GLENS FALLS- The Adirondack Thunder have now won three straight games as they defeated the Reading Royals on Friday Night by a score of 4-1 in front of yet another sold-out crowd at Cool Insuring Arena. Adirondack wouldn’t get off to the start they wanted as Colin Felix took a penalty just 34 seconds after the opening faceoff, and despite it not being counted as a PP goal, the Royals would get on the board seconds after it expired as Mason Millman got his fourth of the season at the 2:39 mark. It would be another slow start for the Thunder as it would once again take them over five minutes to get their first shot on goal. However, Adirondack would outshoot the Royals in the opening frame 13-10. The second period has been the Thunder’s best period this season, and it would once again show as the Thunder would get on the board at the 4:29 mark of the middle frame as Shane Harper fed Ryan Smith, who would tap it in for his 21st goal of the year which ties Patrick Grasso for the team-lead. The goal by Smith would be the first of three goals scored in 6:41 as Yushiro Hirano would give the Thunder a 2-1 lead, “I feel so much better now cause I hadn’t scored in eight games,” said Hirano, who scored off a nice feed from Travis Broughman, Hirano now has points in his last four games, (1g, 5a). Brennan Less would extend his point-streak to four games (2g, 2a) on a goal where he came in crashing the net for his second of the season.
As the second period came to a close, Steven Leonard threw a late hit as the buzzer rang, sparking interest from both sides, but each side got a roughing penalty as the teams began the third four-on-four. The Thunder PP, which is currently 16th in the league, would get a golden chance to score as Koletrane Wilson would get a five and a game for elbowing Zach Walker up high; Walker would stay on the bench but didn’t take another shift. Shane Harper would feed Tristan Ashbrook in the slot as Ashbrook would bomb one home to send the Thunder home with their 33rd victory of the season, “I thought they outplayed us for the first ten minutes, and then we realized we gotta work and win one and one and we started to get back into the game, and I think we deserved to win. I can’t really think of one guy that had a bad night; we didn’t play spectacular, just simple structured ADK hockey,” said Head Coach Pete MacArthur after the win.
