukee’s Chase De Leo scored the first goal of the game, his first in the playoffs in three seasons. Joakim Kemell and Jake Lucchini earned assists for De Leo’s goal.
Halfway through the first period, Rockford’s Nolan Allan was sent to the penalty box with a double minor for high-sticking. The Admirals struggled to maintain power in the offensive zone, failing to record a shot on goal during the four-minute power play. Rockford outshot Milwaukee 15-5 in the first period.
Rockford’s Zach Sanford evened the score at 4:25 of the second period with a goal from Brett Seney and Joey Anderson. Sanford scored a power-play goal less than three minutes later off a shot from Cole Guttman and Gerry Mayhew.
The IceHogs maintained a 2-1 lead before Milwaukee’s Fedor Svechkov earned an unassisted goal at 12:06 of the second period. Jesse Ylonen scored at 18:54 to move the Admirals back in the lead. Marc Del Gaizo and Cal O’Reilly earned the assists on Ylonen’s goal.
Milwaukee’s Grigori Denisenko earned a penalty at 5:10 of the third period. Rockford was unsuccessful in securing a goal on their second power play of the evening. However, Rockford’s Anderson evened the score just shy of 2 minutes after the power play expired. Ethan Del Mastro and Sanford earned the assists.
Within the last nine minutes of regulation play, Milwaukee recorded 12 shots on goal. To compare, Rockford recorded 3 shots on goal in the same time frame. Neither the Admirals nor the IceHogs could find the back of the net to secure the win in regulation. The series ended the way it began: a deterministic overtime period.
Milwaukee’s win in overtime stemmed from a penalty to Sanford for delay of game at 22 seconds into the overtime period. Milwaukee recorded three shots on goal before Svechkov shot the game-winning overtime power-play goal. Ozzy Weisblatt and Del Gaizo earned the assist on the goal.
“It’s the best feeling,” Svechkov said when asked about his game-winning goal. He mentioned celebrating the victory by playing his PlayStation copy of NHL 25.
After Milwaukee’s win in game five, the Admirals are 15-4 in elimination games under Coach Karl Taylor. “There’s things we can get better at and fix,” Taylor said looking ahead to the next series. “Now, we’ve got to get some rest and enjoy the win.”
Taylor credited Rockford’s strength and determination throughout the Central Division semifinal series. “They’re not a fifth-place team,” he said, “they’re as good as us. They stared us down. It was a very equal game, and we were fortunate to get the win.”
The Milwaukee Admirals advance to the Central Division Finals, where they will face off against the second-seeded Texas Stars. During the 2024-2025 regular season, the Admirals and the Stars battled in eight games. Each team won four of the eight. In the playoffs, the teams have met four times. In the two most recent playoff meetings between the teams, Milwaukee was victorious in decisive game fives.
The Central Division finals series begins Thursday, May 15, at H-E-B Center in Cedar Park, Texas. Game two will be on Sunday, May 18, in Texas. The Admirals return home to the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena for up to three games beginning Wednesday, May 21.