The Adirondack Thunder and Reading Royals met on Friday Night for the first game of a home-and-home preseason matchup. In the opening frame, the storyline would special teams as a shot from Brock Caufield on the PP would hit Matt Miller and popped over Jeremy Brodeur, giving the Royals a 1-0 lead at the 5:48 mark of the opening frame. Shaw Boomhower would get the crowd into the game at the 13:23 mark as he dropped the gloves with Kenny Johnson, quickly making his name known with the Thunder faithful. Adirondack would get their chance on the PP late in the period and would get on the board as Brendan Less, who had just two goals in 44 games last year, would take a shot that beat Keith Petruzzeli at the 16:17 mark of the opening frame. Reading would re-take the lead as Matt Miller would feed Brock Caufield in front and gave the Royals the lead with 2:02 left in the opening frame.
“He’s kinda earned everything he’s gotten here, coming in we knew he was great defensivley and over the year we got to see his offensive abilities and we knew we wanted to give him an opportunity on the PP and he voiced that as well and we’re fine giving it to him because he’s the type of guy who brings it everyday and you can see it’s paying off, It was awesome, love seeing that goal, love seeing more of lesser on the blue line this year”
-Assistant Coach Mike Bergin on the play of Brendan Less
In the second, the Royals would take a two-goal lead off a beautiful play and shot from Sam Sedley, putting Reading in the driver’s seat at the 12:40 mark of the period. The Thunder would cut into Reading’s lead as Chase Brand would make a nice feed to Ryan Smith, who found the back of the net to get the Thunder within one; however, that’s as close as they would come as Tyler Gratton would add an empty-netter to cap off a 4-2 win for Reading.
Who Stood Out For The Thunder?
Despite the 4-2 loss on Friday Night, two players caught the eyes of some fans in the first of two preseason games. Shaw Boomhower, who played in just ten games last year with Kalamazoo, would finish the night with 15 minutes in penalties. Adirondack is a team that likes to play physically, and Boomhower certainly fit that bill, completing all of his hits and dropping the gloves in his first game as a member of the Thunder; however, his night would end early as he was given a game misconduct at the 15:50 mark after saying something to the Reading bench. Chase Brand, who spent seven games with Reading at the end of last season, played a solid game and made a nice pass to set up the Ryan Smith goal. He is certainly making his name known and keeping it in contention to make the opening night roster, as Adirondack is currently carrying 22 skaters on their preseason roster.
“For sure, those two guys stick out for sure, Boom {Shaw Boomhower} was finishing every hit and had a great fight, ADK hockey to the T. Brander {Chase Brand} had a really good game as well, had some points where he was thinking a little too much but overall great play on the line rush kicking it out to blueline and driving through but he plays with a lot of little details that make teams successful like doing little things like getting pucks deep being on the D-side always and we’re super happy with both of them”
-Assistant Coach Mike Bergin on the play of Shaw Boomhower and Chase Brand
Adirondack and Reading will wrap up the preseason tomorrow night at Santander Arena, with puck drop scheduled for 7:05 EST.
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