Falcons Finish Season with 2-1 OT Win

The Springfield Falcons closed out their 2010-2011 season with a 2-1 overtime victory against the Portland Pirates (Buffalo Sabres) on Sunday afternoon in Portland, Maine.

Nikita Filatov capped the Falcons comeback against the Pirates in the extra session when he buried a one timer from John Moore past Pirate netminder David Leggio.

Filatov’s Springfield season finished with an unspectacular 9 goals and 11 assists for 20 points in 36 games. Now with the season complete for both the Falcons and the parent Columbus Blue Jackets, an evaluation of the season will take place over the next few weeks according to Scott Howson during an interview with Jeff Rimer on Fox Sports Ohio during Saturday’s Blue Jackets finale.

The Falcons finished their 80 game schedule with a record of 35-40-2-3 for 75 points. Their abysmal month of March (1-11-1-0) crushed any hopes the club had for post season play. The Falcons franchise now extends their dubious AHL record of most consecutive seasons with no playoffs to eight. Even more amazing than a record like that, is that it has been done with four separate NHL affiliations (Phoenix, Tampa Bay, Edmonton and now the Jackets).

Tomas Kubalik opened the scoring for Springfield in the third period when he netted his 24th goal. Kubalik wrapped up the season as the Falcons’ leading scorer. He added 29 assists for a total of 53 points, topping off his rookie season.

Stay tuned to The Cannon over the next few weeks as we hand out our post season awards to the Jackets and the Falcons. We will also look back on the season that could have been for the teams. I will also be looking at the positives that came from this season in Springfield. Then, as we roll into summer, we’ll be taking an in depth look at some of this year’s draft prospects as well as some free agency reports as we get ready for what promises to be a very busy summer for the Jackets’ front office.