ESTERO, FL- The Adirondack Thunder and Florida Everblades faced off on Saturday Night for their fifth of six meetings on the season, and just like on Wednesday Night, the scoring got started early as Zach Uens picked up his first goal of the season, just 15 seconds after the opening faceoff. For the Everblades, it would be another defender who would find the back of the net as Nathan Staios beat Tyler Brennan, and less than 10 minutes in, it was 2-0 Everblades. Brennan would end up being pulled at the 10:05 mark of the opening period after being run into earlier in the period when asked about the status of Brennan post-game, Head Coach Pete MacArthur mentioned it’s nothing to worry about, “I think he’s okay, he wasn’t feeling great, but I think he’ll be fine.”
The Thunder would get a chance early in the second, but tonight, the Everblades would take advantage short-handed, as Oliver Chau would beat Jeremy Brodeur on a break-away opportunity to make it a 3-0 game. Adirondack would also have their chance short-handed as Ryan Smith and Shane Harper once again had a chance on a 2 on 1, and Ryan Smith would have a chance on the break-away but would get stopped by Cam Johnson. Bray Crowder would finally find the back of the net for the Thunder at the 13:37 mark of the second period for his first goal as a Thunder, and Cam Cook got the assist as he now has points in back-to-back games, “I think Brayden is doing a great job with the opportunity that he is getting and he’s a great kid he fits well into our culture here, and he gets rewarded like that, I wish it was in a win but it’s good for Bray, good feeling” said MacArthur.
Mark Senden would add a PP goal for the Blades in third as it was the first PP goal of the series between the ECHL’s top two PK units, “It’s big for confidence; the PP was kinda slow at first, and just getting that one at the end builds a little confidence on that and hopefully builds more confidence for tomorrow” said Everblades forward Logan Lambdin. Cam Johnson would make 28 saves for his 14th win of the season. Adirondack head coach did say there were some positives they could take out of tonight’s game, “We competed, it’s hard to play catch up from there when they have such a well-structured team, but I likely our game, but we competed.”
