After a two-goal third-period comeback to send Game 1 into overtime, the Thunderbirds still had more work to do.
“I think for the most part our mentality doesn’t change throughout the game,” said defenseman Brady Lyle, whose goal with 1:28 to go in regulation forced OT. “We don’t want to get too high. We don’t want to get too low.”
Lyle, who turned 23 on June 6, came to Springfield in a late-March deal orchestrated between the parent St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins. Acquired for future considerations one day after the Blues had signed Game 1 hero and fellow blueliner Matt Kessel, the pair were part of a late-season makeover for the Springfield blue line.
Springfield needed help, and the two newcomers offered that. Scott Perunovich, an early-season force with Springfield, had ultimately stuck with the Blues. Experienced Calle Rosen had just been recalled to St. Louis and ended up staying with the Blues until their second-round elimination from the Stanley Cup Playoffs two months later.
Before the deal, the undrafted Lyle had nine points (two goals, seven assists) in 48 games with the Providence Bruins. After going to Springfield, he finished with seven points (three goals, four assist) in 15 games down the regular-season stretch drive. In 12 playoff games for the Thunderbirds, he has nine points (three goals, six assists).
Lyle says that he has not thought much about how the trade impacted his career. But head coach Drew Bannister utilizing him while down a goal in the final two minutes of a game in the Calder Cup Finals says plenty.
“To be honest, I haven’t really thought about [the trade] too much,” Lyle said. “Just focused on trying to win a Calder Cup here. I’m sure after the season I’ll look back on it, and it will be something that I’m pretty grateful for.”
The Calder Cup Finals are an entirely different challenge, as Chicago head coach Ryan Warsofsky quickly pointed out following the team’s Game 1 loss yesterday.
“I don’t think we had our best tonight,” Warsofsky said at the post-game press conference. “I think we had some guys that…maybe got surprised by the speed of the game, the intensity.”
Protecting leads is a must at the stage of the Calder Cup Playoffs, and the Wolves saw a two-goal third-period lead dissolve for the second time in their last four games. The Wolves surely faced a relentless opponent in the Western Conference Finals against Stockton; now they are getting another dose of trouble from a stubborn Springfield opponent that steadily pushed and pushed during the Game 1 comeback.
“This is a good team, too,” Warsofsky said of the Thunderbirds. “They’re here for a reason. They have really good players that can make you pay offensively, and we really learned that the hard way there in overtime.
“Puck management is probably the biggest thing that we’ve got to be better with. We turned over way too many pucks, and again, they’re a high offensive team. They have four lines that can push the pace offensively.”
― Patrick Williams
