Springfield Thunderbirds Season Thread

[theohall]

T-Birds win streak snapped in 5-3 loss to Hartford.

Scoring:
Todd from Brown and Rosen (PP)
MacEachern from Walker and Cross (SHG)
Walker from Anas and Peca (PP)

Hofer was in goal. Probably should have had a couple he let in at even strength, but the 3 PPGs for Hartford were just good plays by Hartford.

[theohall]

T-Birds return the favor and beat Hartford 4-2

Scoring:
MacEachern from Toropchenko and Brown
Anas from McGing and Cross (PP) - McGing set this play up.
Alexandrov from Stevens and Washkurak
Peca from Santini and Anas.

Lindgren was in net. 25 saves on 27 shots.

[glen a richter]

Was Alexandrov injured? He was out of the lineup for quite a while.

[theohall]

Yes, Alexandrov was hurt for awhile.

[theohall]

T-Birds won't play again until Dec 10th. The AHL decided to postpone games for several teams due to Covid with Springfield being one of the teams affected.

[theohall]

T-Birds should return to play tonight. Haven't heard any news otherwise.

[theohall]

Springfield's return from Covid started well, it just didn't end well. McGing scored on a nice deflection from a Tyler Tucker shot. Santini got the secondary assist. The Marlies then rattled off 4 unanswered goals - 3 in the 2nd and 1 early in the 3rd. Drew Callin scored with the goalie pulled in the final minute for the T-Birds with assists from Griffin Luce and Nick Albano. In terms of Blues prospects, only that first goal mattered. Everyone involved in the last goal are fill-in players, except Luce, who is an undrafted defenseman Springfield signed this off-season to fill out the roster.

Hofer was in net and stopped 28 of 32 shots. He also did his best Binnington impression taking a slashing penalty early in the 3rd period. T-Birds killed it for him.

Final 4-2 Marlies over T-Birds

[theohall]

Wasn't around this weekend, but the T-Birds lost all 3 games this past weekend. Already posted the Friday score

Saturday 3-0 loss to Providence
Sunday 6-0 loss to Wilkes-Barre Scranton

All the callups are having an impact.

They recently signed Micheal Kim and Drew Callin to AHL contracts along with Jacob Hayhurst and Nolan Vesey to PTOs.

[theohall]

T-Birds shutout again tonight. This time 2-0 by the Hershey Bears. Kostin was -1 with 3 SOG. Kinda surprised he was playing this fast with the announcement he was being sent down for conditioning being made this morning. Travel day of a game and playing doesn't seem like it would be effective conditioning, but I'm not a professional hockey player, coach, or GM.

[theohall]

T-Birds won 6-4 over Hartford led by MacEachern with a hat trick and 2 assists along with a 49 save performance from Hofer. Kostin had 1 assist and led the team in shooting with 7 shots on goal. Highly recommend reading the recap in the link where the score is. Sounded like a fun game to watch.

[theohall]

T-Birds lost to Hartford 4-3 in a Shootout.

T-Birds scoring:
Sam Anas from McGing
Keean Washkurak from Kostin and Rosen
Nolan Stevens from Anas and Rosen

Colten Ellis got the start. Stopped 33 of 36. Only gave up 1 in the shootout, but it was one too many.

[theohall]

T-Birds beat the Bridgeport Islanders 5-1 last night led by Matthew Peca's 3-point night. Springfield has owned Bridgeport this season with a 7-0-1-0 record. Good thing they still have 4 more games against them.

T-Birds Scoring:
Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman from Hayhurst and Kim - Kim was signed in late November, Smotherman and Hayhurst are more recent replacements due to call-ups
Cross from Peca and Toropchenko (SHG)
Toropchenko from Peca and Anas
McGing from Peca and Anas (PPG)
Washkurak from Callin and Cross (PPG)

Hofer got the win stopping 26 of 27 shots.

[theohall]

T-Birds won 5-3 over the Rochester Americans after falling behind 3-2 in the 1st, a 3-goal period took care of business.

Scoring:
Washkurak from Kim and Santini (PPG)
Anas unassisted
Peca from Anas and Cross (PPG)
Bitten from MacEachern - Will Bitten was acquired from the Minnesota Wild for Nolan Stevens
Peca from Bitten adn Santini

Those last two goals were 44 seconds apart at 4:03 and 4:47, respectively. The 3rd period PPG was scored in the 1st minute of the period.

Hofer stopped 27 of 30. Only one was a PPG.

[theohall]

T-Birds lost 7-1 to Providence today. Wondering what's up with Colton Ellis since Hofer started back-to-backs and the backup was Brian Wilson (what??? I thought he was a Beach Boy) and Ellis isn't in the ECHL right now. Hofer did not get pulled, which I find interesting given the b2b nights thing.

[theohall]

The T-Birds split with Belleville last weekend winning 4-3 on Friday and losing 7-5 on Saturday along with losing 5-4 to Toronto on Monday

The 2nd loss to Belleville featured some controversy:

After an uneventful start to the final period, controversy shrouded the third period at the 8:06 mark when three separate minor penalties - interference, interference from the bench, and unsportsmanlike conduct - were all called simultaneously on the Thunderbirds.

