AHL Western Conference Finals Game 3 PREVIEW/GAMETHREAD: Bringing the Desert to Milwaukee

The Need to Knows

• The Time: 5pm PT
• The Place: UW-Milwaukee Panthers Arena, Milwaukee, WI
• Place to Watch: AHLtv, Locally there is a watch party at the Spotlight showroom in Spotlight Casino
• Place to Listen: 106.9 The Eagle

Know Your Enemy

• Troy Grosenick, the Ads’ starter, will be once again in charge of the net.
• Zach L’Heureux is still here; he’s still the leading goalscorer of the AHL playoffs with 9 in 12 games. He’s also still the same kind of absolute headcase he’s been, so get ready for some fireworks!
• While otherwise a strong team; The Ads have been struggling hard with goalscoring, only having gotten 1 goal in each of the 2 games so far. Credit to Driedger there!
• Expect more absurd penalties, because once again; the Admirals are bad at hiding their rough stuff: Of the penalties called over the last couple of games, the overwhelming amount of them are crosschecks, roughing or elbowing…all to the Admirals.

Game Preview

Welcome to the hinterlands of sunny Milwaukee!

Expect a helluva fight.

The Firebirds are up 2-0 in this series on the backs of some exceptional work by Kole Lind, Andrew Poturalski, and John Hayden all having 2 point nights, as well as the stalwart Chris Driedger’s work through the first pair of games. They’ve largely lead the shot battle and have kept the Ads on their heels, leading to the feeling that this could be a much shorter series than expected…

Just don’t get used to it. Now the hard part kicks in.

Last year, the Firebirds absolutely spanked the Admirals at home to go up 2-0…only to go on the road and get pasted in both opening games in Wisconsin, evening the series. The Ads, like the Firebirds, have made homefield advantage count; surrending only a single game at home to any of their opponents; a 3-2 OT loss to Manitoba, who they eventually beat in 5 games. The expectation after a 4 and a half hour flight is that Milwaukee, who have almost nothing to lose at this point and are desperate to claw their way into this series, will likely be trying to buckle down after a couple of ugly nights in Palm Desert and try to take control of the 5-on-5 game. The Firebirds need to counter hard by making life as annoying for them as possible, keep them off their game, and try to draw calls that won’t involve sending someone to the hospital…because the Ads may just try that.

Shane Wright isn’t expected back, but if they can win one here and get him back into the fold to close the deal on Thursday night…it would be transcendent levels of dominance.

…Still gotta finish this one out first. Should be fun, though! Let’s go Firebirds!