SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The Springfield Thunderbirds (15-14-1-4) unleashed 39 shots, but ran into a spectacular goaltender as the Utica Comets (16-9-5-1) on Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 6,793 inside the MassMutual Center on Throwback Night.
Springfield would register four of the first five shots of the night, including a breakaway bid by Hugh McGing, but Utica goaltender Akira Schmid kept zeroes on the board in the early stages. While the Comets did not score on their first power play, they did successfully flip the ice, and moments following the conclusion of the advantage, former Thunderbird Nolan Stevens gave the Comets the 1-0 lead on a perfect give-and-go rush with rookie defenseman Simon Nemec. Schmid himself also picked up a helper on the game’s opening goal at 10:20.
Schmid would get busy again in the period’s closing minutes, as Utica’s penalty killers successfully fended off a pair of power plays in the closing five minutes of period one.
The second period was a wild affair, as the two clubs combined for 34 shots on net. The Thunderbirds had 27 shots on Schmid by the time the clock got to 12:34 in the middle stanza. On a delayed Comets penalty, Springfield finally cracked the wall in front of Schmid as Steven Jandric located a loose puck in a pile of bodies and beat the netminder over the stick side to make it a 1-1 tie. It was Jandric’s second goal in as many games.
The tie score would not make it to the end of the period, though, as Brian Halonen fed a pass into the crease area for Nick Hutchison with 2:55 left in the second. Vadim Zherenko made the first save, but as he was trying to get to the second chance, the puck got tipped in behind the goal line, giving Utica the 2-1 edge going into the third.
The final 20 minutes produced a stark contrast to the up-and-down offensive chances of the second, as the T-Birds held the Comets to just four third-period shots on goal. Springfield had nine cracks at Schmid, but again could not find a way to solve the second-year netminder.
Schmid’s 38-save performance brought an end to Springfield’s four-game winning streak. The T-Birds look to start a new streak on Friday, Jan. 13 as they visit the Hershey Bears for a two-game set at the Giant Center. Both Friday and Saturday’s puck drops are slated for 7:00 p.m.
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