Winning a road game at MassMutual Center during the Calder Cup Playoffs has been one thing.
Doing so in back-to-back games has been a different task altogether.
When the Laval Rocket needed consecutive road wins in Springfield most, they fell short. Down 3-2 in the Eastern Conference Finals, they took Game 6 but ran into one of the Thunderbirds’ best performances of the season in Game 7.
Springfield, 6-3 on home ice this postseason, has shown an ability to learn from a prior game’s mistakes.
Chicago head coach Ryan Warsofsky is aware. His Wolves shut out the host Thunderbirds, 4-0, in Game 3 on Wednesday night, and expects Springfield will adjust accordingly for tonight’s Game 4.
“They’ve done a good job adjusting and trying to pick us apart in their offensive zone and in our D-zone coverage,” Warsofsky said.
Springfield head coach Drew Bannister pushed hard after his club’s Game 3 loss.
Tonight’s stakes are quite clear for the Thunderbirds. A win would put them in a 2-2 series. A loss would leave them down 3-1 in the series and needing to beat the powerful Wolves three consecutive games, two of those contests being at Allstate Arena.
“I think we need better from everybody,” Bannister said Wednesday. “Our goaltending, our defensemen, and our forwards. We’ve got to be better.
“Whether it’s Charlie [Lindgren] or Joel [Hofer], our six defensemen in our lineup, and our forwards that we have right now, as a group we all have to be better here. The goaltending has been really good for us all playoffs. Our guys have played well.
“Our backs are up against the wall a little bit here. Now we’re under a little bit of pressure. We’ve usually responded well.”
― Patrick Williams
