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Someone in the AHL finally solved a Springfield goaltender.
But not even Felix Robert’s second-period score and a whopping 51 shots on goal was enough to give the Penguins a win in their playoff series opener against the Thunderbirds.
Charlie Lindgren was the hero for the host T-Birds, finishing with 50 saves to give Springfield a 4-1 victory over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Atlantic Division semifinals.
The T-Birds will have a chance to take a stranglehold on the best-of-five series when the two teams are right back on the ice for Game 2 on Thursday night.
The first step for the Penguins will be to find a way to solve Lindgren, who teamed up with Joel Hofer to end the regular season with an incredible combined shutout streak of 232 minutes, 55 seconds.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Radim Zohorna had been the last player to score against Springfield last month. The streak finally ended at 262:25 when Robert drove to the crease and steered a Pierre-Olivier Joseph shot past Lindgren to tie the game 1-1 midway through the second, answering a first-period marker from Will Bitten.
Springfield, the No. 2 seed in the division, needed less than four minutes to answer as a Klim Kostin slapshot beat Penguins goalie Tommy Nappier to give the T-Birds the lead for good.
Springfield leading scorer Sam Anas made it 3-1 at 8:28 of the third period and Dakota Joshua delivered an empty-netter to seal the victory.
The Penguins will have to hope their sustained pressure leads to more goals, as they managed 17 shots in each period and held a 51-27 edge for the game. Springfield had just four shots in the third.
Nappier finished with 23 saves in the loss.