TORONTO, ON - The Springfield Thunderbirds (16-24-4-2) fell by a final score of 5-1 to the Toronto Marlies (23-15-4-3) on Saturday inside Coca-Cola Coliseum in what proved to be one of the nastiest games of the season.

Simmering tensions boiled over from the opening drop of the puck on this night, a result of an altercation in the clubs' prior meeting on Jan. 23. In that contest, Marshall Rifai of the Marlies fought Springfield's Simon Robertsson and threw multiple punches at a vulnerable Robertsson when he was lying prone on the ice. Robertsson has yet to play in a game since. 

On this day, Steve Ott chose to start Kale Kessy for the opening puck drop, and Kessy immediately dropped the mitts with Rifai, which lit the fuse for three separate fights between the foes in the opening 15 seconds, resulting in 37 combined penalty minutes, plus a game misconduct to Toronto defenseman Blake Smith. 

Once the dust from the altercations subsided, the Marlies quickly threw their own punches on the scoresheet, beginning with Vinni Lettieri snapping a shot past Vadim Zherenko on the blocker side just 1:12 into the contest, giving Toronto the 1-0 advantage on a 4-on-4 goal. 

Springfield's power play had a tough go to begin the night, failing to connect on a three-minute power play from the remnants of Smith's penalty time. Despite outshooting Toronto 15-5 in the period, the T-Birds' deficit grew as Logan Shaw and Michael Pezzetta each beat Zherenko just 1:22 apart, and with just over five minutes left in the first, it was 3-0, and Georgi Romanov was summoned to replace Zherenko in the net. 

Romanov more than did his part as the game moved to the second, as Romanov denied 14 Toronto offerings in the period and helped Springfield kill off a Marlie power play in the process. 

After nearly 120 minutes without a goal, former Marlie Calle Rosen finally got Springfield on the scoresheet with just 10 seconds left in the period, as he sneaked down the left wing and slammed a shot through Artur Akhtyamov on Springfield's 26th shot of the night to make it a 3-1 game into intermission. 

However, the T-Birds did not have any offensive juice left in the tank in the third, and Romanov finally relented a power-play goal to Luke Haymes past the midpoint of the third, which restored Toronto's three-goal advantage, 4-1. Romanov finished his terrific night in relief with 26 saves on 27 shots. Bo Groulx would add an empty-netter with the T-Birds skating 5-on-4 with the extra skater to round out the scoring.

After Matt Luff participates in the AHL All-Star Classic on Tuesday and Wednesday in Rockford, the T-Birds return to action next Friday for an 8:00 p.m. ET puck drop in Des Moines against the Iowa Wild.

Single-game tickets and ticket memberships for all remaining games in the Thunderbirds' 2025-26 season are available now - fans can order now by visiting www.SpringfieldThunderbirds.com or by calling (413) 739-GOAL (4625).