SPRINGFIELD ― In their first game with Daniel Tkaczuk serving as interim head coach, the Springfield Thunderbirds (13-8-1-0) triumphed in a back-and-forth affair against the Rochester Americans (11-7-2-1) for a 4-3 shootout win inside the MassMutual Center on Wednesday night.
Malcolm Subban got the nod to guard the net for the T-Birds against his former team and denied 17 shots he faced from Rochester skaters in regulation before denying all three Amerks’ shootout tries. In the opposite crease, goaltender Devin Cooley was a big reason the Amerks got the game into extra time, stopping 38 of 41 attempts.
The opening goal came after only 47 seconds of play. After a scramble in front of Subban following a Rochester breakaway chance, the puck found Jeremy Davies at the point. As Davies drifted to his right, he fired a shot that went off the post and in on the blocker side of Subban for a 1-0 Rochester lead. The Americans quickly made it a two-goal lead 1:50 later. After Michael Mersch’s initial wraparound attempt was stopped by Subban, Damien Giroux was on the doorstep to jam it home for a 2-0 lead before the game was even three minutes old.
The T-Birds had a great chance to score at the 14:56 mark of the period. Ryan Suzuki found Will Bitten in open ice and hit him with a perfect pass to send Bitten on a breakaway. However, Bitten’s breakaway bid was denied by Cooley, as he made the stop with the left arm.
The home team finally found some daylight past Cooley with 13.9 seconds remaining in the period. Captain Matthew Peca found Adam Gaudette in the slot with a pass from behind the target, and Gaudette hammered a one-timer past Cooley for his 14th goal on the year and ended a six-game goal drought. The teams went into the first intermission with Rochester up 2-1, but Springfield had the momentum on their side.
Unlike the first period, the first few minutes of the second did not bring any goals. The first great scoring chance came from a Zach Dean tip on Dylan Coghlan’s point shot 5:18 into the frame. But Cooley was up to the task and made the stop.
After a furious push by the Peca line past the midpoint of the frame, Gaudette zipped a perfect saucer pass over to Coghlan at the point. Coghlan made no mistake this time, rifling it past Cooley for his eighth tally on the year to tie the game up, 2-2, at 10:15 of the second. Coghlan’s goal brought him into a tie for AHL leadership among goals by defensemen.
The Thunderbirds were not finished though, and they broke the tie at the 18:25 mark of the period. After another point shot from Coghlan, Bitten got his stick on it for the tip-in as he fell to the ice. Bitten’s fifth strike on the year gave the home team their first lead of the night. The score remained 3-2 Springfield going into the second intermission.
Rochester would not go away quietly, and they would tie the game, 3-3, thanks to a Giroux deflection on Nikita Novikov’s point shot. The two teams would trade scoring chances the rest of the way, but neither team could break the deadlock. The game would head into sudden-death overtime with the extra standings point up for grabs.
The Thunderbirds had two great chances in the sudden-death period. Gaudette had the first great opportunity on a two-on-one, but Cooley robbed him with his glove. Bitten and Mikhail Abramov then had a 2-on-1 of their own with 2:03 to go. Unfortunately, Abramov’s one-timer on Bitten’s saucer pass was once again stopped by Cooley. The game went into a shootout after no team prevailed in overtime, despite Springfield outshooting Rochester 6-1 in the 3-on-3 period.
Leading off the shootout, Suzuki proved to be the hero, as he tucked a perfect forehander under the crossbar on Cooley’s stick side. Subban then locked it down, denying Brandon Biro, Filip Cederqvist, and Jiri Kulich to get the last laugh against the team he helped lead to the Eastern Conference Finals last season.
The T-Birds hit the road for back-to-back games in the state of Pennsylvania this weekend, beginning with a 7:05 p.m. contest on Saturday night against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in Allentown.
