Egor Afanasyev scored his third goal of the night with 4:40 gone in overtime on Wednesday night, giving the Milwaukee Admirals a 3-2 victory and a 2-1 series lead over the Grand Rapids Griffins.
The Griffins host Game 4 of the best-of-five series on Friday night.
Afanasyev’s wrister from the right circle deflected past Sebastian Cossa to complete the first hat trick by an AHL player this postseason. A second-round pick by Nashville in the 2019 NHL Draft, Afanasyev was held without a goal over his first six playoff games after leading Milwaukee with 27 goals in the regular season; he has now scored four times in the last two contests.
Joakim Kemell and Ryan Ufko each recorded two assists for Milwaukee in Game 3, and Yaroslav Askarov (2-2) made 25 saves for his second consecutive win.
William Wallinder and Austin Czarnik each tallied a goal and an assist for the Griffins, who twice erased one-goal deficits during regulation.
Cossa (4-3) stopped 27 shots in the loss.
(Milwaukee leads series, 2-1)
Game 1 – Wed., May 15 – Grand Rapids 4, MILWAUKEE 2
Game 2 – Mon., May 20 – MILWAUKEE 5, Grand Rapids 2
Game 3 – Wed., May 22 – Milwaukee 3, GRAND RAPIDS 2 (OT)
Game 4 – Fri., May 24 – Milwaukee at Grand Rapids, 7:00
*Game 5 – Sun., May 26 – Grand Rapids at Milwaukee, 6:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern