Springfield had already knocked out two heavily favored opponents in the Calder Cup Playoffs. The Thunderbirds entered as the sixth and final seed in the Atlantic Division before shocking No. 3 Charlotte and Providence, the team with the best record in the AHL.
Tristan Broz and the Penguins emphatically ended the Cinderella run on Saturday.
Broz scored twice to lead a first-period blitz of the T-Birds, who never recovered in an 8-1 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton win in Game 5 of the Atlantic Division Finals at Mohegan Arena.
A four-goal outburst in the first period led the Penguins a 3-2 series win and landed them in the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2014.
According to the AHL, the seven-goal margin matched the largest in league history in a winner-take-all playoff game, matching Grand Rapids (7-0 in 2013) and Quebec (8-1 in 1969).
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton will face either Cleveland or Toronto next in a best-of-seven series with the schedule still to be determined. The Monsters and Marlies play Sunday afternoon in their own Game 5 in the North Division Finals.
Broz had a four-point night while Rafael Harvey-Pinard — back in the lineup for the first time since the Hershey series — and Ville Koivunen each scored twice. Harrison Brunicke and Atley Calvert rounded out the scoring while Sergei Murashov stopped 26 of 27 shots for the win.
After generating little offense in Thursday’s 2-0 loss, it took less than four minutes for the Penguins to get on the board Saturday.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton had found success off the rush throughout the series and this game would be no different. Avery Hayes forced a turnover at his own blue line and fed a short pass to Broz after gaining the Springfield zone.
Broz turned a T-Birds defender inside-out before getting to the net and beating Georgii Romanov in tight with a backhander to make it 1-0. The highlight-reel goal sparked a dominant start as the Penguins scored on four of 12 shots in the opening period after managing just 20 shots total in the Game 4 shutout.
Less than four minutes later, Brunicke doubled the lead on another play in transition as the defenseman hustled up and created a 2-on-1 with Broz, wristing one home.
Broz then figured in on his third straight goal to open the game, getting a pass from Mikhail Ilyin in the high slot on a power play and beating Romanov from long range.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton had led Springfield 3-0 in their last meeting at Mohegan Arena, only to see the T-Birds rally in the third period before winning Game 2 4-3 in overtime.
But this time, Harvey-Pinard would deliver a dagger in the closing seconds of the first period. Romanov surrendered a juicy rebound on Finn Harding’s wrister from the blue line and Harvey-Pinard was there to slam it home to make it 4-0 with just 21 seconds left.
Romanov had been arguably the T-Birds’ biggest catalyst on their improbable run, but the late goal forced Springfield to swap in Vadim Zherenko in net for the start of the second period.
The intended spark, though, was never lit. Calvert made it 5-0 late in the middle frame with another rebound goal off of a shot by Harding.
Koivunen swelled the lead to 6-0 with a power play goal early in the third as Broz picked up his fourth point with an assist. Sparkplug rookie Bill Zonnon picked up his first career AHL assist with a nice cross-ice feed to Koivunen, who finished on the backhand.
Springfield’s Akil Thomas answered just 38 seconds later to break Murashov’s shutout bid, and the T-Birds pulled their goalie with more than 12 minutes left to try and mount a last-gasp rally.
Harvey-Pinard ended that with an empty-netter and Koivunen added another goal with Zherenko back in the net for the exclamation point.
Of the five teams left standing in the playoffs, the Penguins had the most points in the regular season. Cleveland and Toronto finished within one point of each other in the regular season and were seeded third and fourth in the North Division, respectively.
The Western Conference Finals will pit Colorado against Chicago, the No. 2 seeds from the Pacific and Central Division, respectively.
None of the league’s four division champions made it to the conference finals. Providence, Laval and Ontario were all eliminated in the previous round and Grand Rapids was knocked out on Thursday night.
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