Springfield Bounces Back With Big First Period, Defeats Charlotte 5-2

SPRINGFIELD, MA – After getting dominated by Rochester to the tune of a 7-1 trouncing the night before, the Springfield Thunderbirds looked to get revenge when they took on the Charlotte Checkers.

The Thunderbirds (26-20-2-4) were, indeed, able to do so, defeating the Checkers (30-18-3-2) 5-2 on Sunday afternoon.

“Overall I’m pretty happy with the game,” Thunderbirds head coach Drew Bannister said of how they played after Saturday’s dominating loss.

The T-Birds got started early when Matthew Highmore redirected a shot from Matthew Kessel at the point – putting their guys in front 1-0, just 21 seconds in, with his 13th goal of the season.

Barely under five minutes later, this time on the power play, Scott Perunovich wristed home a one-time feed by Matthew Peca, putting the hometown squad up 2-0.

“I’m not much of a shooter, I gave it to him, and I don’t know why I took a slap shot, but I did,” Perunovich said. “I think I just got lucky with the placement, and was fortunate enough to see it go in.”

For the first almost eight minutes, Charlotte was unable to notch a shot on goal despite taking many shots, but at the 7:43 mark Gerry Mayhew took the puck around the net and capped the wrap-around attempt by tapping it off goaltender Joel Hofer’s skate and into the gaping net. The goal was also on the team’s first shot on goal.

Springfield’s defense remained stout throughout the period, however, as they held them to just three shots in the opening frame.

The Thunderbirds would tack on two more goals – one from Mathias Laferriere, and one from Keean Washkurak, their sixth and seventh goals of the season, respectively – giving them a 4-1 lead after one.

Early in the second period, the Checkers were given a boost when Lucas Carlsson crossed up Kessel and took a wrist shot that beat Hofer glove-side just 1:08 into the period.

The goal was Carlsson’s 14th of the season, a tally that beat Jake Bean’s marker of 13 in the 2018-19 season. As for the rest of the period, that was it for offense, as both goaltenders, and defenses alike stood tall.

“We had an outstanding first period,” Bannister said. “We kind of let off the gas pedal in the second, but I think we had a good response in the third.”

Up until the third period, Nikita Alexandrov had tallied nine shots on goal to lead the team, but on his 10th Alexandrov put the nail on Charlotte’s coffin when he scored on a breakout opportunity created by Perunovich – wristing a shot from the right point off of Berube’s pad, and through an opening between his glove and said aforementioned pad.

“I saw them changing so I tried to gain some speed in the neutral zone,” Alexandrov said. “I took a shot and I was just lucky it went in.”

Despite allowing five goals in the night before, Bannister said he was confident in Hofer to and Perunovich echoed his sentiment saying “it’s not often that [Hofer] has back-to-back bad nights.”

Hofer finished with 20 saves.

The Thunderbirds are back in action on Friday, March 3rd when they resume the I-91 Rivalry when they take on the Hartford Wolfpack – puck drop is at 7:05 p.m.