It was a long, tough climb for Springfield of the American Hockey League to even fathom getting into a playoff chase.
But when the St. Louis Blues decided to make an organizational coaching change and put associate coach Steve Ott in Springfield after replacing Steve Konowalchuk on Jan. 19, they were 13-18-4-2 and laboring at the bottom of the Atlantic Division but started 2-10-2-1.
But a 19-14-2-0 run, capped by an emphatic 7-1 win at home over Lehigh Valley on Wednesday, it clinched their spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs, which was finalized on Sunday, and the Thunderbirds (32-32-6-2) come in as the No. 6 seed and will face third-seeded Charlotte in a best-of-3 first round series that begins Wednesday:
The stage is setOff to Charlotte we go ✈️ pic.twitter.com/AyI1tEgmKr
— Springfield Thunderbirds (@ThunderbirdsAHL) April 19, 2026
And leading the way not just this past week but for several weeks now was Aleksanteri Kaskimaki, a third-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, who finished the season on a three-game point streak (two goals, three assists); he had a goal and an assist Wednesday in the rout of the Phantom, and many have been like this one around the net:
— Springfield Thunderbirds (@ThunderbirdsAHL) April 16, 2026
And in a 7-5 loss to Hartford on Friday, Kaskimaki reached the 20-goal marker:
MAKE THAT 2⃣0⃣ FOR KASKI pic.twitter.com/vtfDTKZLS9
— Springfield Thunderbirds (@ThunderbirdsAHL) April 18, 2026
He would have an assist in the season finale, 4-3 over Hartford at home Saturday and it would mark a stretch of games where the forward would finish with 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) over the final 15 games of the season and finish with 44 points (20 goals, 24 assists) in 64 games, nearly doubling his goal total from his first season last year (11).
Juraj Pekarcik (2023, third round) had an up-and-down first season in the AHL, but the forward capped things off with this nice goal on the backhand on Saturday to finish with a goal and an assist in the final two games:
— Springfield Thunderbirds (@ThunderbirdsAHL) April 18, 2026
We haven't mentioned Hugh McGing (2018, fifth round) a ton in these spaces, but the forward also finished strong with four goals in the final four games, including two on Friday:
PAY DAY FOR CHA-CHING 🤑 pic.twitter.com/JZHOjgsMPR
— Springfield Thunderbirds (@ThunderbirdsAHL) April 18, 2026
— Springfield Thunderbirds (@ThunderbirdsAHL) April 18, 2026
And one on Saturday to give him 31 points (12 goals, 19 assists) in 66 games this season:
— Springfield Thunderbirds (@ThunderbirdsAHL) April 18, 2026
Dylan Peterson (2020, third round) has played the bottom six and done so well with his physicality but finished with 24 points (12 goals, 12 assists) in 57 games after scoring in the finale on Saturday: