GLENS FALLS—The top two teams in the North Division during the regular season squared off in Glens Falls on Friday Night as the Norfolk Admirals and Adirondack Thunder began the best-of-seven series for a spot in the Eastern Conference Finals and Game 1 lived up to all the hype it had leading into it. Norfolk came into the series well-rested and would pounce on the Thunder early on. Carson Golder fed Thomas Caron in front to get the Admirals on the board two minutes after the opening faceoff. In the opening round, the Thunder struggled on the PP, going 3 for 32 with the man advantage, but they would capitalize on their first chance of the night as Mac Welsher fed Yushiro Hirano in front for his second goal of the Kelly Cup Playoffs to tie the game up at one. Heading into this series, we knew that the physicality was going to be at an all-time high, and the first big spark of the night came as Zach Walker threw Mark Liwiski into the boards; Liwiski took a bit to get to his feet as Walker would be handed a major for boarding along with a game misconduct. Norfolk would come back looking to get even for the Walker hit as Dany Katic would throw a big hit on Colin Felix. However, Katic would only get two for boarding, which had the Thunder bench up in arms. I would expect both Walker and Katic to get calls from the league office regarding those hits.
“Guys were excited coming out, playoffs you try to play just on the line and Walks {Zach Walker} always throws big hits and something like that is tough to see, you never wanna see a guy get hurt like that”
Darian Skeoch when asked about the Thunder wanting to keep their composure coming into this series
In the second, the scoring erupted as Keaton Jameson scored 52 seconds into the period, and just 25 seconds later, Ryan Wheeler cleaned up a rebound to tie the game back up at two. Adirondack would take their first lead of the game at the 5:02 mark of the period as he would tip a shot from the point off the stick of Ryan Conroy into the net, it would take a second look by the referees but the goal would end up staying on the board. The Thunder lead wouldn’t last long as Austen Keating threw a puck to the front of the net that would go off Conroy’s skate and end up in the back of the net to tie the game up at three to finish a stretch of four goals in 6:11. Adirondack would get the final goal of the period as it would be Ryan Smith who got the final goal of the period and his second of the game on the PP as the Thunder would have a 4-3 lead after 40 minutes.
“It’s great, we were down a goal in the third, that’s what a good team needs to do in the playoffs and it’s never over till the buzzer sounds, we came out in the third and gave them everything we got and it worked out for us
Norfolk Admirals Captain Mathieu Roy on the team’s third period
It would be all Admirals in the third. Thomas Caron once again got the Admirals on the board early in the period, scoring 1:45 into the final frame. Just 3:08 later, Carson Golden would cap off his second consecutive four-point night to give Norfolk a lead they wouldn’t look back on. Stepan Timofeyev would clean up a rebound on a delayed penalty, ending Isaac Poulter’s night as he gave up six goals on 34 shots. It would be the Admiral’s Captain Mathieu Roy who scored an empty-netter for his first goal of the Kelly Cup Playoffs to seal the 7-4 victory for the Admirals. Yaniv Perets made 20 saves in the win.
