After winning four consecutive elimination games in the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs, the Milwaukee Admirals’ magic finally ran out.
Following a comeback win over the Texas Stars in Game 4, the Admirals entered Sunday night looking to win their second winner-take-all game of the playoffs, having topped the Rockford IceHogs in five games to open the postseason.
Ultimately, the Stars would have the final say in the decisive Game 5, securing a 3-2 comeback victory to empty Milwaukee’s hourglass for the season.
“We had bigger plans this year as a team and as a staff and the players, so obviously the room’s devastated,” Karl Taylor, Admirals head coach, said. “[We] thought we were in good shape. We just couldn’t get that next goal.”
As they did in three of the first four games of the series, the Stars scored in the opening minutes of the contest to take an early lead. Curtis McKenzie kicked off the scoring, linking Michael Karow and the back of the net by tipping a netfront pass from the faceoff circle through Murray’s legs.
With Kole Lind in the penalty box for the Stars midway through the period, the Admirals missed an early opportunity on the power play, as Cal O’Reilly slid a shot behind Poirier and through the goal crease. Missed opportunities would plague the Admirals throughout the game, as Joakim Kemell shot the puck wide of an empty net in the second and Marc Del Gaizo struck the crossbar in the opening minute of the third.
“I think everyone’s going to be thinking about it for a while,” Kevin Gravel, Admirals captain, said. “It’s something you chew on. I don’t know if you really, truly ever get over these losses.”
In the closing seconds of the first period power play, Milwaukee would get its first goal of the game, as Fedor Svechkov found Chase De Leo in front of Poirier with a backhand pass from behind the net.
To close the period, Matt Murray made his first of two lateral saves across the goal crease, stopping a connection between Arttu Hyry and Trey Taylor.
With the Admirals’ defense keeping Texas at bay through the second period, the offense jumped into action with twelve minutes passed to claim the driver’s seat. On a breakaway, Svechkov found the far corner of the net from the right circle, giving Milwaukee a 2-1 advantage and their first lead since Game 2.
After Del Gaizo rang the crossbar to open the third, the Stars wasted little time in drawing back to even. Just under two minutes into the period, Matěj Blümel buried a cross-ice pass from McKenzie before Murray could hug the goalpost.
“We were up to one going into the third, and we kind of let them back into it a little bit,” Gravel said. “They obviously made a couple plays, but they had us on our heels a bit.”
40 seconds later, Murray made his second sprawling stop, moving across the goal crease to snag the puck after a rebound kicked out to Antonio Stranges. The save came on Texas’ sixth consecutive shot to open the period as winger Emilio Pettersen put his hands to his helmet in disbelief.
“Those were big moments when we were trying to get back into it, and he played great,” Taylor said. “Matt really responded.”
Milwaukee threatened to pull ahead with eight minutes remaining, as a netfront scramble left the puck bouncing within striking distance of the goal mouth. In desperation, Karow slid into the play to cover the net, knocking the goal post out of the ice. The ensuing whistle put a stop to the scoring opportunity, keeping the 2-2 score intact.
With five minutes left in the game, another bouncing puck would lead to the game-winning goal—on the other side of the ice. In the span of seconds, a shot from Taylor at the blue line missed the net and rebounded off of the back wall, finding Cameron Hughes at the goal’s doorstep. Though Hughes struck the goalpost, Murray crashed deep into the net in his save attempt, leaving an open target for Justin Hryckowian to put the Stars ahead. The tally was the league-leading seventh goal of the playoffs and sixth of the series for the AHL Rookie of the Year.
The Admirals were able to put pressure on the Stars’ defense with an extra skater in the closing minutes, but only managed to get one shot on Poirier after a late faceoff in the offensive zone. As the puck trickled past the blue line in the final seconds of play, the final horn sounded on the Admirals’ season, pushing the Stars into a Western Conference Finals series with the Abbotsford Canucks, who topped the Colorado Eagles in their own Game 5 on Monday.
“[This] season was a great season from a lot of different perspectives,” Taylor said. “You got to look at individual growth, team growth and then also the stuff that guys do in the community here, through Harris [Turer, Admirals owner] and the foundations, all the involvement with the youth and the kids. So there’s all kinds of good, but it’s just a pile of mud right now for us.”
For a roster that came together over the course of the Admirals’ season, Sunday’s game was not just a loss in the scorebooks, but the loss of a group that had bought into itself.
“It’s just extremely disappointing that this group will never be together again, and that’s the reality of this hockey business that we’re a part of,” Taylor said. “That’s the uncomfortable stuff, but it’s also the really good stuff. You can tell how much the guys care about each other and how hard they play, and that’s the hard part in our league.”
Missing the Western Conference Finals after consecutive appearances in 2023 and 2024, the Admirals will start from scratch in the fall in search of their first Calder Cup Championship since 2004.
This story was written by Lance Schulteis. He can be reached at lance.schulteis@marquette.edu.