Belleville scored 3 PPGs in 1:41 from those calls.

Jan 7th scoring @ Belleville
Peter Crinella from Liam Coughlin
Steven Santini from Nikita Alexandrov and Will Bitten (PP)
Sam Anas from Matthew Peca and Nathan Walker (PP)
Nathan Walker (unassissted SHG)

(Former Blues d-man Del Zotto had 2 of the Belleville goals)

Jan 8th scoring @ Belleville
Anas from Walker and Peca
Peca from McGing and Anas (PP)
MacEachern from Alexandrov and Cross
McGing from Walker and Peca (PP)
Alexandrov from Tucker and Bitten

(Del Zotto added another goal and 2 assists for Belleville)

Jan 10th scoring @ Toronto
Bitten from Alexandrov and Cross (PP)
Joshua from MacEachern and Santini
Keenan Washkurak (unassisted)
McGing from Rosen and Anas

[theohall]

T-Birds lost 4-3 in OT Friday night to the Laval Rockets. What sucks about this one is they surrendered a 2-goal lead in the 3rd period.

Scoring:
Washkurak from Laferriere
MacEachern from Kim and Santini (PP) (Michael Kim is making the most of his opportunity with the Blues dealing with Covid - 5 assists in his last 6 games)
Anas from Santini

Colten Ellis was in net stopping 31 of 35 - so we know where he is now....

Getting the point kept the T-Birds in a tie for 1st place with the Hershey Bears in the AHL Atlantic Division. Both are tied for 3rd in the Conference behind Utica and Rochester based on points percentage - yes, the AHL uses points percentage, not just points to determine standings - you know, the common sense way the NHL refuses to adopt.

[theohall]

Jan 15th lost 5-3 to Providence Bruins
Scoring:
Mitchell Balmas (unassisted) - he is one of the new guys signed to replace players on the Blues taxi squad.
Tucker from Peca and Anas
Nate Kallen from Washkurak and Shea - Kallen and Shea are also replacement players.
Ellis stopped 31 of 35. Only one was a power play marker.

Jan 18th won 4-2 over the Charlotte Checkers
Scoring:
Alexandrov from Anas and Walker
Balmas from Cameron and Shea - Cameron is another replacement player
Washurak from Kim and Alexandrov (PPG)
Walker from Wesley (Empty Net)
Hofer stopped 29 of 31

Jan 20th lost 4-2 to the Charlotte Checkers
Scoring:
Anas from McGing and Peca (PPG)
Balmas from Cameron
Hofer stopped 32 of 35 - gave up 1 PPG and one SHG.

Bottom line - T-Birds were lights out in October and November 14-3-2-0. Then the Blues called up half their forwards along with Perunovich in December and still has not sent everyone back - Toropchenko, Joshua, and Rosen are sitting on the taxi squad while Brown earned his spot with the Blues. This has seriously impacted their play in December and January (5-9-1-1)

[theohall]

Kinda supporting the point about the player adjustments in Springfield, the T-Birds lost 4-3 in OT to the Bridgeport Islanders today whom they have owned this season. Even with this OT loss, they are still 7-0-2 vs Bridgeport. Walker and Cross were the T-Birds stars with 2 goals from Walker and 3 assists from Cross.

Scoring:
Walker from McGing and Cross (PP)
Anas from Cross and Peca
Walker from Cross

Hofer was 26 for 30. 1 PP against and 1 4-on-4 goal off of a deflection from directly in front of him. Of all 3 goals, there is only one he should have had and that was the 2nd goal scored off of a faceoff win and shot from center of the slot just inside the blueline.

[theohall]

T-Birds continued to struggle tonight losing 5-1 to the Hartford WolfPack. Interestingly, Springfield had most of their season opening roster back tonight, but they still struggled in the 2nd two periods.

Scoring:
Toropchenko from MacEachern and Kaspick.
Charlie Lindgren finally got to play a game again stopping 22 of 26. 2 of the 4 allowed were PPGs.
5th Hartford goal was empty net at 15:51 of the 3rd. Yes, Bannister pulled the goalie super early given the 4-1 deficit.

[theohall]

Springfield with a super fast start dominated this the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in a 6-2 win. Walker with a hat trick in the 1st period. First 5 goals were all in the 1st period.

Scoring:
McGing from Peca and Anas (1:04)
Wesley from Alexandrov and Bitten (2:27)
Walker from Santini and Bitten (9:40)
Walker from Alexandrov and Peca (PP) (11:52)
Walker from McGing and Anas (PP) (17:34)
Bitten from Walker and Santini (3rd period 1:44 - after Lehigh scored at the 26 second mark.

Hofer stopped 28 of 30. One was a PPG.

The Stevens for Bitten trade looks like a win for Springfield in terms of the production Bitten has provided compared to how much Stevens produced. He's at a point per game pace for the T-Birds. Last time he did that was in juniors when he played for the Hamilton Bulldogs on the same team as Robert Thomas in 17-18. Stevens, for the Iowa Wild, has a whopping 1 assist in 5 games. Bitten - 8 GP, 3G, 5A for Springfield.