SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Thunderbirds (12-9-2-1) saw themselves in a see-saw affair with the Charlotte Checkers (14-6-1-2) on Tuesday night in the first of back-to-back matchups inside Bojangles Coliseum.
After nothing was decided in overtime, the Checkers squeaked out the triumph with a 5-4 shootout win.
After a quiet opening 10 minutes featuring a successful penalty kill for each side, the Checkers and T-Birds saw the offense come to life in the back half of the opening stanza.
For the AHL’s top offense in Charlotte, it was an unlikely goal-scoring source that broke the ice when Mikulas Hovorka let a seeing-eye wrist shot fly, eluding Colten Ellis and giving the Checkers the 1-0 edge at 10:26 of the first.
Despite the early strike, the Thunderbirds were not impressed, and in the next 59 seconds, Springfield retaliated twice to steal the lead for themselves. Playing in his first AHL game of the season, Matt Kessel made a wise decision, joining a 2-on-1 at the Charlotte blue line and firing an Aleksanteri Kaskimaki pass in behind Ken Appleby to tie the game at 10:42.
Fourty-three seconds after the Kessel goal, Matt Luff joined the party and got one against his former team when he intercepted a loose puck in the left circle before placing a perfect shot off the inside of the post on the glove side of Appleby, making it a 2-1 T-Birds lead at 11:25.
Charlotte found the next one, though, getting an equalizer of its own from Jaycob Megna at 15:42, who funneled a wrist shot past a screened Ellis to tie the game, 2-2.
Things settled in the defensive zone for the better part of the second period, but Charlotte’s potent power play got another chance and made good on it at 14:55 as Rasmus Asplund pumped a rebound past Ellis after an initial stop by the Springfield netminder off of John Leonard.
Like the first period, however, the Charlotte lead would be fleeting. Just 1:31 after the go-ahead goal by Asplund, the T-Birds’ fourth line gutted out an equalizing tally. Tanner Dickinson got himself a grade-A scoring chance, and even though Appleby made the save, the netminder lost his balance and then his stick.
With the Charlotte goalie on the ropes, Dickinson retrieved the loose puck behind the net and quickly slipped a feed onto Mathias Laferriere, who one-touched a shot past a flailing Appleby to tie the score, 3-3, at 16:26.
Early in the third, the Springfield power play found their way to the lead again as Matthew Peca chipped home a Marcus Sylvegardpass at the back post to make it a 4-3 game at 3:27 of the final frame. It was the captain’s 10th season goal and third in the past four contests.
But as was the theme of the night, leads proved unsustainable. After Charlotte nullified their own power play with a penalty, the Checkers stayed strong in the offensive zone. Ben Steeves brought the game even for a fourth time with a perfectly placed shot past Ellis from the right circle at 5:33 of the final period off a centering feed from Justin Sourdif.
Both teams failed to add to their totals, meaning overtime was necessary for a fifth time in the last five years inside Bojangles Coliseum between the clubs. The five-minute, 3-on-3 session saw nonstop action, and Ellis came up huge with five outstanding denials, including a pair on Tobias Bjornfot breakaways.
In the end, though, Charlotte’s skill came to the forefront in the shootout competition, as Leonard fired home the lone goal in the festivities in the second round. Appleby kept Peca, Luff, and Kaskimaki off the scoresheet to hand Springfield its second straight loss after 60 minutes.
The T-Birds complete the two-game set in Charlotte on Wednesday night for a 7 p.m. puck drop before continuing the road trip north of the border in Belleville on Saturday (7 p.m.) and Laval on Sunday (3 p.m.).
