T-Birds Complete Sweep of Checkers with 5-1 Game 3 Win

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The Springfield Thunderbirds continued their red-hot postseason run, defeating the Charlotte Checkers 5-1 and sweeping the Atlantic Division Finals. They now advance to the Eastern Conference Finals against the Laval Rocket. 

After mustering 23 shots for the entirety of Game 2, the Thunderbirds' offense made Joey Daccord work much harder in the opening 20 minutes of Game 3. Daccord was at his best early on, as he came up with a pair of saves off 2-on-1 rushes in the opening three minutes.

Not to be outdone, Joel Hofer was equally splendid in the first period, continuing to stymie the Charlotte attack. His first stellar stop of the night came on a point-blank chance from defenseman Dennis Cholowski with the game still scoreless.

It would be a Charlotte defensive zone turnover that would lead to the ice-breaking goal, as a head-man pass from behind the Checkers net ended up right on the stick of Nikita Alexandrov, who wasted little time snapping a wrist shot over Daccord's blocker arm to give Springfield the 1-0 advantage at 10:45 of the period.

Hofer needed to be ready just moments later, as Aleksi Heponiemi received a perfect give-and-go pass from Henry Bowlby with nobody defending him on the doorstep. Somehow, Hofer was a step ahead of the play, kicking out the right leg pad to stonewall the former Thunderbird and keep the score 1-0.

Springfield locked pretty much all of Charlotte's offensive avenues in the middle period, keeping their adversaries to just seven attempts on Hofer's net in the middle stanza.

The mesmerizing Springfield power play again found its way to the scoresheet at 6:42 of the period. Hofer made the play happen with a two-line pass to Klim Kostin at the offensive blue line. Kostin then led Hugh McGing into a shooting lane on the left-wing side. From there, the rookie made no mistake in firing a missile through Daccord to make it a 2-0 game into the final period. 

As they have done all postseason, the Thunderbirds dominated the third period, beginning with a steal from Daccord by Nathan Todd behind the Charlotte net. He then slipped it in front to James Neal, who tapped it into a wide-open net to bring the Springfield lead to 3-0 just 1:54 into the third.

After serving a two-minute minor for closing his hand on the puck, Dakota Joshua then fired the knockout punch, roaring in on the left-wing side and roofing a shot over the glove of Daccord at 8:08 to bring the lead to 4-0.

Max McCormick broke up Hofer's shutout bid at 13:52, but that would be all she wrote for Charlotte. MacKenzie MacEachern added an empty netter with 60 seconds to play, rounding out Springfield's second straight series sweep and 10th straight win dating back to the end of the regular season. 

Springfield opens the Eastern Conference Finals against the Laval Rocket on Saturday, June 4 at 7:35 p.m. inside the MassMutual Center.

For more information on the T-Birds and the Calder Cup Playoffs, visit www.SpringfieldThunderbirds.com.