Late flurry whips Chicago

Power-play goal turned the tide

A late two-goal, 12-second span lifted the Milwaukee Admirals to a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Wolves on Saturday at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.

“It’s a real whirlwind of emotions,” said Milwaukee’s Adam Payerl, who scored the winning goal with just 3:03 remaining. “You’re kind of down and score a couple of quick ones, and all of a sudden the game flips 180.”

With 3:15 remaining, Vladislav Kamenev’s power-play goal tied the score at 3-3. There were just 9 seconds left on the man advantage when Kamenev scored to become the fourth Admiral with at least 10 goals this season. He was at the top of the right circle when his shot sailed past the left shoulder of goalie Pheonix Copley.

“That really got us fired up,” Admirals coach Dean Evason said. “We needed to score on that power play to get us close and gain some momentum. We did, then caught a couple of bounces.”

Public address announcer Matt Moore wasn’t even through naming the players who had the assists to the crowd when Payerl scored 12 seconds later for his first two-goal contest of the season.

“Thank gosh,” Evason said when asked what he thought about the fast back-to-back goals.

Kamenev won a battle for the puck behind the Chicago net when he sent a centering pass that bounced off the Wolves’ Reid McNeill at the right crease. The puck slid through the crease and Payerl swooped in for the tap in.

“My eyes kind of lit up when I saw it squirted there,” Payerl said. “I had body position to get there first and was able to knock it in.”

Payerl, who had his first multipoint game since Dec. 6, gave his team a 2-1 lead with a goal with 13:45 remaining in the third period.

But Chicago caught a break and tied the score just 3:32 later.

Milwaukee goalie Marek Mazanec tried to clear the puck when he lifted it in the air. The puck bounced off the upper body of Chicago’s Brett Sterling a few feet away and trickled to the slot. The Wolves’ Andrew Agozzino got the puck, passed it to Ty Loney at the right crease and he buried it.

Chicago took its only lead when James Wisniewski, playing his first game of the season with the Wolves, scored for a 3-2 advantage with 8:54 left.

“We catch a tough break with ‘Maz’s’ clear there,” Evason said. “That’s not him. He came back to the bench, apologized to the group, and I think that maybe was a bit of a rallying point.”

Milwaukee scored the only goal of the first period and Chicago answered with the lone second-period goal.

About 4 minutes after a Chicago power-play goal by Alex Friesen was waved off after video replay, Anthony Richard score for the third time in 27 games.

Payerl was behind the Chicago net when he slid the puck past the left post to Richard in the slot, where he immediately blasted a shot past Copley with 7:04 left.

The Wolves tied the score on Samuel Blais’ goal with 10:28 to go in the second. Wade Megan took a shot a few steps in front of Mazanec, who made a leg save but could not stop the rebound shot by Blais in front of the crease.