Isles Break Tie Late to Top T-Birds, 4-2

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - The Springfield Thunderbirds (39-24-6-3) could not hold off the desperate Bridgeport Islanders (31-29-7-4), who broke a late tie to take a 4-2 victory on Friday night at the Total Mortgage Arena. 

Facing a desperate club in Bridgeport fighting for its playoff life, the T-Birds had thoughts of spoiling the Islanders' hopes early on, as Nathan Todd deflected a feed from Nikita Alexandrov past Cory Schneider just 1:23 into the opening period to give Springfield the 1-0 edge.

It was clear that Charlie Lindgren would have a full workload in the Springfield crease, as the motivated Isles turned 17 shots at the Thunderbirds goalie in the first 20 minutes alone. 

After surviving much of the first 15 minutes unscathed, Lindgren and the defense finally relented at 16:15 when Kyle MacLean deflected a point shot by Grant Hutton through Lindgren's armpit to tie the game, 1-1. Just 45 seconds later, Chris Terry registered his fourth 30-goal season by finishing a 2-on-1 rush himself at 17:00 to give the home team the 2-1 lead at intermission. 

As was the case in the first, the T-Birds took advantage of an early opportunity in the second to get back even on the scoresheet. Alexandrov won a board battle in the left-wing corner and filtered a backhand pass toward the crease. Will Bitten fielded the pass and, despite having his centering feed deflect into the air, was able to react quickly to swat an aerial puck over Schneider for his second point of the night, tying the score at 2:12 of the period.

The Thunderbirds' power play had two glorious chances to restore the lead with power play bids, including a brief 5-on-3 advantage, but Schneider and the penalty kill for Bridgeport stood tall to keep the game even up heading to the final period. 

The 2-2 tie carried all the way into the back half of the final period, as the two clubs kept scoring chances scarce for one another. Finally, though, with a power play in the closing minutes, Austin Czarnik was able to whistle a one-time snapper through Lindgren's blocker with just 5:03 left in the third. Cole Bardreau would add an empty-netter with less than a second to go to close out the scoring. 

The win was Bridgeport's first and only regulation win in 12 tries against the Thunderbirds in the 2021-22 season. 

The Thunderbirds return home for a pair of important inter-divisional matchups on Saturday against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (6:05 p.m.) and on Sunday against Providence (2:05 p.m.). All games can be heard on NewsRadio 560 WHYN or streamed on AHLTV.

Thunderbirds' playoff ticket information will be made available in the coming days. Follow @ThunderbirdsAHL on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more details to come, call (413) 739-GOAL (4625) or visit www.SpringfieldThunderbirds.com.