SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Thunderbirds (16-20-4-2) muscled their way past their I-91 rivals, the Hartford Wolf Pack (16-21-4-1), capturing a 4-1 win on Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 6,793 inside the MassMutual Center.
For a second straight night, Steve Ott’s team got off to a quick start as Marc-Andre Gaudet jumped up through the slot area, received a drop feed from Matthew Peca, and picked the glove side on Dylan Garand to give Springfield the 1-0 jump at 6:55 of the first. After a 2-for-3 night on the power play on Friday, the T-Birds man advantage did not get off to a strong beginning on Saturday, as back-to-back penalties brought an early end to a Springfield advantage and, instead, handed Hartford a 5-on-3. Brendan Brisson cashed in from there, one-timing a Justin Dowling pass through the wickets of Georgi Romanov at 13:20, equalizing the score, 1-1.
The T-Birds settled into the game as the second period began and, once again, a blueliner had the tone-setting goal for Springfield as Hunter Skinner glided down the left circle and snapped a bar-down wrister over Garand’s glove at 3:38 of the second, restoring the T-Birds lead, 2-1. Just over four minutes later, Otto Stenberg made a savvy play, sneaking behind the net to steal a drop pass from Garand and setting up Dillon Dube for a wide-open net at the edge of the crease, extending Springfield’s advantage to 3-1 at 8:13 of the period. Like Friday night, the Springfield defense and goaltending locked things down in the final period, as the penalty kill successfully thwarted a pair of Hartford advantages, and Chris Wagner added his fourth goal in as many games played into an empty net with 3:00 remaining to seal the T-Birds’ second straight win.
The T-Birds begin a six-game road swing on Sunday with a 5 p.m. matchup in Bridgeport against the Islanders to complete this three-game, three-night weekend.
