Springfield Thunderbirds Win Shootout Over Syracuse for Third Straight Victory

Jakob Pelletier is the AHL's leading scorer. He tied the game shorthanded 1:55 into the third period Saturday night at the MassMutual Center, and it still was not enough to stop Springfield.

The Thunderbirds outlasted the Syracuse Crunch 4-3 in a shootout, completing a three-game winning streak that has injected late-season urgency into a club sitting at 29-29-6-2. The victory came one night after Springfield beat the Hershey Bears 4-2, and it arrived the hard way: against a Crunch squad (39-21-3-4) that ranks among the Eastern Conference's most dangerous teams and boasts the league's top point producer on its roster.

Alek Kaskimaki gave Springfield the early edge, whistling a high-rising wrist shot over Brandon Halverson's glove at 10:34 of the first to make it 1-0. Akil Thomas drew the assist, extending his personal point streak to three consecutive games. Cranley, who entered with a 3-4-0 record, barely broke a sweat in the opening frame, needing just five saves as Springfield controlled the tempo with 12 shots.

The second period tested the penalty killers. Ethan Samson tied the game at 1-1 at 8:07, receiving a pass from Ethan Gauthier and wristing it past Cranley. What followed, however, was one of Springfield's most commanding stretches of the night: the Thunderbirds killed off 1:15 of a 5-on-3 Syracuse power play as part of a perfect 4-for-4 penalty kill in the period. Then Springfield flipped the advantage and used its own two-man edge. Thomas Bordeleau ripped a shot past Halverson's blocker at 18:20 to restore the lead, 2-1.

Pelletier erased it almost immediately after the break. The points leader struck shorthanded at 1:55 of the third to make it 2-2, a blow that could have unraveled a lesser group. Instead, Springfield held structure through regulation and overtime before finishing off the shootout, earning a final of 4-3.

It was the second straight game Springfield demonstrated composure in a tight finish. Chris Wagner continues to anchor the offense, leading the club in both points (43) and goals (23) this season, while Calle Rosen's playmaking from the blue line has been a revelation since his arrival, with 20 of his 26 assists coming as a Thunderbird.

Saturday's win was also notable for the circumstances surrounding it. Former Springfield captain Matthew Peca, traded to Syracuse earlier this season, made his return to the MassMutual Center, and the Crunch brought in three straight losses coming in after back-to-back defeats to the Providence Bruins. Springfield made the most of the moment. With the regular season entering its final two weeks, this three-game surge positions the Thunderbirds as a legitimate playoff-seeding factor in the Atlantic Division, where the gap between postseason in and postseason out remains razor thin.