AHL Springfield Thunderbirds

Lindgren's 50 Saves Lift T-Birds to Game 1 Win

May 11, 2022 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Springfield Thunderbirds News Release


SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The Springfield Thunderbirds emerged victoriously, 4-1, over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Atlantic Division Semifinals. It was the Thunderbirds' first Calder Cup Playoff game in their history. Springfield now leads the best-of-five series, one game to none.

The two teams came out swinging in the opening period, forcing goaltenders Tommy Nappier of the Penguins and Charlie Lindgren of the T-Birds to get a sweat going early. 32 combined shots found their way to the two nets in the opening period alone.

Springfield's power play, which clicked only twice on 23 chances against the Penguins during the season series, cared little for past struggles as Will Bitten gave the raucous MassMutual Center something to cheer for at 13:27. After Nathan Todd slid the puck to Klim Kostin along the right-side of the goal line, Kostin attempted to feed a pass in front of the goal. The initial try was blocked, but Kostin successfully got a second feed through the defender. Bitten got his body in the path of the pass and let it deflect off his frame and past Nappier to make it a 1-0 lead for Springfield.

Just moments later, the Penguins had a glorious chance to tie the score, with Alex Nylander and Sam Poulin moving in on Lindgren with, in essence, a 2-on-0 chance. Despite the odds against him, Lindgren flashed across from his right to his left and threw up the left arm to knock away a Poulin one-timer, keeping the game 1-0 into the intermission.

The 1-0 lead was carried into the midpoint of the second period. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton finally dented Lindgren on a slick feed from Pierre-Olivier Joseph to Felix Robert on the doorstep just three seconds after a Penguins power play had ended. The goal came at 10:30 and got the score knotted, 1-1.

Less than four minutes later, the T-Birds vaulted back in front thanks to more rugged work from Bitten. He lifted the stick of Joseph against the end boards before slipping the puck to Nikita Alexandrov in the trapezoid. With Kostin breaking down the slot from the neutral zone, Alexandrov tucked a pass to his fellow countryman, and Kostin snapped a wrist shot under the legs of Nappier to make it 2-1 at 14:23.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton showed absolutely no letup offensively, as they launched 17 shots on net in each of the three periods. Springfield only fired 12 shots combined in the final 40 minutes, but they were opportunistic in those chances. At 8:28 of the third period, Tommy Cross lobbed a puck out to the neutral zone from behind the net, starting a 2-on-1 between Matthew Peca and Sam Anas.

Anas took the feed on the right side from Peca and made no mistake, beating Nappier over the glove hand to make it a 3-1 game with 11:32 remaining in the final period.

The Penguins emptied their net with still 4:00 to play in the game, but it proved unsuccessful, and Dakota Joshua added an empty-netter off an assist from MacKenzie MacEachern to finish up the 4-1 victory.

Lindgren set his new career-high for saves in a playoff game, turning away 50 of 51 shots.

The full remaining schedule for the Atlantic Division Semifinals is as follows - games marked with an asterisk (*) will be played only if necessary.

Game 2: Thursday, May 12 - Penguins @ Thunderbirds, 7:05 p.m. - Click Here for Tickets

Game 3: Sunday, May 15 - Thunderbirds @ Penguins, 5:05 p.m.

Game 4*: Monday, May 16 - Thunderbirds @ Penguins, 7:05 p.m.

Game 5*: Wednesday, May 18 - Penguins @ Thunderbirds, 7:05 p.m. - Click Here for Tickets

Thunderbirds' Pay As We Play plans are also on sale now! To purchase your seats and lock in your same spot for all postseason games, call (413) 739-GOAL (4625) or visit www.SpringfieldThunderbirds.com.

Check out the Springfield Thunderbirds Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from May 11, 2022


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