Wednesday, Oct. 21, 1998 | 10:01 a.m.
Bob Bourne called it the best game his team had played all year. But that only added to the Las Vegas Thunder head coach's frustration because the effort still wasn't good enough to win.
The Thunder squandered a two-goal in the third period and lost to the Milwaukee Admirals 4-3 Tuesday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Center Russ Romaniuk scored his team-high fifth goal of the season at 5:15 of the third period to put the Thunder ahead 3-1.
"We made it 3-1 and I felt we were in real good shape," Bourne said. "Everything we did had been right, especially the way we killed penalties."
But the Admirals answered with three straight times in the final 10:25. Power-play goals from Paul Brousseau and Jeff Kealty tied the game.
"We tightened up so badly in the last 10 minutes and they kept coming at us," Bourne said. "We just got tighter and tighter. We lost our composure.
"It's very disheartening."
With the game apparently headed for a shootout, Milwaukee's Doug Friedman converted a 4-on-2 opportunity with 32 seconds left to play.
"With less than a minute to go, it's criminal to get caught down there like that," Bourne said.
Las Vegas fell to 1-4-0 on the season. Milwaukee rose to 3-0-2.
The Thunder struck first when Daniel Briere skated in on Admirals goaltender Chris Mason and bounced a shot in off the right post 1:13 into the second period. Keith McCambridge got the assist for Briere, who was playing his first game since the Phoenix Coyotes assigned him on Monday.
The Admirals tied the game at 6:00, when David Gosselin redirected a blue-line offering from Kealty. Gosselin was standing on Thunder goalie Scott Langkow's doorstep and rattled the shot in behind him.
Las Vegas regained the lead in spectacular fashion with 1:33 left in the second. Brad Miller tallied his first goal of the season immediately after leaving the penalty box. Briere centered a pass, but Miller dove at the puck and sent it past Mason.
Mason (1-0-0) stopped 20 of the Thunder's 23 shots. Langkow (1-3-0) turned away 29 of 33 Admiral shots.
endstory
archive
