SPRINGFIELD, MA – Going into Friday night’s game, the Springfield Thunderbirds looked to pick up their second win of the season when they took on the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
The Thunderbirds started flying scoring two goals off the stick of Adam Gaudette, but it wasn’t enough as the Phantoms took this one by a score of 5-2 at the MassMutual Center.
“Well I thought the first period I was fairly happy with,” Thunderbirds head coach Drew Bannister said. “We did some good things in the offensive zone.”
The Thunderbirds were able to get on the board first at the 6:58 marker in the first period when Gaudette wristed the puck past Phantoms’ goaltender Cal Petersen glove side.
Just over six minutes later, this time operating on the operating on the man-advantage, Gaudette took a point-to-point lateral pass from Nathan Walker. He promptly took a wrist shot and beat Petersen, giving Springfield a 2-0 lead with seven minutes to play in the opening frame.
Lehigh Valley was able to get one of their own late in the first, when Olle Lycksell was able to take advantage of a puck that Elliot Desnoyer left on the door step and wristed it past Springfield goaltender Malcolm Subban.
The second period, however, was a completely different story and changed the game narrative completely.
Going into the middle to stanza, the Thunderbirds were on a power play.
The second period collapse
Immediately, off the opening draw, Springfield took the puck into the zone. Gaudette even nearly picked up his third goal of the game. That, however, was the best the home squad would look in the second period as it was all Lehigh Valley.
The first goal came nine minutes in off the stick of Garrett Wilson. Wilson redirected a shot off the stick of Helge Grans at the blue line, tying the score at two goals apiece.
The next two goals are when things got interesting, as Lehigh Valley scored twice in a matter of 10 seconds. The first came off the stick of Lycksell – his second of the game – and the other off the stick of Alexis Gendron. Both goals came at the 14:42 and 14:52 marks, respectively.
Not only was the score completely flipped on the Thunderbirds, but the shots on goal were as well. Through two periods the shots went from being in their favor by a 15-11 margin, to being outshot 32-21 with the Phantoms outshooting them 21-6 in the second period.
“In the second period it was the same as what happened last weekend,” Bannister said. “We stopped working, we stopped competing, there wasn’t much urgency in our game, we basically lost control of the game at that point.”
Lycksell put the final nail on the Springfield’s coffin when he scored Lehigh Valley’s fifth goal of the game 2:12 into the third period taking advantage of perfect feed by Tanner Laczynski.
Following the goal by Lycksell, Bannister pulled his goaltender Malcolm Subban multiple times throughout the last ten minutes of the game, including twice on the power play.
But why pull him when you’re down three goals with a man-advantage already? Bannister had a very matter-of-fact answer for that question.
“Well we’re down three goals, why wouldn’t I?” Bannister said of why he pulled Subban so early. “I mean we’re not scoring on five-on-five, so I figured I’d get that two-man advantage, get us back in the hockey game, and if I want to win a hockey game, that’s when I’m going to do it.”
The Thunderbirds are back in action on Saturday when they take to the road to take on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins – puck drop is scheduled for 6:05 p.m.
