Milwaukee Admirals Advance to 2nd Round on Spencer Stastney’s Late Goal

Many of the same players who logged critical NHL minutes for the Nashville Predators in their playoff push are now advancing in the Calder Cup Playoffs for the Milwaukee Admirals.

Spencer Stastney, who made his NHL debut just five weeks ago against the St. Louis Blues, attacked off a broken play at mid ice to be found by Zach Sanford to clinch the five-game series for the Admirals over the Manitoba Moose.

After a couple Moose players collided and took each other out of the play, Sanford was quick to take advantage by entering the zone and using a nifty stick move to connect the pass to Stastney. Just gorgeous, opportunistic hockey from these two.

Sanford appeared in 16 games for the Nashville Predators this past season, and has over 300 NHL games under his belt. He is a huge veteran presence on this Admirals squad that has a lot of NHL battle-tested player on the roster.

Admirals Playoff Roster who Played for Predators in 2022-23

• Mark Jankowski (50 games for Preds)
• Kiefer Sherwood (32 games for Preds)
• Michael McCarron (32 games for Preds)
• Philip Tomasino (31 games for Preds)
• Luke Evangelista (24 games for Preds)
• Egor Afanasyev (17 games for Preds)
• Zach Sanford (16 games for Preds)
• Jordan Gross (15 games for Preds)
• Spencer Stastney ( 8 games for Preds)
• Roland McKeown (6 games for Preds)
• John Leonard (6 games for Preds)
• Yaroslav Askarov ( 1 game for Preds)

Just an insanely long list of current players on this Admirals playoff roster who saw some sort of NHL playing time for the Nashville Predators in 2022-23, with Mark Jankowski leading the way with 50 NHL games, and scoring seven goals.

Yaroslav Askarov wasn’t completely dominant in this series, but certainly held his own with a .915 save percentage and 2.35 GAA in starting all five games.

Askarov stepped up in Game 5 to make 20 saves on 21 shots faced, but in Game 4 wasn’t as efficient by surrendering three goals on just 19 shots faced.

Gross led the Admirals in points for the first round series with seven (2 goas, 5 assists). Five Admirals scored at least two goals in the series with Gross, Sherwood, Evangelista, Sanford and Austin Rueschhoff.

Rueschhoff is a 25-year-old forward who played collegiately at Western Michigan and is undrafted. He’s playing his first season with the Admirals.

Someone you would like to see get a little bit more involved in the next round is Philip Tomasino. Held to just one point in five games on only seven shots on goal.

The Admirals had to storm back to win Games 4 and 5 to clinch the series. Some would say the Admirals should’ve handled business a little easier against the Moose, the Winnipeg Jets affiliate, who don’t have the amount of NHL experience that the Admirals have.

After all, the Admirals are fielding basically half of a roster that pushed the Nashville Predators to the brink of a playoff berth. Just three points shy in the standing of, coincidently enough, the Winnipeg Jets.

Up next the Admirals will take on the Texas Stars. A much more daunting and skilled opponent.

The Admirals and Stars are divisional rivals and played each other eight times in the regular season, trading blows in the season series by splitting the games at four wins each.

Game 1 will be on May 12 at home in Milwaukee. The Texas Stars will host the final three games of the best-of-five at home, if necessary.