ESTERO, FL- The Adirondack Thunder and Florida Everblades began their second series of the season after Adirondack took two out of three back in Glens Falls in early December. The opening 2:10 of the game would feature a goal by each team as Shane Harper and Nathan Staios scored 28 seconds apart and a fight, “Nueber really sets the tone for us whenever he steps up like that, and I’m grateful that he’s on our team” said Everblades forward Oliver Chau when asked about the wild opening minutes. Florida would find the back of the net one more time before the end of the period as Mark Senden picked up his sixth of the season to give Florida a 2-1 lead after 20. In the second, Adirondack struggled, but they would get on the board first on a beauty of a goal by Shane Harper to tie the game up at two; once again, the Everblades had a response as Bobo Carpenter would beat Vinnie Purpura‘s short side on a shot he would obviously like to have back. Florida dominated the second as Oliver Chau picked up his 12th of the year as the Thunder’s point-streak hopes began to fade. Adirondack only got five shots in the second, but thanks to a Shane Harper short-handed goal at the 17:14 mark, the Thunder would head to the third only down one, “Ya, it made it a one-goal game, we started to come on there, I think we played pretty darn well first and second period, but I feel like we kinda faded at the end, the energy level dropped off a bit” said Harper. Adirondack, despite being outshot, went into third only down one goal.
In the third, the Everblades would add two more goals as Bobo Carpenter would get his second of the night to cap off a three-point night, and Logan Lambdin would find the back of the net to finish his two-point night, “I owe a lot to my linemates they make some great plays and Pendy {Joe Pendenzza} using his speed going down the wall was unbelievable, I saw him do that, and I just wanted to go the net and the puck landed there for me but he did all the work, Oliver makes a ton of great passes and when you do that the other team is on their heals” said Carpenter after the game. Tonight’s game marks the first night since November 10th vs Norfolk that the Thunder have given up six goals to an opponent, and the win for Florida snaps a five-game losing skid, “Ya, we were on a five-game losing streak, there were a couple games we probably should have won, I think a lot of teams go through some down phases at some point during the year and were able to use it as an opportunity to get better and I think the guys responded well tonight and we played a little bit more to our identity” said Everblades Head Coach Brad Ralph
When asked if they can still look back at the streak and be happy with what they did, Head Coach Pete MacArthur said, “100% that’s what we just said to them; I thought it was a pretty good hockey game. They know this rink and they played really well in it, I thought a lot of shots on net they were better in the net front we gotta go back to the film see how we can clean it up. It was a 6-3 game, but I think we played really well”. Purpura gave up six goals on 37 shots for his first regulation loss since November 12th vs Trois-Rivieres Lions. Cam Johnson made 24 saves in the win.
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