ESTERO, FL- The Adirondack Thunder and Florida Everblades finished off their three-game on Saturday in what would be the closest game between the two teams throughout the three-game series. For the second time in three games, it would be the Thunder who would get on the board first at the 1:27 mark of the period to get things started in the right direction, and for the first time all weekend, they would carry a lead into the locker room after the opening frame, “We battled our asses off all weekend and shows what our group is made of, we’re really close, It’s probably a team we’ll run into in the playoffs so it was a good test, good experience for us to come down here we’ll get some more bodies in the lineup and we just showed that we are never gonna quit” said Smith. Florida would finally get on the board at the 18:24 mark of the second period as Oliver Chau found the back of the net on the Everblade’s only power-play of the game for his third goal in as many games.
Coming into this series, we knew that special teams would play a factor, and in Saturday Night’s game, it would end up being the deciding factor. In the third, it would be all Everblades, as the Thunder wouldn’t register their first shot on goal until the 12:32 mark of the period but would then get a chance on the man advantage as Cam Johnson would be called for tripping, but the Everblades once again would kill off the penalty as they haven’t given up a PP goal in their last 19 games. It looked as if Adirondack would be able to escape Florida with at least a point, but Luke Santerno, who the Everblades acquired on February 1st, picked up a rebound with 2:50 to go in the third as he now has two goals and three assists for five points in four games since joining the Everblades. Bobo Carpenter picked up his third goal of the series with an empty netter to seal the 3-1 victory for the Blades and the series sweep. Jeremy Brodeur made a season-high 41 saves in the loss, “Ya, It’s a disappointing week for us; we don’t take losing lightly, and we’ll be getting back to work and come back stronger next week,” said Brodeur after the game.
“I think it really comes from our core group of guys, the guys who have been here over the last year and a half and know what we’ve been through; I know Grasso’s not in the lineup, but Smitty {Ryan Smith}, Stiefer {Matt Stief}, Harper, Skeoch, even though he’s a new guy he though he’s a new guy, they come in and they do the right thing all the time. The guys who come in and are new to the lineup, they kinda see that and try to emulate that,” said Assistant Coach Mike Bergin when asked about the success of the new additions to the lineup making contributions this weekend. Adirondack may have gotten swept, but with a lot of key guys out, there is no reason to even think about pushing the panic button on the Thunder.
The Thunder return home on Friday as they face the Reading Royals to begin a four-game home stand, “Every time we leave there, it feels like we’ve been gone for a year that’s how good our crowd is, We’re happy to be back for a couple of weeks and show our home crowd what we got” said Bergin
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