Admirals cruise in home opener

Goalie Milic makes 25 saves for 1st win

Griffin Mendel, Mathieu Roy and Ryan Foss each collected a goal and an assist and Thomas Milic made 25 saves for his first pro victory as the Norfolk Admirals stormed past the Worcester Railers 5-2 in their home opener Wednesday night at Scope.

A crowd of 2,489 was on hand to see the Admirals (1-1-0-1) pick up their first victory after a pair of road losses — one in a shootout — to open the season.

Norfolk dominated the opening period, outshooting Worcester 11-4 and taking a 3-1 lead.

Thomas Caron got it started just 1:05 into the contest when he found the back of the net with assists from Roy and Justin Robidas.

Zach White drew Worcester even with a goal 7:24 into the period, but Foss put Norfolk ahead to stay at 2-1 with 6:56 left in the period. Josh McDougall and Stepan Timofeyev had assists on the play.

Justin Young capped the first-period scoring with a powerplay goal with one minute left on assists from Mendel and Domenick Fensore.

The Railers (1-2-0-0) controlled the puck in the second period and outshot the Admirals 16-3, yet Norfolk had the lone score of the period on Roy’s second goal of the season. Mark Liwiski and Foss assisted on the play.

Mendel got his first goal of the season on an unassisted score 4:54 into the third period.

Milic did the rest, shutting down Worcester until Keeghan Howdeshell scored a power-play goal with 8:35 left.

Worcester outshot Norfolk 27-21 for the game, but converted on only one of five power plays. The Admirals were 1 for 3 on the power play.

The two teams will play again at Scope at 7:05 p.m. today and 3:05 p.m. Sunday.