“Now we’ve got a winner-take-all game. Maybe it’s just the way it’s supposed to be.”
Milwaukee Admirals head coach Karl Taylor shared those words via the team website after a double-overtime loss in Game 4 on Friday. Now all that the Admirals can do is shrug off that setback and ready themselves for another chance tonight, an opportunity they earned by taking an early 2-1 lead in the series.
The Admirals have shown that they can adjust to the give-and-take of playoff hockey. They lost a 2-0 lead in Game 2 after Texas scored three straight goals, the last two in a 24-second span late in the second period, before regrouping and forcing overtime with a strong third period.
They also trailed 3-2 in Game 3 after allowing goals 26 seconds apart to begin the third period. But they held tight, tied the game, and then won it with 1:01 to go on an Isaac Ratcliffe goal.
This is a team comfortable playing in one-goal situations late in a Calder Cup Playoff game.
“You’ve just got to stay even-keeled and stay in the moment, and not get too high and too low,” forward Michael McCarron shared via the team website after notching his first playoff goal Friday. “If you just stay composed and stay consistent in what you do, believe in your system, I think it sets you up for success.”
The nerves are out of the way for the Texas Stars.
“There [were] a little bit of nerves early on in our game,” head coach Neil Graham said via the team website after their Game 4 victory to fend off elimination.
The series has been razor-thin, with all four games being tied at some point in the third period. Three games have ended with one-goal margins, while Game 2 was a 5-3 Texas victory sealed with an empty-netter.
“It was our first time in an elimination moment,” Graham said of Game 4, “but once we settled in, we started playing with some pace, started playing a little more free, and then we played a pretty good hockey game.”
― Patrick Williams
