The Milwaukee Admirals lost 4-2 against the Iowa Wild on Saturday night at the UW-Milwaukee Arena.
In the final game of the 2017-18 season the Wild spoiled the Admirals party in front of a sellout crowd. The game tilted on a controversial non-call for a high stick by Matt Caito on Anthony Richard which was followed by a Gustav Bouramman goal seconds later. The Wild were able to maintain a lead until the finish and take fifth place in the Central Division from the Admirals.
“Our frustration level was pretty high,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason after the game. “We made some mistakes obviously that ended up in our net. It’s just a frustrating end to an up-and-down season.”
The scoring got kicked off early in the second period on Brandon Bollig’s eleventh goal of the season. Moments after Mark McNeill was given a penalty for playing with a broken stick, the Admirals got on the board shorthanded. The Wild turned over the puck right to Bollig in their own zone and resulted in Bollig beating C.J. Motte with a wrister to give the Admirals a 1-0 lead.
After a highly questionable no-call for a high-stick to the face of Anthony Richard, the Wild continued down the ice and managed to level the game at 1-1. Cal O’Reilly found an open Gustav Bouramman at the right circle and deposited the puck into the back of the net. The score for Bouramman was the first of his AHL career.
“I think they didn’t care what happened tonight,” said Evason of the on-ice officials. “Our group cared what happened tonight. He did not care about the outcome of the game and made that call based on that. You can’t make a judgement on a high sticking call. It’s either a high stick or it’s not a high stick.”
With under four-minutes remaining in the second period, Tyler Gaudet was whistled for a four-minute double minor penalty on a hick-stick. On the power-play, the Wild took the lead thanks to Alex Grant’s twelfth goal of the season. Grant took a shot from the top of the right point that snuck past Troy Grosenick for the go-ahead score with 0.4 seconds remaining in the period.
The Wild extended their lead to two goals early in the third period on Gerald Mayhew’s sixteenth score of the season. Justin Kloos took a slapshot from the top of the point and Kyle Rau followed that up with a shot of his own that trickled right to Mayhew for the backdoor score to give the Wild a 3-1 lead.
Soon after, the Admirals answered back with a goal of their own. Gustav Bouramman was sent to the box for tripping and the Admirals’ power-play unit was deployed. On the power-play, Tyler Gaudet got the Admirals within a goal thanks to his thirteenth score of the season. Frederic Allard took a slapshot from the left point that was deflected in front of the net by Gaudet and scooted past Motte for the goal.
The Wild found themselves up by two goals once on Alex Grant’s second goal of the game. Cal O’Reilly found a wide-open Grant at the right circle and rocketed a shot past Grosenick to put the Wild up 4-2.
With 2:11 left in regulation, Troy Grosenick skated to the bench for an extra Admiral attacker. The Admirals’ late attack couldn’t register a goal to narrow the gap and the Wild came out on top with a 4-2 final.
The Admirals finish the 2017-18 season with an overall record of 38-32-4-2 (82 points, 0.539 points percentage). The Wild have the exact same points at season’s end but claim fifth place in the Central Division based upon regulation and overtime wins.
Ramblings: Since the Milwaukee Admirals’ last game in Iowa on Friday night, there have not been any roster moves made within the organization. Tonight’s line combinations and defensive pairings were: Kirkland-Gaudet-Mingoia, Richard-Smith-Butler, Bollig-Pettersson-McNeill, Trenin-Moy-Knutson, Ramage-Allard, Oligny-Granberg, Pinkston-Dougherty. Tonight’s scratches included: Cody Bass (upper-body), Alex Carrier (upper-body), Frédérick Gaudreau (withheld), Joonas Lyytinen (undisclosed), Mark Zengerle (undisclosed), and Harry Zolnierczyk (withheld). All scratches were on-hand in Milwaukee for the season finale. The “Black Aces” are expected to be announced in due time by the Nashville Predators.
What were your thoughts on tonight’s game? What can be taken away from this season? What are you most looking forward to next season?
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Admirals Roundtable 
It was great to see such a large crowd! i have never seen such long lines for all of the concession stands in two seasons. I even went upstairs to get out of the crowd while walking during the intermissions and the east side stand had a lengthy line.
Tonight was a fitting end to this season. The Ads got SCREWED by a bad ref (#39, Evgenii Romasko) on the first two Iowa goals and lost the game and then lost 5th place. They lost 3 or 4 games that way this season. Of course, I only attend the home games.
Troy Grosenick played his butt off in goal and deserved better! Richard and Allard both showed good improvement this season. I think that the Admirals will make the playoffs next year based upon the work put in this season. Bollig scored 11 goals including a shorty. That is a real bonus for the team. I hope that a lot of the players will return for next season. I hope to see some improvement in shot selection, shot accuracy and passing. I would like to see less chipping and less dump and chase next year.
I am most looking forward to an improvement in the officiating. You missed the Ads getting a penalty and a penalty shot at the same time, which was stopped by Troy Grosenick. I was just coming in from a concession stand and missed it, but I did see Troy stand tall and stop Kyle Rau’s shot. The double minor to Gaudet was also a bad call in my opinion. He lost an edge going behind the goal and his stick accidentally hit the Wild player. A 2 minute minor should have been enough, but Evgenii Romasko saw it differently. He should have called the double minor on Matt Caito for clubbing Anthony Richard in the side of the head.
In the entire 60 minutes of the game, I never have a beef with the other refs’ calls or non-calls. It was like good ref – bad ref tonight.
I don’t know how the players put up with that kind of thing. As a fan, it gets tiresome.