The Adirondack Thunder and Maine Mariners continued what has been a hard-fought and physical series as the Mariners had a 2-1 series lead heading into Game 4 on Saturday evening. Prior to the game, Adirondack’s head coach, Pete MacArthur, would make a number of lineup changes to hopefully shake things up and get the Thunder back on the right track. In the opening frame, Maine would come out with another impressive performance, which included getting the opening goal on the PP as Chase Zieky fired a wrist shot that found the back of the net at the 4:48 mark. Adirondack would only manage to get three shots in the opening frame, but one of those shots would come off the stick of Yushiro Hirano, who got a great cross-ice pass and found the back of the net to tie the game up at one. In Game 3, the Thunder went 0-7 on the PP, and just when things couldn’t get much worse, Owen Pederson would get a short-handed breakaway and beat Jeremy Brodeur to make it a 2-1 Game.
In the middle frame, things would get better for the Thunder to some degree, as they would be able to stay afloat as Jeremy Brodeur was doing everything he could to keep Adirondack in the game, but Ethan Richie would fire a shot that would get past Brodeur however it looked like it was Brendan Less who unintentionally screen Brodeur as Maine would head back to the locker room and they would be just 20 minutes away from taking a commanding 3-1 series lead. Despite not finding the back of the net, the Thunder would double their opening-period shot total despite being outshot 10-6.
Adirondack, with their backs against the wall, came out and dominated the third period and looked like the Eastern Conference Championship team they had been all season. Tristan Ashbrook put the Thunder within one at the 7:17 mark as he cleaned up a rebound off a shot from the point from Will MacKinnon. It would be a scrum in front of the net as Ryan Wheeler would get his stick on the puck and put it past Brad Arvanitis; however, it would take a lengthy review for the officials to confirm the call on the ice. The PP would finally come to life after 12 attempts on the PP, it would be Shane Harper who would get his third goal of the Kelly Cup Playoffs to give the Thunder a 4-3 lead. One big thing that benefited the Thunder in the third is that they weren’t trying to go shove for shove with the Mariners, which kept the Thunder out of the box in the final frame. Travis Broughman added an empty netter as the Thunder outshot Maine 15-2 in the third, and Brodeur made 19 saves for his second career Kelly Cup Playoff win as his first Kelly Cup Playoff win came as a member of the Maine Mariners.
After Game 4 the series has shifted in favor of the Thunder who now have confidence and have awakened after their lackluster Game 3 performance. For Maine, they need to find a way to out of the penalty box as they took 13 penalties in the last two games.
