The Adirondack Thunder welcomed their first opponent other than the Worcester Railers tonight as they welcomed the Greenville Swamp Rabbits to town for the first time since October 24th, 2017. Despite seeing a new opponent, things wouldn’t change for the Thunder as once again they would be chasing the game; as the Swamp Rabbits would open the scoring late in the first period as Frank Hora would feed Nikita Pavlychev, who would slide one past Jake Theut to make it 1-0. In the opening period, the Thunder would have two chances with the man advantage but wouldn’t convert. Greenville would take a two-goal lead as Alex Leurullo would find a rebound to beat Theut to make it a 2-0 game early in the 2nd period. Early in the second, the Thunder were continuing to give up a lot of odd-man chances to Greenville, and after the game, Head Coach Pete MacArthur touched on that, “It felt like a Wednesday Game from both sides; I think they had more good moments than we did, I thought it was a little sleepy from both sides, and we gave up way too many odd-man chances.”
Shane Harper would bring some life to the Thunder as he took a rocket of a shot that beat David Hrneak to put the Thunder on the board at the 13:22 mark of the middle frame and make it a one-goal game and the score would stay that way heading into the third period. The Thunder haven’t looked great when they have the man advantage, as they came into the game ranked 21st in the league, “Ya, for sure definitely out of sorts on it right now; it happens power-plays are hard, it’s not always as simple as you would think to get it to click, you see teams in the NHL with all these studs, and their power-play struggles, you just need to simplify it, have a couple of pucks hop in the net, we have the personnel for it, it just takes time” when asked if they’d re-visit the power-play before the weekend. Adirondack would claw their way back as Jake Ryczek and Sebastian Vidmar would score:20 apart, and for the second straight game, the Thunder would head to OT. However, just:36 into the sudden death frame, Alex Lerullo would get a break-away and send the Swamp Rabbits hopping to victory; for Adirondack, on a positive note, it’s their fifth straight game that they have picked up at least one point in the standings. Jake Theut would make 26 saves in the loss. Adirondack will be back in action on Friday as they head to Reading to face the Royals on Friday and Sunday.
