ICECAPS
St. John’s

1-3

THUNDERBIRDS
Springfield

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Hudon – Terry – Scherbak
Audette – McCarron – Friberg
Matteau – de la Rose – Farnham
Broll – MacMillan – Eisenschmid[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Barberio – Lernout
Samuelsson – Johnston
Didier – Racine[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:

Lindgren
Danis

Scratches: Tom Parisi, Jeremy Gregoire, Julien Brouillette

Injured Reserve: Martin Reway

Game Report

The St. John’s IceCaps kicked off their second road trip of the season with another appearance in Springfield to take on the Thunderbirds.  The game opened with both sides playing pretty evenly, until Chris Terry got called for roughing and the home team took advantage of the power play to grab an early 1-0 lead.

Charlie Lindgren got his sixth consecutive start and proved why the coaches continue to rely on him in net. On multiple occasions during the first 20 minutes, Lindgren found himself tasked with making spectacular saves and kept the Thunderbirds from extending their lead.

Things started to get physical toward the end of the first period when Terry was penalized for holding. The IceCaps believed on a couple of plays that they had touched up and play would be stopped, but the refs didn’t seem to agree and kept the game going. This game Springfield a quality scoring opportunity, with St. John’s trying to catch up to the play, and resulted in a lot of pushing and shoving once the whistle finally blew.

The second period didn’t bring any more goals to the scoreboard, but it did add plenty of penalties to the stat sheet.  Shortly after Mark MacMillan got hauled down in the slot and couldn’t convert a penalty shot opportunity, Michael McCarron took a perfect feed from David Broll to fire the puck on net. Netminder Reto Berra swallowed the puck, but then the two teams started mixing it up after the whistle which escalated and resulted in Brett Lernout and Jakub Kindl getting 10-minute misconducts.

The final frame was the only one in which the IceCaps matched their opponents in shots, 10-10, with the overall shot total putting Springfield ahead by 11 shots.  More penalties lead to tired penalty killers and Lindberg having to try to do it all himself.  The Thunderbirds would score two more times, once being a short-handed empty netter – the ultimate salt in the wound for a lackluster PK unit.

Stefan Matteau managed to get his team on the board with a power play goal in the final minutes of the game, but it wasn’t enough to give them a chance to even things up.

The IceCaps continue their road trip on Saturday night when they return to Albany for another test against the Devils.

▲     Charlie Lindgren, Josiah Didier, Nikita Scherbak, Max Friberg

▼     Philip Samuelsson, Jonathan Racine

1. Stephen MacAulay  SPR
2. Sena Acolatse  SPR
3. Reto Berra  SPR

Quotes courtesy of AHL Report

.@JDidier4 standing up for teammates, solid on the PK, firing rockets at net. Would love to see him on 2nd pairing every game. @TheAHLReport

— Amy (@FlyersRule) November 12, 2016

Acolatse notches his first of the year on the 1st #tbirdsahl PP of the game. pic.twitter.com/BSFQsYkxqd

— Springfield T-Birds (@ThunderbirdsAHL) November 12, 2016

Tonight's starting goaltender @Fucale31 looks focused ahead of the first of two against @JackalsHockey #RoarAsOne pic.twitter.com/zU3huzUQp9

— Brampton Beast (@BramptonBeast) November 11, 2016

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