SPRINGFIELD - The Springfield Thunderbirds (3-10-2-1) rode a magnificent night from their goaltender to a 2-0 shutout victory over the Utica Comets (2-9-2-1) on Friday night inside a sold-out MassMutual Center.

An unlikely source got the T-Birds onto the scoresheet just 4:04 into the period, as defenseman Leo Loof made a wise read from the defensive zone, jumping into a rush to create a 2-on-1 attack.

With Jakub Stancl crashing the net from the left-wing side, Loof used the shooting lane available to him, snapping a wrister over Nico Daws’ blocker, giving Springfield the one-goal edge off setups from Hugh McGing and Nikita Alexandrov.

Georgi Romanov got the nod in the T-Birds’ goal crease and answered the bell in the opening 20 minutes, making eight stops while his defense in front of

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