NORFOLK — Jakov Novak scored the go-ahead goal, developing off a loose puck in the neutral zone with less than three minutes remaining in the second period, as the Trois-Rivières Lions beat the Norfolk Admirals 4-2 in Game 5 of the ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs’ first round at Scope.
The Admirals had battled back from a 2-0 deficit, with Austen Keating snagging the equalizer less than 30 seconds before Novak’s deciding score for the Lions, who now trail 3-2 in the best-of-seven series.
“It’s just the momentum swings when it happened, we get back and tied it up and it’s 2-2,” Admirals defenseman Andrew McLean said. “Then a couple unfortunate bounces and (the puck) is in the back of our net. Sometimes it’s just not in your favor.”
The Admirals, in their first playoff series since 2014, started off the game swarming around the ice, and Chesapeake native Brandon Osmundson nearly put the hosts up with a chance right in front of the net on a penalty-kill opportunity five minutes into the game.
But less than a minute-and-a-half later, Chris Jandric fired Trois-Rivières ahead with a power-play goal off an assist by Chris
Ortiz.
Carson Golder seemingly knocked in an early tying goal off a one-timer less than a minute into the second period, but that was waved off after review. Novak registered his first goal off a pass from Nolan Yaremko four minutes later to put the Lions, a Montreal Canadiens affiliate, up 2-0.
Osmundson sent a freeing pass to Danny Katic, who then slashed in off the left side in front of the goal for a successful backhanded shot to cut the deficit to 2-1 midway through the second period.
The Admirals then had a personnel scare when Trois-Rivières’ Jonathan Yantsis hit a cross-check that sent the Admirals’ Darick Louis-Jean flying into the boards, which sparked a melee with Simon Kubicek with less than nine minutes remaining.
There was an extended stoppage to get Louis-Jean off the ice, and the entire bench circled around to make sure he was
OK. Louis-Jean waved a hand to signal to the crowd he was OK. Reports to the team after the game were that Louis-Jean was able to walk on his own power to get X-rays.
Three minutes before the end of the period, Keating knocked in the tying goal off a pass deep in the zone back out in front of the net by Mathieu Roy. But then Novak scored his second goal of the game, coming off a pass from Cedric Montminy.
“We tried to go up the wall and got an unfortunate bounce off the stanchions the wrong way,” McLean said. “Any day of the week that doesn’t happen, but it just had to be of course tonight.”
Nicolas Guay added an insurance goal for the victors, putting in a rebounded shot off the pads of Admirals netminder Yaniv Perets six minutes into the final period.
The Admirals will look to bounce back and clinch the series in Game 6 at 7:05 p.m. Sunday at Scope.
“We’ve just got to be bought in,” McLean said. ” There’s 60 minutes on the board and we have to make sure we handle our 20-minute segments. We know we’re the better team and we know we can outplay these guys. We just have to perform on the ice that way.”
