Paul Dainton stood strong in goal to pick up his first victory of the season.
Springfield's Sean Collins, right, battles the Hershey Bears Nov. 2 at the MassMutual Center in Springfield.
By JIM HODGES
NORFOLK, Va. – Shy of their three best penalty killers, and with the league’s top goaltender taking the night off, the Springfield Falcons finished what they came for Saturday: A sweep of a two-game series against the Norfolk Admirals at Scope Arena.
Goals by Dalton Smith, John Moore, Tim Erixon, Nick Holden and David Savard and
strong goaltending by Paul Dainton provided a 5-2 win over Norfolk. The loss was the fifth in six games for the Admirals.
“In the last two weeks, we’ve lost six of our starters,” said Falcon coach Brad Larsen. “That’s why I love the guys who stepped in and brought the energy. We’ve got guys who haven’t played all year. Tim Spencer hasn’t played all year until the last two games and was excellent for us. Jake Hansen has played two games for us. He brought excellent energy.”
On and on it went for an coach who was celebrating taking four of six available points in the season’s longest road trip.
Dainton rejected 33 of 35 Norfolk shots in winning for the first time this season. The Falcons defense rallied around him while Curtis McElhinney enjoyed a rare night off.
“He’s carried the load, playing every game but two now,” Larsen said of McElhinney. “I talked to him and thought it was just time to give him a rest. We’ve got a lot of confidence in Paulie (Dainton). He’s an undersized (5-11) goalie who just battles his butt off. He’s never complained about not playing ... and seeing get the reward for his patience is great.”
The Falcons took the lead for good on Moore’s power-play goal with 20 seconds left in the first period, breaking a 1-1 tie. They took advantage of two failed clearing attempts by Norfolk penalty killers, and on the last, Ryan Johansen kept the puck in and got it to Jonathan Audy-Marchessault, who sent it to Moore for the shot that made it 2-1.
Erixon’s goal at 5:29 of the second period extended the lead, which was cut by Peter Holland’s goal 3:20 later.
Norfolk appeared to gain some life by killing a four-minute penalty on Jay Rosehill, including two of those minutes down two men because of a penalty by Matt Smaby. The Falcons mustered three shots during that 5-on-3 advantage, but Norfolk goalie Igor Bobkov stayed strong.
Norfolk held Springfield shotless for the first eight minutes of the third period, but once the Falcons got started, they stayed in control. Holden’s goal made it 4-2 with less than seven minutes remaining, and Savard scored into an empty net.
By that time, the Admirals – who started the season 6-1 – were so frustrated that three of them were assessed game misconducts.
And the Falcons faced an upbeat 9½-hour bus ride through the night.
“Preparation meets opportunity,” Larsen said of the subs taking the big role in the weekend sweep. “They were prepared, and it showed.”