Zack L’Heureux scored on each of Milwaukee’s first two shots in the opening minute of the game and the Admirals completed their series comeback with a 5-3 victory over Texas in Game 5 of their Central Division semifinal series on Sunday evening.
Milwaukee, the 13th team in AHL history to win a best-of-five series after losing the first two games, moves on to face Grand Rapids in the next round beginning Wednesday.
L’Heureux, who scored twice in a 47-second span to give Milwaukee a 2-0 lead in Game 4 on Friday, struck twice in 15 seconds to open Game 5. The rookie forward snapped a shot under the crossbar at the 0:43 mark, and then redirected home a point shot by Adam Wilsby at 0:58.
Texas got on the board at 5:37 of the first period when Matej Blümel scored on a power play, his fourth goal of the series and fifth of the playoffs.
Cal O’Reilly put Milwaukee back up by two at 13:46 of the opening frame, cleaning up a loose puck in front during an Admirals man-advantage.
After a scoreless second period, the Stars pulled to within to 3-2 less than two minutes into the third as Oskar Bäck one-timed a shot from the slot during a Texas power play.
Fedor Svechkov restored the two-goal Milwaukee lead with his second goal of the series at 7:15 of the third, and Reid Schaefer, who returned to the lineup after missing Game 4 due to injury, tacked on an empty-netter with 2:42 to play.
Troy Grosenick (3-0) made 29 saves for the Admirals. Ben Kraws made his first start of the series and stopped six of nine shots in the first period; Remi Poirier played the final two periods and made 14 stops.
(Milwaukee wins series, 3-2)
Game 1 – Thu., May 2 – TEXAS 6, Milwaukee 3
Game 2 – Sat., May 4 – TEXAS 4, Milwaukee 1
Game 3 –Wed., May 8 – MILWAUKEE 5, Texas 3
Game 4 – Fri., May 10 – MILWAUKEE 4, Texas 1
Game 5 – Sun., May 12 – MILWAUKEE 5, Texas 3