The Milwaukee Admirals won 4-3 against the Rockford IceHogs on the road at the BMO Harris Bank Center on Thursday night.

It started pretty. It had a terrible middle. But the Admirals struck in rapid succession in the third period to snag a win in Rockford tonight. The Admirals power-play delivered three times tonight including a pair of power-play goals for Frédéric Allard.

Following a holding call against Luke Johnson the Admirals got out in front with a power-play goal from Frédéric Allard. A centering pass attempt to Trevor Mingoia was missed but the young first-year defenseman Allard was way up ice to deliver a snapshot from the slot. Jeff Glass look like he had a piece of it glove side but it had the jets to get past for a 1-0 Admirals lead.

The Admirals power-play would continue in the first period. Zach Miskovic was whistled for interference and set the stage for Justin Kirkland to extend the Admirals lead to 2-0. Tyler Kelleher worked a wing-to-wing pass in the face-off circles to Emil Pettersson. The Swede’s one-timer from the right wing leaked out from Glass in net and provided the net front presence of Kirkland to bury the rebound.

Midway through the second period Matheson Iacopelli put the IceHogs on the board. The 23-year old winger made a dazzling play to spin in the slot and score on a wrister as he turned back to goal. His shot beat Matt O’Connor high glove side to cut the Admirals lead to 2-1.

This would be followed a few minutes later by a brilliantly worked team play by the IceHogs. A drop pass at the blueline sent Miskovic clean into the attacking zone with plenty of space. He dished off to the low left wing for Alex Wideman who already had O’Connor sprawling but passed back door for Tommy Olczyk to score into an open net for the equalizer. O’Connor would be substituted for Jake Paterson following the second IceHogs goal.

Paterson would have a rather rude introduction to the contest as the Admirals rough second period continued. The Rupert Twins got the better of the Admirals to make it a 3-2 IceHogs advantage. Trevor Murphy was caught cheating up ice and allowed Ryan Rupert to get by him with pace down the right wing. This was followed with a lofted saucer pass to Matt Rupert charging to the back post where he beat Paterson stick side. The IceHogs managed to outshoot the Admirals 18-9 in the second period.

The Admirals would get back in stride during the third period by notching their third power-play goal of the night. Joonas Lyytinen delivered a shot pass off to the top of the left point which was hammered first-time by Allard to score his second power-play goal of the night.

In a matter of moments the Admirals went from down 3-2 to leading 4-3. Angelo Miceli had a terrific effort as he cut across the mouth of goal and maintained puck control. Glass was left scrambling as Miceli was able to lay a shot along the ice to the netminder’s stick side and get the Admirals into the lead seconds after Allard had tied it.

With 1:53 remaining in regulation the IceHogs used their timeout and then went with the empty net. The IceHogs would push a bit but would ultimately run out of time as the Admirals managed to pull out a win in the pre-season opener.

The Admirals will hold practice tomorrow at the MSOE Kern Center starting at 11:00 AM. That will be the last practice that is open to the public from the Kern for a good chunk of time as things tilt to the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena starting on Saturday when the team hosts the Chicago Wolves for the second and final pre-season contest.

Ramblings: Prior to tonight’s game Cody Bass officially arrived from the Nashville Predators. Bass was placed on waivers on Monday and reassigned to the Milwaukee Admirals today. Tonight’s line combinations and defensive pairings were: Kirkland-Pettersson-Kelleher, Mingoia-Trenin-Perfetto, Richard-Miceli-Moy, Army-Bradford-Vaive, Murphy-Dougherty, Lyytinen-Allard, Pinkston-Melancon. Tonight’s scratches or absentees were all healthy with the exception of Jimmy Oligny who is close to being 100% from his season ending knee injury back in late-March. Tonight also saw Trevor Murphy wearing a “C” as captain of the squad with an “A” given for Jack Doughtery, Justin Kirkland, and Anthony Richard.

What is your reaction to the Milwaukee Admirals performance tonight? Is it worrying that the “lull period” came back in the very first pre-season game? Who impressed you the most and the least tonight?

Be sure to keep updated with Admirals Roundtable through social media platform of your choice: follow along on Twitter, like us on Facebook, get photo updates on Instagram, and listen along on SoundCloud.