MILWAUKEE, Wis. — The Springfield Thunderbirds (23-18-2-3) saw their eight-game point streak come to a heartbreaking end in a 5-4 loss to the Milwaukee Admirals (25-15-3-4) on Thursday night inside UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.

The T-Birds were dealt a difficult hand before the game even got underway as three of their regular defensemen were unavailable for the contest, forcing Anton Malmstrom to be recalled from Florida of the ECHL to make his season debut. In addition, Wisconsin native Drew Callin got into the lineup in his home state, but he skated on the blue line on this night for Springfield. The T-Birds also had a late swap in the lineup when Tanner Dickinson was added in place of Zach Dean prior to puck drop.

Despite those many moving parts, Steve Konowalchuk's team responded with a tenacious first-period performance, keeping the home-standing Admirals to just two shots in the 20-minute frame. Nikita Alexandrov broke the ice at 13:05 when he deflected a Dickinson shot past Matt Murray to give Springfield the 1-0 lead after the first.

Marc Del Gaizo drew the Admirals back even at 2:41 of the second period when he moved up the left-wing wall and beat a screened Vadim Zherenko to tie the score, 1-1. From there, the T-Birds exploded for three goals in a 3:03 span to push in front, 4-1. Dickinson found the back of the net just 1:23 after the Del Gaizo goal, as he scooped a rebound at the top of the blue paint for his second point of the night. Dalibor Dvorsky followed with a power-play one-timer off a blistering pass from Zack Bolduc at 5:57, and Alexandrov pounced on a rebound at 7:07 to cap off the three-goal blitz.

Despite that strong push, the Admirals remained determined, and Ondrej Pavel threw a spinning wrist shot over Zherenko's shoulder at 8:49 to bring the score to 4-2. Del Gaizo followed suit 63 seconds later with a power play tally, and the lead slipped to 4-3.

The two teams combined for those six goals in just 7:11 of game action, but neither team would find the back of the net again until the back half of period three when Milwaukee defenseman Jake Livingstone moved into open ice in the slot and snapped a shot through Zherenko's blocker arm to tie the game, 4-4.

With the game still hanging in the balance, a costly penalty on the T-Birds set the Admirals up with a power play in the final two minutes. With just 1.5 seconds separating the teams from overtime, Springfield fell victim to a bad-luck bounce as a Spencer Stastney shot ricocheted off the end boards right out in front of the net. Before Zherenko could recover to the other side of the net, Jake Lucchini pounced on it in the right circle and punched it into the yawning cage to give Milwaukee the 5-4 win. 

As a result, the T-Birds' eight-game point streak came to a tough conclusion. Still, Springfield can finish the road trip with a winning record on Saturday as they visit the Rockford IceHogs for an 8:00 p.m. ET puck drop inside BMO Center.

Fans can get their Thunderbirds tickets today by calling (413) 739-GOAL (4625) or by visiting www.SpringfieldThunderbirds.com.