Milwaukee finished the season just two games short of a
top-seed in the Midwest Division. Winning 41 games in 2012, the team continued
a decade-long streak of 40-plus win seasons, though a Calder Cup has eluded the
organization since 2003.
The number-one seed in the South, the Stars kept the
Admirals scoreless for five consecutive periods at one point during the Western
Conference Quarterfinal series. Kevin Henderson managed to save some face for
the team late in Friday's game, breaking the drought with just 90 seconds left
in the third. They couldn't come up with another, however, and goals from Texas
Matt Fraser and Alex Chaiasson earlier in the night was enough to end the
Admirals season.
Unlike the Bucks fortunes in their recent playoff
appearance, nobody can claim the fire left the Admirals over the past two
weeks. The team threw a volley of shots on Stars keeper Cristopher Nilstorp in
the final period in Cedar Park, out-shooting the home team by ten in the last
twenty-minutes.
Not even after dropping the first game of the series in a
crushing overtime defensive dual that only saw a single goal did Milwaukee
waver. They evened the series at the BMO Harris Bradley Center on April 27th
with an impressive shutout. Goalie Magnus Hellberg stopped twenty-three shots
in the game, though his luck wouldn't last in Texas during the pair's third
meeting and fourth meetings. Texas would put in four goals to the Admirals one
on their home rink, handing Milwaukee a shutout of their own in game three.
The Stars move on to face division rival the Oklahoma City
Barons in the semifinals. The Barons finished third in the South behind Texas
and the Charlotte Checkers, though they swept Charlotte in their opening
five-game series three games to none.
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