The Adirondack Thunder and Norfolk Admirals have played a series where the first three games are by the road team, and on Friday Night, the Thunder would look to tie the series up at two. Both teams would opt to go to their backup netminders as Jeremy Brodeur would give Isaac Poulter the night off after Poulter made a career-high 54 saves on Wednesday Night in the OT victory for Norfolk. Yaniv Perets got his first night off since the Admiral’s first game of the Kelly Cup Playoffs. Adirondack came out hot in the opening period as Erik Middendorf would find Andre Ghantous in the slot to open the scoring at the 7:20 mark of the opening period. Middendorf and the Thunder weren’t done yet as Middendorf would feed Ryan Smith, who took a shot from a near-impossible angle and beat Oscar Salminen to make it 2-0 at the 15:50 mark of the opening frame. Just 33 seconds after the Smith goal, things went from bad to worse for the Admirals as Keegan Iverson threw a nasty cross-check on Mac Welsher and would get five and the game for that hit as the Thunder would have a golden chance to make it a 3-0 game.
Norfolk would end up killing off the penalty and would get rewarded on a PP of their own, as Mathieu Roy would get a chance from the slot and beat Brodeur to put the Admirals on the board just under four minutes into the middle frame. Both teams would have some chances in the second, but it would be the Admirals who would be able to tie things up as a missed kneeing call would lead to an odd-man rush, and Stephan Timofeyev would find the back of the net for the third time in the series and tied the game up at two. Adirondack needed a response after surrounding their two-goal lead, and that’s exactly what they would get as Ryan Smith found a rebound in front and put it home just 1:15 after the Timofeyev goal, and the Thunder would take a 3-2 lead into the third period.
Adirondack would have some issues early in the third, staying out of the penalty box as just 1:12 into the third, the Thunder would find themselves killing off a 5 on 3 PK for 1:53 in which Norfolk would have a ton of chances, but Brodeur would stand tall. Despite killing off the penalty, the Admirals had the momentum for most of the period until Yushiro Hirano would spring Shane Harper on a breakaway as he beat Salminen for an insurance marker at the 13:35 mark of the period. Ryan Smith would cap off his three-point night as he fed Zach Walker for his first goal of the Kelly Cup Playoff to cap off a 5-2 win for the Thunder despite Norfolk outshooting Adirondack 16-6 in the third period. The series is now tied at two, with the road team winning the first four games of the series. Jeremy Brodeur would make 36 saves for his second win of the Kelly Cup Playoffs.
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