Milwaukee Ready for Tough Central Division Final Series Against Texas

Who's ready for more hockey in Milwaukee?

After securing a 3-2 series win over the Manitoba Moose in the Calder Cup Playoffs' Central Division Semifinals last weekend, the Milwaukee Admirals will get right back to work against the rival Texas Stars in the division finals on Friday.

"There are no days off in the playoffs or else you're going to get yourself in a pickle," Admirals Head Coach Karl Taylor said. "So getting a good start against Texas is obviously our focus right now. And we have two home games, so we definitely want to be prepared and ready to start on time on Friday night."

The Admirals split their eight-game regular-season slate against the Stars, with each team earning three wins at home and one on the road.

Finishing their season atop the Central Division - three points ahead of Milwaukee - Texas earned the choice to host the first two or final three games in the best-of-five series and opted for the latter.

Though the Ads enter the series with the AHL's third-best road record to the Stars' seventh-best home record, those statistical indices are being left at the door during the team's preparations.

"We did have a good record, but we're not focused on that," Taylor said. "We want to win on Friday. And if we don't, then we're gonna try to win on Saturday. If we win on Friday, we're still going to try to win on Saturday. When you get to the final eight, all the teams left are good teams. They're all hard games that the other team wants to win, too. So it comes down to who's going to do the right things longer and more consistently to gain the slight advantage that it's going to take to win the game on any given night."

For Milwaukee, those slight advantages have come throughout the lineup.

Defenseman Jordan Gross, who spent 15 games with the Nashville Predators this season, currently leads the Admirals with seven points (2g-5a) - three of which came during the team's 6-2 victory over the Moose in Game One.

The 28-year-old blueliner said the team's hot start - in which 12 different Ads skaters made the scoresheet - gave their young talent an early confidence boost.

"For some of the guys who maybe had a little postseason jitters going in and not really knowing what to expect the very first time around, I think that definitely took a little weight off their shoulders," Gross said. "Then we played a pretty good game for the rest of the game. And it's always nice to get the first one out of the way in the series."

Though Manitoba took a 2-1 series lead after winning Games Two and Three, Milwaukee battled through back-to-back elimination games en route to an eventual series win in front of the home crowd.

"Those are very important moments for a team and for individuals to go through," Taylor said. "I think when you get tested like that, we're all humans and we all have different thoughts. You think about your doubts. You think about different things that might happen but when you get tested and you find your way through it you come out the other side, like anything in life, and you're stronger for it. And I definitely think we have a stiffer spine now having to go through that."

"It's definitely something you can build off of," Gross said. "When our backs were up against the wall, it showed our group what we're capable of… In Game Three we maybe got away from our game a little bit. You find out you've got to be at your best to give yourself a chance to win this time of year."

In addition to Gross, Milwaukee has seen strong offensive production from forwards Kiefer Sherwood and Luke Evangelista, who combined for 11 points (4g-7a) in their first five postseason outings with the Admirals.

Goaltender Yaroslav Askarov proved crucial to Milwaukee's division semifinal win too, earning the start in his first five professional postseason appearances and posting a 2.35 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage in the effort.

Even after Manitoba handed Askarov a pair of losses in consecutive overtimes, faith in the 20-year-old netminder never wavered.

"We're not asking him to win games for us, we're asking him to give our team an opportunity to win the game, and I believe that he did that," Taylor said. "So we stayed with him. We thought he played well enough and then obviously to only give up one goal in a final elimination game… Obviously he did some good things in that game to reward that decision."

Askarov and the rest of the Admirals will be put to the test again as they look for three more wins against another tough opponent.

"We had a very close season series with them," Taylor said. "These teams play hard against each other and I believe this is going to be a very close series. And I believe that the team that sticks to their identity the longest, and tries to push the other team over in that area by being consistent and stubborn and demanding that from their team and getting it from their players should be able to push the series in their favor."

The action begins Friday, May 12 as the Ads take on the Stars at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena at 7 p.m. CT. Fans can catch all the action by joining the Preds at Ford Ice Center Bellevue for Calder Cup Playoffs Watch Parties, purchasing an AHLTV Playoffs All-Access subscription or following the

.

See below for the full series schedule:

Game One: Texas at Milwaukee; Friday, May 12 at 7 p.m. CT

Game Two: Texas at Milwaukee; Saturday, May 13 at 6 p.m. CT

Game Three: Milwaukee at Texas; Wednesday, May 17 at 7 p.m. CT

*Game Four: Milwaukee at Texas; Friday, May 19 at 7 p.m. CT

*Game Five: Milwaukee at Texas; Sunday, May 21 at 7 p.m. CT