The Adirondack Thunder and Reading Royals wrapped up their pre-season series on Saturday Night at Santander Arena in Reading, PA. In the opening minutes of the game, it would be all Reading as Adirondack wouldn’t get their first shot on goal until the 8:05 mark of the opening frame; unfortunately for the Royals, the first shot would come off the stick of Tag Bertuzzi on a break-away as he found the back of the net for his first goal of the pre-season which sparked the first of three goals for the Thunder in 5:08 as Keanan Stewart and Alex Young would both find the back of the net. Tensions would boil over before the period ended as Darian Skeoch didn’t like a hit that Kenny Johnson threw on Kevin O’Neil and would go after Johnson. Skeoch would get five for fighting and a game misconduct for being the aggressor, as Johnson would get just a minor penalty for roughing on the play. Ironically, those would be the last penalty minutes handed out to either team in the game.
In the second period, we saw our only goalie change of the night as David Fessenden replaced Tyler Brennan after the Winnipeg native stopped all 14 shots he saw during his 26:29 of action in Saturday Night’s game. Fessenden would start off well, making some solid saves off the bat, but the Royals would finally break through at the 17:15 mark as Lou Felix-Denis found Tyler Gratton for his second of the period as the Royals would come within two at the end of 40. Bertuzzi would find the net for his second goal of the game against his former team to make it 4-1 Thunder. Todd Skirving would score with 10 seconds left in the third to put the Royal within two, but that’s as close as they would come as the Thunder took the second game of the series by a final of 4-2.
Both Adirondack and Reading will begin the regular season on the road. The Thunder will travel down to Norfolk to play the Norfolk Admirals for two games beginning Friday Night, and the Royals will begin a three-in-three on Friday night in Trois-Rivieres before finishing the weekend with two games against the Worcester Railers on Saturday and Sunday, all on the road.
