Milwaukee making move in West

Scottie Upshall scored twice in his return to the lineup as Milwaukee posted a 5-1 win over visiting Manitoba on Wednesday, the Admirals’ fourth consecutive victory.

Milwaukee is 7-1-2-1 in its last 11 contests, and is nine points behind first-place Grand Rapids in the West Division with four games in hand.

Upshall scored two of the Admirals’ three power play goals on the night, and AHL All-Stars Curtis Murphy and Timofei Shishkanov also recorded goals. Tony Hrkac recorded two assists.

The Admirals’ 14 regulation losses are tied for the fewest in the Western Conference, and their 3.27 goals-per-game average leads the AHL.

Elsewhere on Wednesday:
Tomas Plekanec scored 2:50 into overtime to give Hamilton a wild 7-6 victory over St. John’s at Copps Coliseum… Mike Pudlick and Dwayne Zinger scored in the third period as Portland rallied to tie Albany, 2-2… Syracuse scored three power play goals during a four-goal third period to get past Binghamton, 6-3… David LeNeveu made 28 saves and Springfield scored four times in the final 17 minutes to defeat Bridgeport, 4-1… Ross Lupaschuk was one of five Penguins to record two points in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s 5-2 win over Toronto… Mike Glumac erased Worcester’s fourth one-goal deficit of the game with 7:44 left in regulation and allowed the IceCats to tie Manchester, 4-4… Yorick Treille and Quintin Laing scored nine seconds apart in the third period to lift Norfolk past Lowell, 4-2… Kyle Wanvig scored twice for Houston in a 2-2 tie with Chicago.