Joel Hofer made 34 saves and became the second goaltender in Calder Cup Playoff history to score a goal as the Springfield Thunderbirds defeated Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, 6-2, on Thursday night.
The Thunderbirds have a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five Atlantic Division semifinal; the Penguins host Game 3 on Sunday afternoon.
Hofer, making his Calder Cup Playoffs debut, gathered a loose puck behind his own net and shot it the length of the ice and into the vacated Wilkes-Barre cage for an empty-net marker with 3:48 remaining.
Mackenzie MacEachern, just down from the St. Louis Blues on a conditioning assignment, scored the winning goal for the Thunderbirds late in the second period, just 42 seconds after Tommy Cross had tied the game at 2-2. Matthew Peca, Nikita Alexandrov and Luke Witkowski also scored for Springfield.
Will Reilly and Pierre-Olivier Joseph scored for the Penguins. Tommy Nappier (2-3) stopped 30 of 34 shots in net.
Goals Scored by AHL Goaltenders
Darcy Wakaluk, Rochester – Dec. 5, 1987 at Utica
Paul Cohen, Springfield – Mar. 28, 1992 vs. Rochester
Robb Stauber, Rochester – Oct. 9, 1995 at Prince Edward Island
Christian Bronsard, Syracuse – Oct. 30, 1999 at Rochester
Jean-Francois Labbe, Hartford – Feb. 5, 2000 at Quebec
Chris Mason, Milwaukee – Oct. 15, 2001 at Utah
Antero Niittymaki, Philadelphia – Apr. 11, 2004 at Hershey (OT goal)
Seamus Kotyk, Milwaukee – Apr. 17, 2005 at San Antonio
Drew MacIntyre, Manitoba – Feb. 20, 2008 at Chicago (OT goal)
Chris Holt, Binghamton – Mar. 19, 2010 vs. Rochester
Reto Berra, Lake Erie – Jan. 16, 2015 at Chicago
Jonas Gustavsson, Bakersfield – Mar. 24, 2017 vs. San Diego
Alex Nedeljkovic, Charlotte – Mar. 10, 2018 vs. Hartford
Tristan Jarry, W-B/Scranton – Nov. 14, 2018 at Springfield
Max Lagace, Chicago – May 25, 2019 at San Diego (playoffs)
Collin Delia, Rockford – Dec. 17, 2021 at Texas
Lukas Dostal, San Diego – Mar. 2, 2022 at Colorado
Joel Hofer, Springfield – May 12, 2022 vs. W-B/Scranton (playoffs)
Atlantic Division Semifinals – Series “I” (best-of-5)
A2-Springfield Thunderbirds vs. A4-Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Game 1 – Wed., May 11 – SPRINGFIELD 4, W-B/Scranton 1
Game 2 – Thu., May 12 – SPRINGFIELD 6, W-B/Scranton 2
Game 3 – Sun., May 15 – Springfield at W-B/Scranton, 5:05
*Game 4 – Mon., May 16 – Springfield at W-B/Scranton, 7:05
*Game 5 – Wed., May 18 – W-B/Scranton at Springfield, 7:05
*if necessary… All times Eastern
