SPRINGFIELD, MA – Coming into Friday night, the Springfield Thunderbirds had never faced the Rockford IceHogs and, in fact, had never faced a Western Conference team in the regular season.
Unfortunately, the Thunderbirds (7-9-0-4) were unable to walk away with a victory, falling to the IceHogs (10-7-0-1) by a score of 4-2 on Friday night at the MassMutual Center.
“It’s a group effort, we have to do better as a group,” head coach Drew Bannister said of his team’s play.
Both teams stacked up well defensively in the first period, allowing only one goal to be scored between them – coming via a slap shot from the right circle on the power play by Lukas Reichel – and only a combined 12 shots.
The second period turned out to be much more exciting to say the least with 16 minutes of penalties called on both teams combined, four of them coming on a combined double minor that was called on Adam Clendening which featured two separate minor penalties.
Throughout the game, however, it was special teams that would tell the story. The T-Birds were afforded 7 chances to score on the man-advantage – including two 5-on-3 chances – but they were stifled each time.
On the other side of the puck, the Hogs were given eight chances and converted on two of them.
“Our power play has been good up until today,” Bannister said. “We struggled a little bit, and got it back on track. It’s one game, but when you go 0-for-7, and they go 2-for-8… We [killed] off six, so it could be better…
“We can sit here and point fingers all we want… But it’s a group effort and we have to be better as a group.”
In the third period, with 11:08 to play, Alexey Toropchenko took a net front pass and took a wrist shot and it whistled past Rockford goaltender Dylan Wells and appeared to cut the deficit from 4-2 to 4-3. The goal, however, was waived off due to apparent goaltender interference – much to the chagrin of the fans in attendance.
Bannister was, uncharacteristically, baffled by the call himself – referring to it as a “tough call” and “one you want to get right”. While Bannister initially said the call could go both ways, he did back-peddle a bit and didn’t fully stand by his statement that it could, indeed, go both ways when asked if the referees got the call wrong.
“You put the refs in a tough position, and I don’t understand why we don’t have video replay in this league,” Bannister added. “It blows my mind that in Junior Hockey, College Hockey, are both able to have video reply on offsides and goaltender interference, and here we are the second best league in the world, and we don’t have that. It blows my mind…
“Our player is entitled to the white ice, their goalie came out and challenged [him]. I don’t think there was intent there, I thought there was enough time for him to recover, I thought he did, and we scored on the play. The game is fast, and it’s a tough decision for the referees to make.”
This was Toropchenko’s second chance, as he did score Springfield’s second of the night – taking advantage of a loose puck on a net-front scrum.
On Saturday, the Thunderbirds play their second of a three-in-three, as they take on the first-place Providence Bruins on the road at the Amica Mutual Pavillion in Providence, Rhode Island, puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
The Northeast Regional Sports Journal 
Leave a comment