The Springfield Thunderbirds ran its winning streak to three games with victories over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and St. John’s IceCaps this weekend.
Thunderbirds 1, Penguins 0
Springfield finished up its season-opening three-game road trip with a 1-0 win in Wilkes-Barre on Friday night. Reto Berra raised his record to 2-0 with a 23-save shutout. Ryan Horvat, who attended Florida Panthers camp on a PTO, scored the game’s only goal from Anthony Greco 9:25 into the first period. Tristan Jarry took the loss, finishing with 22 stops for the Baby Penguins. The teams combined to go 0 for 9 on the power play.
Recap on the official Springfield Thunderbirds site.
Thunderbirds 5, IceCaps 4 (OT)
The Thunderbirds rallied from a pair of two-goal deficits to take their first-ever home game at MassMutual Center with a 5-4 overtime over the St. John’s IceCaps. A sellout crowd of of 6,793 fans attended the historic tilt. MacKenzie Weegar fired home the decider 1:42 into the extra session with the lone assist going to Chase Balisy. Charles Hudon and Chris Terry sandwiched first period power-play goals around an unassisted Dryden Hunt tally to put the Ice Caps up 2-1 after twenty minutes. Hudon scored the only goal, again on the power play, of the second period to extend St. John’s lead. Hunt and Weegar combined to set up Paul Thompson to pull the Thunderbirds within a goal 7:54 into the third. Sven Andrighetto restored the IceCaps two-goal advantage 41 seconds later. Rookie defenseman Ian McCoshen scored his first professional goal at 12:23 mark to pull Springfield back before Hunt notched his second of the night to tie the game with 6:10 remaining in the regulation. Hunt’s third of the year was assisted by Thompson and Graham Black. Mike McKenna struggled again, but managed to post his first win with a 21-save effort. Yann Danis (30 saves) took the loss for St. John’s.
Recap on the official Springfield Thunderbirds site.
Springfield (3-1) has a full weekend slate ahead with home games against Bridgeport and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday and Saturday and a road game in Bridgeport on Sunday.