A five-minute major penalty and a subsequent game misconduct to Oskar Sundqvist effectively ended any hope of a Springfield comeback on Tuesday morning.
The Springfield Thunderbirds fell 5-2 to the Hartford Wolf Pack during the annual School Day Game at the MassMutual Center, according to a report from the Springfield Thunderbirds.
The loss brings Springfield’s record to 4-6-2-1, while Hartford moves to 8-8-1-0.
The morning contest was defined by early struggles for the T-Birds, who surrendered the opening goal for the fifth game.
Hartford’s Carey Terrance scored at the 3:10 mark of the first period, tipping a Nathan Aspinall shot past Georgii Romanov to establish an early 1-0 lead.
Springfield nearly answered early in the frame when veteran Oskar Sundqvist delivered a backhanded pass through the crease to Otto Stenberg for a one-timer, but the attempt was rejected by Hartford netminder Spencer Martin.
The second period saw Hartford capitalize on man-advantage opportunities to pull away.
At 7:30 of the second, Drew Fortescue scored a right-circle wrister during a 5-on-4 power play to extend the visitors’ lead to 2-0.
Springfield responded quickly during a 4-on-4 stretch, as Arseni Koromyslov beat Martin upstairs with a glove-side wrister to mark his first AHL goal and trim the deficit to 2-1.
The narrow margin held until the final minute of the period, when Taylor Raddysh capitalized on a rebound at the crease to make it 3-1 with only 33 seconds remaining.
The third period began with Georgii Romanov making three separate breakaway and point-blank saves, but he eventually surrendered a goal to Glenn Gawdin on a close backhand at 3:08.
This goal increased the Wolf Pack’s lead to 4-1.
Jurak Pekarcik, who assisted on the Koromyslov goal earlier, scored for Springfield at 8:34 with a short-side wrister to bring the score to 4-2.
The comeback attempt was halted with just over five minutes left in regulation when Sundqvist received a five-minute major and a game misconduct.
Hartford utilized the resulting power play to allow Liam Greentree to score an empty-netter, his seventh man-up goal of the season, to finalize the 5-2 scoreline.
The T-Birds face a demanding stretch ahead, beginning a four-game road trip out of the next five matches.
Springfield travels to face the Providence Bruins this Friday at 7:05 p.m. at the Amica Mutual Pavilion.
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