The Adirondack Thunder and Trois-Rivieres Lions met up for the second time in two weeks, this time North of the border in Trois-Rivieres. For the second straight game, it would be the Thunder who got on the board first as T.J. Friedmann would put home a rebound past Zachary Emond to give the Thunder a 1-0 lead just over five minutes into the opening frame; it was Adirondack’s first goal scored in the opening frame this season. Despite getting only five shots on net in the opening frame, the Lions would have their chances to tie up the game as Xavier Cormier and Anthony Beauregard would each get Grade A opportunities short-handed, but Tyler Brennan stood tall in his crease to keep the Lions off the board.
In the second, Adirondack would get an early PP chance less than five minutes into the period, but it would come to an end just seven seconds after Kevin O’Neil took a hooking penalty to ruin any chance of getting more momentum in their favor. In the second, the Thunder outshot the Lions 11-6 in the middle frame, with the Thunder’s best chance coming on a chance from Keanan Stewart on the breakaway, but most of the shots that Trois-Rivieres had were high-scoring opportunities. Prior to tonight’s game, Adirondack had only allowed 24 shots in the second period to opponents and currently leads the league as they’ve only allowed 116 shots to opponents in their four games.
Trois-Rivieres would finally break through at the 12:20 mark of the third period as Xavier Cormier would get a stick on a shot from Jacob Paquette to net his third goal of the season and second in as many games to tie the game up at one. The game would head to OT, and in the extra frame, the Lions would have a number of opportunities to put the game away, including multiple chances on the PP, but Tyler Brennan would come up strong, stopping all eight shots he saw in OT as the game would head to a shootout. Jacob Perreault and Jakov Novak beat Brennan in the shootout, and the Lions would take home the extra point. Despite the shootout loss, Adirondack is now the only team in the ECHL that has yet to lose in regulation, as they are now 4-0-0-1, and the Lions improved to 3-2-1-0.
