Springfield stuns Providence, sets historic upset and Penguins showdown

Springfield did more than beat Providence. The Thunderbirds rewired the Calder Cup bracket, eliminating the Bruins’ powerhouse by a margin TheAHL.com called the largest upset in playoff history and advancing to face Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the division finals beginning Tuesday in Wilkes-Barre.

The swing factor was in goal. Georgi Romanov stopped 186 of 195 shots in six starts against Providence, then finished the clincher with a 37-save shutout that slammed the door on a series the Thunderbirds were never supposed to control. Springfield had finished 38 points behind Providence in the regular-season standings, yet it was Romanov’s calm under pressure that let the Thunderbirds keep surviving one push after another.

That kind of finish made sense only after tracing the arc of Springfield’s season. When Steve Ott took over on Jan. 23, the Thunderbirds sat last in the Atlantic Division. From there, they went 19-13-2-0 the rest of the way, climbed into the postseason, and kept finding answers first against Charlotte and then against Providence. The result carries even more weight because Providence entered the final weekend of the regular season one victory away from the best regular-season record in AHL history. Instead, Springfield became the first club to win two playoff series after finishing the regular season at .500 or lower since the 2001 Hershey Bears.

The upset also gives the division finals a different feel. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton reached its first division final since 2016, and Springfield now enters with the kind of momentum that changes a room. In a round full of volatility, the Thunderbirds’ run stands out not just for the score line, but for how it was built: elite goaltending, a late-season coaching reset and a group that kept compounding pressure instead of blinking.

The North Division has been no calmer. Cleveland and Toronto both survived elimination-heavy paths to set up a finals race that still feels wide open, especially with only eight points separating first through fourth in the regular-season standings. Cleveland’s Game 4 win over Syracuse ended the longest game in both franchises’ histories, while Hudson Fasching’s goal 10:05 into overtime in Game 3 had already given the Monsters a 2-1 series lead. Toronto, meanwhile, went into Place Bell and earned the Marlies’ first road win in a winner-take-all game, with Vinni Lettieri scoring with 9:38 left in regulation to break a 2-2 tie after Toronto had been shut out in Game 4. Lettieri summed up the Marlies’ response simply: “We showed a lot of resiliency.”