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AHL Springfield Thunderbirds

Frk's Second Hat Trick Pushes T-Birds to Win Over Laval

March 11, 2023 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Springfield Thunderbirds News Release


SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The Springfield Thunderbirds (31-21-2-4) picked up their sixth straight home ice win, 5-2, over the Laval Rocket (24-23-7-3) on Saturday night before the sixth consecutive Pink in the Rink sellout crowd inside the MassMutual Center.

For a second straight night, Martin Frk found the ice-breaking goal in the early stages, as he filled the right side of the ice on a 2-on-1 rush with Mitchell Hoelscher at 6:36. Hoelscher successfully froze former Springfield netminder Philippe Desrosiers, and that gave Frk the space to one-touch the pass into the top shelf for his 24th of the season and a 1-0 Thunderbirds lead.

Despite being without five of their top offensive performers, the Rocket played a charged-up first period, forcing Joel Hofer into making 13 saves in the frame. Laval's fourth line became just the second team to solve Hofer in the span of over 100 shots when John Parker-Jones found a loose puck at the edge of the left post and banked a backhander off Hofer's foot to tie the game, 1-1, at 16:47.

The Thunderbirds had a much better offensive push to begin the middle period, but Desrosiers confidently stood tall to 12 Springfield shots in the second period, and Laval survived a Springfield power play chance during the course of play as well.

Springfield returned the favor, keeping the Laval man advantage off the board in the final two minutes of the period. Hofer's second period saw nine more saves without a goal allowed by the sizzling T-Birds goaltender.

The Springfield attack finally broke out in a big way with a trio of goals in short order to begin the third period. An unlikely source provided the first, as Austin Osmanski tallied his first AHL goal off a slick setup by Hugh McGing, and the T-Birds had a 2-1 lead at 3:59 of the third.

Just 32 seconds later, Frk returned to the spotlight, crashing the net to pick up a rebound after Desrosiers had poke-checked the puck off of a driving attempt by Matthew Peca.

1:50 is all that wound off the clock before the lead ballooned to 4-1 as McGing took a crisp pass from Mathias Laferriere and charged the goal mouth before lifting a backhand into the top of the net to give Springfield its first three-goal lead of the night at the 6:21 mark. Osmanski picked up his second point of the night on the secondary helper.

With Springfield firmly in front, the show quickly turned into a near-storybook ending as Hofer had three separate chances to fire pucks down toward an empty Laval net down the stretch of the game. Hofer's first attempt glanced just wide to the right of the cage, while his second attempt hit the left post. Hofer finally relented a second goal on the night to Joel Teasdale on a 6-on-4 at 15:54, but that would be as close as Laval woud get.

Hofer got one more crack at making history a second time, but his final attempt amazingly hit the right post, where Frk arrived to tap it into the empty net for a hat-trick goal at 17:04. Frk is now up to 26 goals on the season with his second three-goal game of the year. He sits just four goals back of Anthony Greco's Thunderbirds record for most goals in a single season (30).

The T-Birds rest up and get prepared for an important three-game set next weekend, beginning with a St. Patrick's Day showdown in Hartford against the Wolf Pack on Friday night.

Thunderbirds fans can reserve their seats for upcoming games by calling (413) 739-GOAL (4625) or visiting www.SpringfieldThunderbirds.com.

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