SUNDAY FEATURE: Milwaukee Welcomes Back Admirals Fans With Big Win To Open Season

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MILWAUKEE, Wisc - The wait is finally over for the Milwaukee Admirals.

Five hundred and eight four days after playing their last game, the Admirals returned to the ice Saturday night in impressive fashion - getting two goals from Cole Schneider and three assists from Tommy Nowak in a 7-3 victory over Grand Rapids.

"We're not going to score seven goals every night," Schneider said. "But it was pretty good for the opener."

It was also good for Admirals goaltender Devin Cooley, who got an unexpected start between the pipes after Connor Ingram was called up to parent-club Nashville earlier Saturday and stopped 20 of 23 shots.

"It's tough to come up and fill Connor's shoes while he's in Nashville but I thought he handled it well," Admirals' head coach Karl Taylor said.

A power-play goal by Griffins forward Joe Veleno put Cooley and the Admirals down, 1-0, just 2:40 into the game but Schneider answered three minutes later with his first goal of the season.

Milwaukee recovered the puck on the ensuing faceoff and Schneider struck again, taking a feed from Novak and putting it past Grand Rapids goaltender Victor Brattstrom to make it a 2-1 game at 5:36 of the period.

"He's a captain for a reason," Taylor said. "Our whole team played great but he got those two goals right out of the gate."

It was still a 2-1 game when Riley Barber was whistled for cross-checking, putting the Admirals on the power play for the first time and wasted little time capitalizing on the opportunity when Novak set up Matt Luff for his first score of the season.

From there, the Admirals cruised. Zach Solow and Joseph LaBate extended the lead to 5-1 with goals in the second period and Mitch McClain and Anthony Richard responded to third period goals by Grand Rapids' Veleno and Barber.

"It's always tough when you give one up early, especially in a home opener," Taylor said. "You have to regroup from that and I think our group did a very good job of that. We pushed back, we were able to take the game over and play the way we want."

Welcome Back

Saturday marked Milwaukee's first game since a 6-1 rout of San Antonio on the afternoon March 10, 2020. Later that day, the American Hockey League joined other sports leagues in suspending operations due to the burgeoning pandemic and the Admirals were one of three teams to opt out of the 2020-21 season.

A crowd of 7,243 turned out to welcome the team back from their long hiatus and the atmosphere was much appreciated by Taylor and his players.

"Coming in after the first period, as a group and a staff we just kind of said 'we love our job' because we missed this a lot," Taylor said. "It was great to see the fans. It was really enjoyable."

The 2019-20 squad was one of the best in franchise history and held the league's best record (41-14-5-3, 90 points) when the AHL joined other professional leagues in suspending operations due to the burgeoning pandemic.

Only nine players return from that squad including Schneider, who spent last season with the Texas Stars.

Three Stars

1. Cole Schneider, Milwaukee

A pretty obvious choice here. Hours after being named the team's captain, Schneider scored two goals in a 38-second span to eliminate a 1-0 deficit and jumpstart an outstanding performance from the Admirals' offense.

2. Tommy Novak, Milwaukee

Novak came up empty on two shots of his own but notched three assists and finished plus-1 on the night.

3. Joe Veleno, Grand Rapids

After scoring the Griffins' first goal of the season Friday night, Veleno gave Grand Rapids a 1-0 lead 2:40 into the game Saturday then added another at 5:34 of the third.

Up Next

The Admirals (1-0-0) return to action Friday night when they open a back-to-back, home-and-home set against the Chicago Wolves at UWM Panther Arena.

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