Late Third Period Goal, OT Goal Down Thunderbirds In First-Ever Match With Griffins

SPRINGFIELD, MA – With 3:10 left in the third period, the Springfield Thunderbirds had still not let a goal in and were clinging to a one-goal lead over the Grand Rapids Griffins despite allowing 31 shots on goal.

That all changed at the end of a net-front scrum allowed Alex Chiasson to dig the puck out from underneath Joel Hofer’s pads and wrist it past him, tying the game at 1-1.

The score would remain the same for the rest of the period, and would go to overtime. Overtime, however, came to a quick conclusion as 56 seconds into overtime Jared McIsaac took the lone shot in overtime – a snap shot from the left face-off circle – and beat Hofer blocker-side, giving the Griffins (10-11-1-0) a 2-1 victory over the Thunderbirds (8-10-1-4).

“I didn’t think as a group we played well,” Head coach Drew Bannister said. “We got what we deserved… When you start as slow as we did, you make the mistakes like in the third that cost us the game.”

Despite what Bannister said, Springfield did get the early lead when Brady Lyle took a wrap-around attempt, and shoveled it to Nikita Alexandrov. Alexandrov quickly took the pass, and buried it past Magnus Hellberg.

That, however, was it for the T-Birds offense who couldn’t get anything going after that point despite two man-advantage chances.

Soon after Alexandrov’s goal, Simon Edvinsson was called for cross-checking, putting Springfield on the power play. It was almost made meaningless when Grand Rapids went on a shorthanded breakaway, but Hofer stopped the shot – one of 31 saves he would make in the game, 16 of those coming in the first period alone.

“He’s certainly played very well for us this year,” Bannister said. “He was the one player who deserved to win that game on our hockey club. No question about that. He kept us in the game, and gave us a chance to win.”

Bannister said he was “disappointed in the way the guys played in front of him”, but was seemed to be pleased that “at the end of the day they got a point.”

After the second period remained scoreless, both teams traded power plays to open the final stanza – both teams, however, were unable to capitalize.

Bannister, overall, was very upset with the team, but did acknowledge there were a couple good plays.

“There were a couple good plays where we got pucks to the net, but it just wasn’t bouncing our way, but I don’t think we deserved to get any bounces tonight,” Bannister said.

Springfield is back in action on Saturday, when they take on the Milwaukee Admirals – puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.