By Lou Bordeaux in Cleveland Monsters — Apr 1, 2012 —

Falcons Game 71: A Big Road Win for Springfield

The Springfield Falcons followed up last night's stellar effort with a somewhat flat first period Sunday afternoon in Worcester. The Sharks, out of the playoff race, played their typical aggressive style throughout the middle of the game. Three unanswered Springfield goals gave the Birds a well deserved 3-2 win over the Sharks, moving them within four points of the eighth playoff spot. Details after the jump:

Brodie Reid

opened the scoring for the Sharks with a power play goal in the first period at 4:09. Worcester opened up a two goal lead at 3:15 of the second period when

Sebastian Stalberg

picked up his second goal of the season. Thanks to another robust performance by

Manny Legace

, that was all for Sharks offense today.

Andrew Joudrey

scored his 10th goal of the season at 6:33. Picking up his first pro point was Sean Collins, while

Martin St. Pierre

got the other helper on the goal. Joudrey has been a steady influence all season long, and his play over the last month has exemplified his leadership.

Alexandre Giroux

scored his 25th of the season on the power play at 11:54 of the third period. As I've said many times this season, Giroux manages to get loose just above the faceoff circle in the offensive zone with amazing regularity. Once again today,

Dane Byers

sent the puck up the halfwall to

David Savard

. Savvy passed across the blueline to Giroux, who helped himself to his area where he just blew one by

Harri Sateri

in the Sharks cage. This goal tied it at two, and the Falcons just looked bigger and badder after the goal.
Just over three minutes later, it was Andrew Joudrey again, giving the Falcons their first lead of the day, 3-2. Joudrey was in the slot, on the receiving end of some precision passing from Patrick Cullity and Nick Drazenovic.
Worcester pulled Sateri with a minute and a half remaining.

Greg Amadio

was whistled for a cross-checking penalty, giving the Sharks a two man advantage for the last 90 seconds. The Sharks put up a couple of scoring opportunities, but you could sense that they just didn't have the drive to seal the deal and the Falcons held on for a great win.

Sunday's Three Stars:
1 - Andrew Joudrey
2 - Brodie Reid
3 - Alexandre Giroux

The Falcons now have five games left in the regular season. Their next game is Wednesday morning in Bridgeport against the Sound Tigers. Game time is 11AM. One of those school kid field trip games that the "A" is famous for. After that, Springfield heads up to St. John's for their final two regular season road games against the IceCaps. They return home the following Friday and Saturday to close out the regular season. I'll have full coverage here at The Cannon.

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