NORFOLK — It was a heartbreaking end for the Norfolk Admirals in the final game of their homestand Sunday evening at Norfolk Scope.
Anthony Beauregard blasted the puck past Thomas Milic’s reaching glove with 15.2 seconds remaining in overtime to lift the Trois-Rivières Lions to a 1-0 victory and a 3-2 lead in the ECHL Kelly Cup Eastern Conference North Division finals.
“It’s two top teams duking it out,” Admirals coach Jeff Carr said. “No one else is playing hockey in the ECHL right now. Everyone’s watching us, so you put that on center stage where you know that’s the show.”
Game 6 will be held at Colisée Vidéotron in Quebec at 7 p.m. Tuesday, and it’s a must-win situation for the Admirals to remain alive in the playoffs. The Florida Everblades, who are the three-time defending ECHL Kelly Cup champions, advanced out of the South Division finals and await the winner.
Beauregard’s goal snapped Milic’s streak of 259-plus goalless minutes at Scope. He finished with 33 saves.
“I tip my cap to (Trois-Rivières) getting one more goal than us tonight,” Carr said. “I’m sure they tipped their cap to us getting one more the other night.”
The Admirals outshot the visitors 12-9 in the extra period and flirted with ending it with a handful of opportunities. Midway through, Brady Fleurent skated to the left and slid a pass to Grant Hebert, who got a touch on the puck and then let it come between his legs up to his stick. He then deked to his left, but his shot was pushed away by Lions goalie Luke Cavallin.
With five minutes remaining, Chesapeake native Brandon Osmundson, the hero in Friday’s 1-0 victory, dashed around the left, circled behind the goal and tried to slip a shot past Cavallin, but he got his pads down to thwart the wraparound try. Ryan Chyzowski had another chance with less than two minutes remaining when he popped up unguarded, coming across Cavallin’s crease and following up an incoming shot from the point. Chyzowski swung at the rebounded puck, but Cavallin again came up with a crucial save.
“Incredible guts by both teams,” Carr said. “We had multiple chances where we thought we could score. And they had multiple chances. A classic for both teams.”
The puck drop resembled the opening bell to a prize fight, as the Admirals’ German Yavash and the Lions’ Morgan Adams-Moisan dropped gloves right after the start, much to the delight of the 5,038 fans. It was a continuation of the tension at the close of game 4, when players from both sides jawed at each other at center ice.
With each player clenching at the other’s sweater, Yavash circled to his right and connected on a punch that dropped Adams-Moisan to the ice, and officials then pounced before any more damage could be dealt.
Defense was at a premium in the first period as there were only eight combined shots on goal, with the Admirals snapping off five. Their best chance came midway through the period when Justin Young collected a pass flipped over the top and skated down the right clear through to goal. He rifled a shot that got past Cavallin, but the puck caromed off the crossbar.
The action picked up in the second period with both teams trading blows and threatening to break the deadlock.
Less than two minutes in, Osmundson was through on a breakaway, but he pushed his attempt into Cavallin’s blockers. Moments later, Trois-Rivières was awarded a power play, and Adams-Moisan drove between two defenders and fired a shot that got past Milic and bounced off the left post.
Midway through, the Admirals’ Denis Smirnov flashed down the right-hand side and backhanded a puck toward the net. In a scene reminiscent of Friday’s tilt, the red-light operator was fooled and signaled a goal, though it was waved off by officials on the ice. Following a delay for a review, the call on the ice was upheld, much to the disappointment of the raucous crowd.
Trois-Rivières’ Alex Beaucage rattled the side netting with a powerful drive from the top of the right circle with less than five minutes remaining.
The Admirals quickly responded by forcing a turnover deep in their offensive zone. The puck ended up at Grant Hebert’s stick, and he knocked a pass into the crease to an awaiting Colton Young, whose deflection sailed high into the glass.
Another turnover, this time by the Admirals in the neutral zone, gifted Trois-Rivières a late chance with Logan Nijhoff open on the left side. But his shot flew wide left of Milic’s cage.
Trois-Rivières started turning the screw in the third period, with Xavier Cormier getting a pair of chances four minutes in. His first attempt clanged off the post. Milic was able to slide over and parry away Cormier’s second moments later.
Milic remained steadfast in dealing with the increased pressure in front of the crease, and his teammates chipped in by scrambling to harry passes and diving to the ice to block shots.
With the Admirals short-handed at the 7:30 mark, Osmundson had the crowd rise to its feet with back-to-back shots, before crumpling to the ice after getting hit in the face with the puck while out in front of the net. Moments later and still down a man, Jack O’Leary connected with Hank Crone, whose blast was smothered by Cavallin.
Trois-Rivières finished with a 22-14 edge in shots over the final two periods of regulation.
“We’ve got a ton of weapons, and we’re going to have a really, really good Game 6 and see where that goes,” Carr said. “We’ll have to do it the hard way — go up to Canada and play two hockey games.
“We’ve had way, way bigger challenges than the one coming up.”