Specialty teams fell Thunderbirds in Game 4

SPRINGFIELD – After falling in game 2 in Chicago, and game 3 at home in Springfield, the Springfield Thunderbirds were looking for redemption in the form of a game 4 victory at home.

Despite numerous opportunities, both on the power play and on even strength, they were unable to – falling to the Chicago Wolves by a score of 4-2 at the MassMutual Center on Friday night.

Over the course of the game, the Thunderbirds had the advantage in term of quantity of chances, but they were unable to capitalize – going one-for-nine on the night. Chicago, on the other hand, was much more effective with the puck – scoring on two goals in five chances.

“When I look back at it the biggest difference was special teams probably the power play, and their penalty kill,” said Head Coach Drew Bannister on the most frustrating factor.

Starting out the game, Springfield’s fans saw the momentum swing its way to start out with two good scoring chances coming from two-on-one rushes, both of which ended the same way with Wolves goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov – who would finish the game with 39 saves – stopping them right in their tracks.

The first of the came off a rush just over two minutes in by Mackenzie MacEachern who pulled up right before the goal line and centered the put to Sam Anas, hoping to catch Kochetkov off-guard. Instead, the Russian simply slid over and made the save.

Not two minutes later a similar rush happened, this one with Nathan Todd and Matthew Peca. Todd brought the puck up to the right point, and slung it over to Peca at the left post who attempted a tap-in effort; however, Kochetkov denied him as well.

Just like that, it appeared they had the momentum to start the game.

“[The momentum] kind of went back and forth,” Bannister said. “When you look at the quality chances, five-on-five, we created more than them in the first period, but their power play was the difference there’s no doubt about that.”

And Bannister was right. Late in the period, the T-Birds took two penalties and the Wolves pounced – giving them a 2-0 lead going into the second period.

Six minutes into the third period, however, Chicago increased that lead by one more – making it 3-0 – when Andrew Poturalski stole the puck in the neutral zone, deked around Anas and took a wrist shot from the right circle and beat Springfield goaltender Joel Hofer glove side high.

Later in the period, following a tripping call on David Gust, Klim Kostin broke a streak of 18 straight unsuccessful power plays by scoring on the man-advantage, decreasing the deficit to two.

Bannister said the goal gave them some momentum, and it did give them some as they played very stout defense throughout the third period until the 17th minute when Josh Leivo put the proverbial nail on the Thunderbird’s coffin, making it 4-1.

Springfield would get one more back to make it 4-2, thanks to James Neal, but it was too little too late and they would give the Wolves a 3-1 lead in the series, putting them on the precipice of winning their third Calder Cup in franchise history.

Game 5 is on Saturday, puck drop is at 7:00 p.m.