NORFOLK — The Norfolk Admirals had the fans on the edge of their seats in their first home playoff game in a decade, overcoming a slow start and a three-goal rally to beat the Trois-Rivières Lions 6-3 in Game 4 of the first round Wednesday night before 4,792 at Scope.
The victory put the Admirals up 3-1 in the series, and Norfolk can move on with a victory at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at Scope.
Goaltender Yaniv Perets withstood a flurry in front of the net to start the game for the Admirals, who were outshot 12-3 in the first 10 minutes. That time was punctuated by the sound of crunching hits against the boards and was mainly played in the Admirals’ half of the ice. Norfolk also was pinned back by a handful of icing calls.
“We were disconnected on getting to the puck,” Admirals coach Jeff Carr said. “Everyone was just standing and watching the next guy. We weren’t trusting and finishing our routes, but then we started getting into sync.”
The Admirals struck first when Gehrett Sargis tipped the puck high past Lions goalie Zachary Emond off a pass from Andrew McLean with a little less than nine minutes remaining in the period. Another deflection by Austen Keating, from off the right side of the net, quickly led to a 2-0 lead 40 seconds later.
“It’s playoff time and obviously it’s built on momentum,” said Keating, a rookie who was just signed to the Admirals 19 days ago. “Getting that first goal was huge for us. We were able to relax and play our game.”
It was Keating’s first career goal, coming off a shot flung in from Josh McDougall toward the crease. The two scorers combined on the Admirals’ third goal of the night when Keating backhanded a pass to a trailing Sargis, who snapped in his second of the game with 1:33 remaining in the first period.
Trois-Rivieres still finished the period with a 14-8 edge in shots.
Thomas Caron continued the Admirals’ scoring riches less than a minute into the second period, snagging a loose puck off the Lions in the neutral zone and driving onto the goal unhindered before snapping a shot in to put the hosts up 4-0.
Then, things got a little nervy for the Admirals, who were unable to capitalize on a 5-on-3 power play opportunity three minutes later.
Trois-Rivières’ Cedric Montminy fired a goal in with a little less than 13 minutes remaining in the second period to spoil Perets’ shutout attempt. And Jakov Novak knocked the puck in from a rebound to cut the deficit to 4-2 with less than five minutes remaining before the second intermission.
The Admirals went scoreless again on a five-minute major power play that closed out the second period and extended into the third. Their third man-advantage chance nearly five minutes later also went fruitless.
“We should be better on our power play with our finishing,” Carr said. “I thought our power play was getting better as the game went on, so it wasn’t like we were getting stale or not entering the zone. We were doing a lot of good things.
“They cared about not giving up that fifth goal so badly, and then that carried momentum into their first and then their second, and then they’re only two goals away.”
With less than 12 minutes remaining in the final period, Jacob Paquette squeezed a goal just inside the blue line that Perets failed to see until too late, with a lot of bodies in front of him, to bring Trois-Rivieres to within 4-3.
The Admirals got some breathing room with less than five minutes to go when Danny Katic flung a pass to Simon Kubicek, who smacked in a goal from the point on their fourth power-play chance of the night.
Two minutes later, Darick Louis-Jean pushed the lead back to three goals after poking away the puck on defense, hustling to get to the loose puck and sliding it into the empty net.
“We just had to stay calm,” Keating said. “We’ve all played in big-time games, we’ve seen momentum switch so quickly. All it takes is one goal. (Kubicek’s) goal got us going again and we were able to shut it down from there.”
