The Adirondack Thunder came into Saturday Night needing a win after an ugly 6-0 loss on Friday night, as their losing streak hit a season-long five games. David Fessenden would get the start on Saturday Night after stopping 10 of 11 shots in relief of Tyler Brennan, and on the other end of the ice, it would be Ryan Fanti would make his fifth straight start for the Orlando Solar Bears. Adirondack would also get some help as Shaw Boomhower returned to the lineup after missing the last 16 games. Orlando would put just eight shots on Fessenden in the opening 20 minutes, with their best chance courtesy of a Tyler Bird breakaway chance that Fessenden would stop, as neither team could find the back of the net in the opening 20 minutes of play.
“Ya, I don’t know if he kept us in the game all night but he played well and we were able to battle back for him tonight”
Head Coach Pete MacArthur on the play of David Fessenden
In the second, Andre Ghantous would get a chance short-handed as it was a one-on-four. Ghantous still found a way to get a decent shot on net, but the miraculous efforts would go nowhere as Fanti would make the save to keep the game scoreless. The game started to get a little chippy in the second when Kelly Bent and Darian Skeoch appeared to have agreed to a fight, but Bent would bait Skeoch to drop his glove and then would skate away, as Skeoch was Irate when he got to the bench screaming across the benches at Bent, this coming about 10 minutes after the two exchanged cross-checks as Skeoch would be the only one called for the cross-check.
Orlando would open up the scoring as Jaydon Dureau would find Spencer Kersten at the 2:39 mark of the period, and then that same duo would link up a 1:36 later to double the Solar Bears lead as Pete MacArthur would use his timeout to try and calm down the Thunder. It appeared to have worked, as Kevin O’Neil would force a turnover and feed Josh Filmon in front to put the Thunder on the board. However, it wouldn’t last long as less than three minutes later, it would be Tyler Bird who decided to take the shot on a two-on-one to put the Solar Bears up two again, this time with less than ten minutes left to go in the third. Adirondack would have an answer again, as the O’Neil-Filmon connection would strike again just 2:02 later to make it a one-goal game. With less than three minutes to go in the third, it would be a great play by Filmon to keep the puck in, and he would feed Andre Ghantous, who scored his 10th goal of the season.
“Yeah, I mean obviously some good chemistry and most of it came off of the forechech which was really nice, so just continuing to build some chemistry and figure out the spacing between those two”
Josh Filmon on his line tonight which contributed to all three of the Thunder goals
For the fourth time this season, the Thunder would head to OT, having won their previous three of the previous four. Orlando would have the momentum early on but couldn’t convert early in the extra frame. Adirondack would get a powerplay in the extra frame, which was easily their best PP, but couldn’t convert as they finished the night 0/5 on the man advantage. It appeared as if we would need a shootout to settle this one, but with 13 seconds left, Kevin O’Neil would get tripped up, and Dureau would get a breakaway to beat Fessenden and set the Solar Bears home with the extra point, and the Thunder losing streak has now hit six games.
Adirondack and Orlando will finish the three-game set tomorrow at 3 p.m. This will be the Thunder’s last game against the South Division this season.
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